Weekend fixtures 27th May

[Nesta99]

Dummigan was the player I was most disappointed left us for Derry, Duffy it was kind of a given that it would happen at some point, Patching had some of his best spells on loan and with the upheaval at Oriel it wasnt a surprise he opted for Derry, McEleney's injury record meant he would have been a luxury player when trimming a squad and budget. Dummigan's versatility and reliability is something you'd want to keep in any squad. He was/is underrated in his lowkey Denis Irwin like manner. So yeah would be missed more than most.

Sligo had a similar run of form last year - 9-4-1 from their first 14 league games, and 4-2-9 from the next 15 (plus home and away defeats against an Icelandic side in Europe). They turned their season around to hold on for Europe in the end, but Derry will have to be hoping they don't match Sligo's European campaign.

Yup Sligo's 'blip' last season was also bad but somehow didnt register as much as Derry this season with me, maybe more was expected of Derry before the season started and seemed to be backing it up, or ye just forget about the west-northwest. In my own defence it was bad enough just trying to keep up with the Dundalk FC circus last year!

[Kiki Balboa]

Yep, we robbed a point out of that game.

It was up there with the Sligo match the Monday before as our worst performance of the season. The midfield is non-existent, and I don't get what Higgins is at playing Matty Smith where he is. Absolutely wasted in the middle. If he insists on starting him, then why not up front beside McGonigle? We did miss Dummigan on Friday night (and most of Monday as well) too.

Harps, as teams seem to do these days, came to the Brandy to win. Not used to seeing that from an Ollie Horgan side! McWoods was likely offside for his goal, but Harps still deserved to win the match. We certainly caught lucky with some sloppy defending at the end.

Don't know what's gone wrong with our team. Perhaps it's been discovered that if the opposition press us, we can't really handle it? Higgins has got some things wrong in the past few weeks. Himself and Reynolds need to sit down and work on things during this break.
The players are certainly tired, but they've played the same amount of games as anyone else, so it's not much of an excuse.

A good break will do us a good. We should have Dummigan, P McEleney back by 17th June, and hopefully Duffy a couple of weeks after that. Then maybe we can see about strengthening over July.
If we don't sort things out quickly, we'll be getting tanked in Europe.

Shane McEleney looks a bit of a disaster from watching the highlights. Is that fair to say?

[Jd2793]

Shane McEleney looks a bit of a disaster from watching the highlights. Is that fair to say?

trumped by mcginley

[brendy_éire]

Shane McEleney looks a bit of a disaster from watching the highlights. Is that fair to say?

Shane been the surprise of the season, and has been doing well. We all thought it was a bizarre signing at the time. Certainly not good the last few games though, and I'd be looking at swapping some of the defenders next time out.