That is because the aforementioned teams would have concentrated on kicking the ball, the things is they didn't let up fouling when the yellows started to mount, instead they doubled down on it.
We have a real gem of a player in Niall Morahan
Are you still crying about big bold Harps!!Haha! Derby match tonight, no bad tackles of any note. I'll be the first to admit it if there are. Our discipline has been very good this season in fact. Plenty of niggly fouls tonight which we haven't been doing this season eventually ended in bookings. My main gripes where that Junior ran into Coyle, didn't see how it could be a booking. Clear foul for Sligo's second goal also. The 3rd goal and Sadiki's sending off I think was fair enough. Just have no idea why it took so long. Pity all in all as we played well. Ollie's sending off again inexcusable though. If there was any complaining to do then he should have gotten someone else to do it!
Hmm. Lots of people criticising Harps, but you pick my post out. I wonder why that is?
Harps under Horgan are a nasty little side. Let's just accept it.
This is very true. Harps were very good and shot themselves in the foot. Devers at the end of the first half and Junior early in the second half could have had penalties also. Ollie has done a great job but constantly getting himself sent from the line is no use to anyone.
Bitter pill to swallow having played well and looked like pushing on at 1-1.
Sadiki wasn't sent off for the penalty decision either. He was sent off after arguing with a Sligo player..which I can't understand.
It wasn't a dirty game, there wasn't a bad foul in it. Harvey has history with Harps and he was trigger happy with his cards again tonight.
Quite a number of similar fouls by Sligo players not cautioned by him.
Would fancy Junior to make an Olympic diving squad too.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Wouldn't mind seeing the stats on Rovers / Harps game, especially the foul stats. Id tend to agree that it wasn't a dirty game but persistent fouling gets you yellow cards too.
Manager: Fergal, have you your boots with ya?
Fergal: Ya, I have them here.
Manager: Ah good stuff, well give them to this man so, he forgot his!
Not sure I would agree with that, but the 1994/95 League win by Dundalk was up there for that argument. We were in 3rd spot on the final day, and won it by a point. I wouldn't say there was much style about that team, dogged would be a better word, we had two good wingers, the best player in Brian Byrne and also Joe Hanrahan on the other wing, but Byrne also played up front ! We ended up with at least 3 different main striker options, one being a GAA player, and changed keeper half way through campaign, and lost 8 games I think from 33, but only one after xmas.
It was of course brilliant to win it, esp listening to last few mins of the Athlone v Derry game played over the PA in oriel park, 1-1 draw, but I would have said 3rd spot would have befitted that season's efforts, but we did get the most points although no players made it on the league team of the year, that was hillarious.
#DundalkFC - First Irish club to win an away game in Europe (1963), first Irish club to win points in a group stage in Europe (2016).
There are good and bad champions but any club who achieves anything this year is worthy of it. That goes for the eventual champions and every team who manages to stay alive/qualify for Europe etc.
For Rovers, it's tough to take. I felt we were catching Dundalk on the field last year and just needed to add numbers to the squad as our worst spell came after red cards and injuries last season ruined our blistering start. Obviously it culminated in a great cup win against the champions and one of the best teams in league history. I think we were the better team that day and deserved it. We'd been the better team against Dundalk before but they'd always found a way to win. That was a Dundalk side who were chasing a treble with the Manager of the Year and with no outward signs of the madness to come. So it was a good Rovers side that started this season with expectations to really challenge Dundalk for the title. We started brilliantly..... and then all hell broke loose. It's still the same team, but the league has changed so much. Dundalk have imploded beyond belief, Bohs have gotten better while also dropping their two of their best players from last season in Talbot and Mandroiu, Sligo went from trying to have the league shut down to trying to win it and Alan Reynolds went from manager of Waterford to one of 4 coaches at Dundalk to unemployed. And John Sheridan arrived just to add that sense of calm and community we all need in these times.....
Regardless, you have a situation now where every point matters. Shels and Pats played for a draw against us halfway through the season. They are two teams who had designs on Europe and they parked the bus.....Every game is tough. It's a completely different animal and whoever comes out on top will have done well. There will still be an asterisk....but I'll be happy to claim it if we hold on. Plenty more upsets and dropped points on the way though and I wouldn't be shocked if Bohs get there. If we can't figure out a way to break down the bus and teams tend to be more open against Bohs you could easily see them picking up more 3s while we struggle along with 1s. Or Sligo will romp to a double.
Fair play to the FAI's youtube channel for doing a highlights package of the Sligo/Harps game and leaving out the most important incident!
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
All very fair comment and analysis of the current position. I also agree with Oriel that the 1994/95 Dundalk champions team were somewhat underwhelming in the pantheon of league winning greats!
Although Rovers are obviously strong favourites to finish the league as champions, I'm far from convinced that the quality of the team performances even remotely justifies some of the bombast and braggadocio here.
I think that Rovers have recruited well over the last few seasons and have built on a fairly ordinary squad that Bradley first worked with. Bradley also seems to have matured somewhat as a person and a coach and presumably is the prime mover in changing from ball-in-the-air kick em hard style to something much more effective.
The good fortune in getting the benefit of a witless referee against Bohs - Rovers could easily have inexplicably lost that match - underlines the gaps are not as wide as some perceive. Dundalk's implosion could be temporary, or more long lasting, but either way have eased the pressure significantly on a side who may well jog to the title at the end of the shortened season.
For Dundalk, consolidation in the upper end of the table is clearly the ambition. Qualify for Europa League for 2021, get past Inter and have a crack off Sheriff, hopefully take home another FAI Cup trophy & a solid to radical rebuild of the squad for next season. Despite the alternative universe type of madcap stuff at Oriel Parl in recent times, most of the above is realistic and attainable
Ha well I'm sure there is a legitimate 'worst ever' league winner there but it seems to come up quite often. Sligo fans were very fond of declaring everyone who won the title except them to be terrible (until they turned ****e and most of the posters disappeared into a black hole).
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