Harps just know how to deal with play-offs (will it be over 2 legs?). Shels are under an awful lot of pressure, relatively expensive squad, so if a Longford fan i'd be itching for Shels. After Fenn leaving Longford (I know broken record and all that) it would be unexpected to have Longford promoted as Cork are relegated. Pettiness in bundles but the irony would amuse!
One off game this year which may work in our favour.
Upwards to the vanguard where the pressure is too high.
Great to see bourke back coming into form, nice goal to put rovers 1 up agaist derry
Yet again we just can’t score.
Would have been ironic if Rovers had converted one of the other chances in the second half to make it 3 nil which would have been the result if the match hadnt been played.
If Daire Doyle hadnt walked out on us suddenly last year I think we would have got promoted last season in playoffs. I believe in Karma. I also think harps will avoid the playoffs and we should have a great chance v Shels considering Shels poor form over the last few weeks.
That was the best performance I had seen under Daire and he got his tactics spot on!
I didnt believe a few weeks back when Galway battered us and Wexford beating us but who am I to know? Theres a very strong spirit in our squad as Jamie Moore said last night!
I have to admit if we do it revenge will be so sweet!
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
That result today mathematically means 3 teams can end up in the relegation spot, but realistically I dont see Cork beating Derry so it'll be most likely ourselves who end up there but you never know.....
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
Another dominant performance from Rovers, albeit a Rovers team that looked in 1st gear for most of the game.
Considering Rovers finished 11 points behind dundalk last season, and are now ahead of them by 19 points says a pot about both teams in my view.
Hopefully Rovers can now remain unbeaten against shels on Monday and make it an invincible league season.
There's been plenty of talk about the Dundalk squad and where the club will go with player recruitment - what do Derry need to build consistancy, more goals = new striker but apart from beng hard to find they aint a panacea either. So if ye were Declan Devine what needs to be changed? Bad start to next season especially if he has been given a decent budget he will probably go contract extension or not, the rumblings have already started with fans thinking it was too soon to consider his contract at all yet.
There’s been too much chopping and changing Nesta. If possible the board and manager need to look long term.
Loads of Derry players doing well elsewhere as you know, Ben Doherty is one of Coleraine’s star men, but looking at the squad...
We’ve not replaced Junior, David Parkhouse or Jamie McDonagh and the 3 who came in as replacements will probably return to England. To replace - look at the IL? Any Irish lads looking to come home?
Look at Adding a Midfielder and Defender too. Goalkeepers we do already.
I don’t think Deccy’s position is under threat(Might change if we lose Monday..) as he seems to be the man the board trust.
The idea of bringing Derry boys back from IL clubs is tried, tested, failed. They generally move to Coleraine, Glenavon, Cliftonville or Glentoran for a reason (and it’s usually footballing, Conor McDermott a notable exception). It’s a no from me that policy.
We will probably retain no more than 6-8 players from the current squad and it’s a start from scratch game for yet another year.
Can’t see any real improvement unless Phil digs into his very deep pockets.
He is however there still wouldn’t have been a great deal of enthusiasm for bringing him back to Derry and I don’t think Kenny Shiels was wrong to let him go at the time either.
More come back and aren’t up to it really.
Ciaron Harkin started very well but has really faded, even from midway through last season.
Darren McCauley came back from Coleraine with a big reputation and was awful, way off. Michael McCrudden similarly so.
This happens in Derry every few years where we see a few Derry players play well for Irish League clubs (hardly surprising considering the amount of Derry men floating around that league at any given time) and there is a message board / social media based clamber for them to be brought back and develop a “local” team.
The general approach seems to be to forget / ignore the fact that they left Derry or never played for Derry in the first place for a reason, that being that they were not good enough.
Doesn’t need to be a team of Derry players we are looking for. It’s more trying to retain the good players we do find.
If a player wants to join Dundalk/Rovers at the end of his contract fair enough but have a go at retaining him. As the replacement might last a year a least before being released, and how much would that cost.
We’ve dipped into the IL before. With Linfield, Glentoran, Larne the big spenders there and the North Belfast sides strong see if we can find any gems from the lower clubs.
We don't have errortel these days but RTE can still throw up some strange one on their website. Anyone care to explain the difference between defeat or loss?
- A win.
- Finn Harps not to win. Derry City can then afford a loss or defeat.
- Shelbourne not to win. Derry City can then afford a loss or defeat.
- A draw and rely on their superior goal difference at the expense of Shelbourne and/or Harps even if they get a draw and low-scoring win respectively.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2020...tions-dundalk/
Derry was always a hotbed of talented footballers but did end up in that cycle of being a selling club, though there was some decent transfer fees paid. I'm going back a bit and possibly was when there was some mismanagement of finances going on.
I still find it strange the McNamee is at Harps rather than Derry - I know it was said that pt football suited him, but if being bankrolled heads can be turned for a year or 2. It's also odd that Junior found himself at Sligo. Missed by Derry so how is it that he didnt return to Derry - the club making it happen as Derry would surely have been a front runner rather than Sligo initially. Yeah there has been a lot of upheavel DCSIL and with some fruits at the helm, Sheils and Collins, and arguably Fenlon. Shiels signing players and then buying out theor contracts to cut them loose isnt ancient history so Devine is possibly dealing with some legacy issues. Derry has an awful lot to offer both as a club and city (unless you are Niclas Vemellund) so I think should be well capable of getting away from flirting with playoff positions. Devine being sacked seemed harsh last time so there might be a reluctance to pull the trigger this time, but you'd have to see things kicking on next season from this.
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