Limerick 1 - Sligo 2

[Westside]

Where to start!!!!!!!!It was a game I felt we could, and should have won.Far too many errors at the back tonight most notably by our Captain, who IMO is our weakest link at the back at present, no leadership, no presence and getting pushed off the ball all to easily, was caught asleep for their 1st goal tonight.

1. Mooney 7/10: Pulled off 2 fantastic saves one after the other early in the 2nd half, wasn't overworked in goal 2 sucker punch goals when we were dominating. Was all over the place for their disallowed goal though.
2. O'Mahony 7/10: Distribution wasn't great tonight but what you do get is 100% commitment.Had an ok game.
3. Molan 7/10: Played ok for what has to be said is not one of his natural positions, most of our good work came down his side, but again overall McGauley's presence was missed there tonight.
4. Finni 4/10: Bad game tonight Paul couldn't cope with aerial pressure at times tonight and when he did head the bal he was getting no distance on them.A night to forget for him. For me his position of the 4 defenders we have is most vunerable at the moment.
5. Wolfe 8/10: Did far more work and covering than his partner tonight, tried getting forward to help out our lacklustre attack at times aswell. Good game.
6: Jamie Nolan 0/10: Rubbish, how this guy is an International beggars belief, offered little or nothing as a winger, kept turning inside to his weaker foot and putting reckless balls in the the box, at one point he skinned his man, and kicked the ball out for the throw in on the other side of the pitch. IMO the main reason why we lost this one tonight. Not good enough.
7: CP O'Brien 5.5/10: Again a night to forget for Collie missed 3 glorious chances to score, most notably the ball over the top by Carthy, with only the keeper to beat and he blazed over the bar from 5 yards out.
8. Barrett 7.5/10: One of our better players on the night, tried in vain to get the equaliser in the end by pushing on a bit but to be fair our defence was so shaky tonight he was too deep most of the time.Took he goal well even if it was a bit on the soft side.
9. Kelleher 8.5/10: We'll do well to hold on to this guy if he keeps performing at this level. Worked like a trojan all night and was unlucky not to score when Sligo were all off celebrating their opening goal, shouldn't have passed it IMO. Its the only critisism I have of him, is that sometimes he needs to be greedier when he has the ball. Good game though.
10. Derek McCarthy 8/10: His range of passing tonight was top drawer was always looking for the ball and spreading the play, has adapted to this role very well.
11. Donnellan 7.5/10: Again as with Molan all our good work was down his flank. Was desperatly unlucky with his free kick in the 2nd half and also with his booking, the Sligo player who went in 2 footed in to him kept kicking him as he tried to get the ball, Brian reacted and got a yellow??????

Subs: Rossi for O'Mahony, did more in 5 mins than Nolan did in the whole game.Nolan went back to right back.
Young for O'Brien: Didn't see much of the ball.

Noel O'Connor 4.5/10: Noels biggest mistake was leaving Jamie Nolan on the field for 90mins, I feel if Rossi had come on sooner we might have got something outta this game, his decision to bring on subs with 5 mins left in the game when it was obvious that we needed more from the right was his and our downfall last night. If certain palyers are not doing it on the field then be man enough to make the changes when required, not when the game is nearly over. We have a squad of about 23/24 players, yet we've only seen 16/17 max why........Why sign all these guys if we're never gonna use them.

Entertainment was 1st class though, crowd was fantastic and aside from the result an enjoyable evening. Pity about the result though

[Mark_no9]

Have to agree with you on a lot of what you posted above.
Couple of differences..Tought that O'Mahony had a poor game and has had every time I saw him. He was the cause of their winner with a poor pass accross field to Donellen .Nearly cost us another when he let his man take the ball down( stood 3 yards off him just outside our box ) and they had a goal disallowed as a result( Which I tought was a goal,not offside).His distribution was poor and he just looks uncomfortable on the ball.
I think McCarthy isn't a midfielder.He gave a couple of very good passes but his work rate is that of a striker , not a midfielder.
O'Brien isn't a striker...Full Stop.
Pity about the result....Both teams tried to play football and to be fair to Sligo , they are the best football team that have come to Limerick so far...To sum it up for me, good standard of football played by both teams with Limerick very unlucky to loose.

[ErikRoos]

I just want to take the chance to say a big "thank you" to the guys who helped us yesterday to find the way to Hogan Park and took us with their car back to the city. It was nice talking to you about Irish and German football, so thanks to you we really enjoyed our One-Day-Trip to Limerick.

Hope you read this one and best regards from Germany

Erik (and Stefan)

[sadloserkid]

Don't think you can argue with the result really. Disappointing to lose the game but we didn't really seem to click overall. I'd agree with most of what Westside said to be honest and I don't see much point in repeating it.

Nolan was poor, O'Brien took a huge step backwards though he did make a little effort (if he's so afraid of being hurt he should take up tennis) and overall things didn't seem to break for us. Overall it's a setback and a blow to lose our undefeated home record and it raises the ante ahead of the Dublin City game but I'm going to try and be fair-minded and not dwell on things.

I'm in a hurry too so it's easier this way!

[gael353]

Agree with most except i thought the reason for O'Mahoney playing poor was his partner alongside him. Wolfe was totaly at ffault for the second goal and was lucky when he escaped when Flannery headed in and the ref harshly judged him to be offside. He gets lossed under a ball when challanged hes not a central defender. Rossi played well when he came on and lets hope we see more of him. The loss will be worth it if it shows the management where we're weak.

[Westside]

The loss will be worth it if it shows the management where we're weak.

Thats all very well but the management so far have been reluctant to make any changes in personnel unless it forced upon them ie. injuries / suspensions etc. It is obvious though that NOC will have to go shopping in July for another defender, central/right sided midfielder and a big striker for Robbie to play off, because as I've said before he dosen't seem to have any faith in the likes of Hartnett, Ahearne, Rossi etc

[sligoman]

What would ye say the attendance was last Friday? I was at the match and I thought about 500 overall with about 50 of them been Rovers fans, what ye think? The next day though I was reading the star and they said 1300 but I dont think there was even near that, .

EDIT: Forgot to mention, hard luck to ye, I do think ye deserved something from the game. But this has happened to us before and it happens everywhere in the world of Football and that's just the way it is

[Kerry Blue]

I'm of the same opinion as most of ye. It was disappointing to lose to Sligo, but once again our weakest part of the team was shown up: our defense! We are conceeding way too many goals this season. It's just aswell that we're hitting the net so often. IMO Sligo seem the best team in the division, and that said if we were tighter at the back we would have beaten them. I was very impressed with Rossi when he came on. I'm not a fan of his as having watched him last year I thought he used to waste a lot of possession. However his hunger to do well was very evident and I think his performance deserves a starting place. As for CPOB My 3 year old son made more of a contribution than he did! As ever it just remains to be seen if NOC will make the changes.
As for the attendence, I didn't think it was anywhere near 1300. I thought about 900?

[declan hide]

midfield is the weakest part of the team. carty is not a midfielder and never will be. nolan was clueless and hopeless. and donellan hardly beat his man plus his set piece delivery was very poor. he should have walked too for kicking out at his opponent. cant fault barrett. hes doing the work of two.

i thought the back four played well.

subs came on too late tho.

[Roadend]

Limerick were too soft in the middle as SLigo's first goal proved. As has been stated Derek Mc is a striker and worked like one he shouldn't be playing in the middle of midfield but did as best he could. Both wingers were poor with obviously Nolan being non-existent. He managed to stay on even after the substitutions which left me in complete and utter amazement. I thought Donellan could have done more though, he attempted to play some 1-2's with Robbie down the wing but never ran on for the return ball and some of his crossing was poor. The centre halfs were completely out muscled by the Sligo no. 9, who won everything in the air. A draw was probably the fairest result on the night.

[declan hide]

sligos no 7 was outstanding. whats his name?

programme was a bit shoddy joe. hardly any reading...can you not get brian o brien to contribute his tales of old? and 3 euro now as well?

the match cos me a fortune. 10 in. 3 euro programme. 5 euro car draw. 2 euro on first goal ticket. and a bottle of lucozade at half time.

[gustavo]

our number 7 was steven o donnell very good player goal scorer from midfield for us last year now deployed on the right wing!

[4tothefloor]

I agree with most of what has been said. We have problems in key areas all over the pitch. As far as I can see it keeps coming back to the same four players - Noel Mooney, Anthony Wolfe, Jamie Nolan and CP O'Brien. Mooney is a disaster waiting to happen, as he showed when he did a David James for Sligo's offside goal, a perfectly good goal IMO. Anthony Wolfe tries his best to be fair, but he's just not up to it, not at such a crucial position as centre-half. Jamie Nolan just flatters to decieve. When he beats\or cuts inside a defender he always makes a balls of the delivery. He can't cross the ball, has no accuracy, so why is he playing out wide? He's getting worse by the game. His workrate is questionable too. That brings us to CP O'Brien. Everything that is to be said about this guy has been said over the last season and a half already. He's putting in a bit more effort now, but all the running in the world isn't worth a bean if he's afraid of breaking a nail or putting in a challenge. He missed that sitter against Sligo because he was afraid of being injured, instead of keeping his composure and putting it away.

[Westside]

I agree with most of what has been said. We have problems in key areas all over the pitch. As far as I can see it keeps coming back to the same four players - Noel Mooney, Anthony Wolfe, Jamie Nolan and CP O'Brien. Mooney is a disaster waiting to happen, as he showed when he did a David James for Sligo's offside goal, a perfectly good goal IMO. Anthony Wolfe tries his best to be fair, but he's just not up to it, not at such a crucial position as centre-half. Jamie Nolan just flatters to decieve. When he beats\or cuts inside a defender he always makes a balls of the delivery. He can't cross the ball, has no accuracy, so why is he playing out wide? He's getting worse by the game. His workrate is questionable too. That brings us to CP O'Brien. Everything that is to be said about this guy has been said over the last season and a half already. He's putting in a bit more effort now, but all the running in the world isn't worth a bean if he's afraid of breaking a nail or putting in a challenge. He missed that sitter against Sligo because he was afraid of being injured, instead of keeping his composure and putting it away.

I don't think your assessments of Mooney & Wolfe are fair, Noel pulled of two excellent saves in the 2nd half, he can't be at fault for the 2 goals, ok he messed up for the dissallowed goal but hey some of the guys in front of him are well below their best and as I said in the past if Noel makes mistakes they usually end up as goals, but Finni was at fault for the 1st so why not critisise him, just cause he's the Capt. doesn't excuse him from critisism, if we do sign a proven centre half, the extra competition might be good for him.He's not as bad as what he's playing like at present but he is well below par..............Wolfe is working harder than Paul and is'nt afraid to put himself about either.

[gael353]

why is it that it has taken limerick fans until now to finally realise how bad paul finucane is..wolfie has been havin a very solid season..could u really fault him for any goals conceded whereas finucane is up to at least 5 by now!!its time for limerick fans to support the 11 players on the pitch regardless of where they are from and if one of there own isnt up to it then give him as much stick asthey do to some of the cork and kerry guys

your taking the mick surely. Finni is one of the best central defenders in the league and yes i could fault Wolfe for not only the second goal but also the offside goal which he was lucky to get away with. Most limerick fans i know always support the players regardless of where there from its ability that might seem to ****s some supporters off when they see a lack of it amoung some players and their lack of application amoung others. Yes finni was at fault for the first but reveal your true backround mate and get off the fence!

[declan hide]

the fact that midfield is virtually non existant and the fact mooney was happy out punting long high balls towards robbie kelleher (almost the smallest ont he pitch)...surely adds to the defensive duties?

our goal came from terrible marking from the sligo defence.

i'd be rattling a few other cages before i'd start looking at the back four.

[Redzer]

I dont know if ye noticed lads, but at least 50% of Mooney's kick outs went straight out over the side line.

[Blue Shadow]

i agree with you there. he was brutal. yer kepper was very good at kickouts and set pieces.

[sligoman]

yer kepper was very good at kickouts

Yeah, he can certainly hoof it up the field no bother. Gets a good height and good distance on them.

[Pauliwallnuts]

Mooney sliced nearly every kick he took & half of them went over the line.
He has a tendancy once he gets something wrong to continue doing it wrong for the rest of the match like he can't let it out of his mind or something. In fairness I can't ever remember his kickouts ever being that bad before.

O'Mahony is average & had another distinctly average game.
Finni was poor enough but from what I've seen of him this year this game was an exception.

Wolfe was ok but he gets turned very easily. He was in a couple of one on one situations & got himself turned inside out. He did try very hard though & I can't fault him for effort.

Molan played very well I thought in what is not his natural position.
Saying that McGauley was missed but Molan was an able replacement.

Nolan was a total disaster. Absolute rubbish. Rossi did more in 5 mins than Nolan did for the entire match. Needs to be dropped asap.

Tommy did well as usual but he was being dragged all over the place to try & hold midfield together. Got a handy goal but took it well all the same.

Derek is just not a midfielder. He has a great eye for a pass & nearly scored with a deft flick on header but to me the guy is totally wasted playing in midfield. The sooner he is put in attack permanently the better.

Donnellan had a poor game enough by his standards & looked tired but at the same time he carried a threat. Somebody said earlier that his set pieces were rubbish but I have to disagree. He nearly scored one & in general corners & frees were causing Sligo problems. He may screw up the odd one but 90% of the time he whips in great balls.

CP O'Brien
Well the less said about him the better. He missed at least 3 great chances & appears to be stunningly slow & is blessed with one of the worst 1st touches I've seen from an LOI 1st div striker. Bench time !!

Robbie bust a gut as usual & ran all day. Nothing much fell his way on the night but he should get more greedy & go it alone sometimes as the quick kick off showed.

We were desperately unlucky on the night against the best away team I've seen in rathbane this year/ Their keeper excelled & pulled off some fine saves & on another night we might have won but it wasn't to be.

Overall verdict is unlucky.Get Rossi on the team immediately & a central midfielder from somewhere so we can free up Derek & stick him up front.