Games 26th to 30th October

[sbgawa]

First Division Play offs

Wednesday 26th

Longford v Galway 19:45
Treaty v Waterford 19:45

Saturday 29th

Waterford v Treaty 19:45

Sunday 30th

Galway v Longford 16:00

Premier Division

Friday 28th

Sligo v St Pats 19:45
Shelbourne v Drogheda 19:45
Dundalk v Bohemians 19:45
Finn Harps v UCD 20:00

Sunday 30th

Shamrock Rovers v Derry 19:00

[sbgawa]

Dundalk look favourites to get third now imo , a miss fireing Bohs and the last match away to Derry who will most likely be resting their best players for the cup fiinal.

Harps v UCD a relegation play off final for all intents and purposes. Will probably pay the €7 to watch that one.

On the first division , John C must be a gonner if he lets the Comers down again and its hard to see them getting past bith Longford and Waterford.

Rovers v Derry is a dead rubber and both sides have bigger matches to worry about.
Two weeks until the cup final so Derry will probably have the stronger team out with Rovers concentrating on the last two European matches.

I wonder are any of the Derry or Shels players one booking away from missing the cup final....hopefully the club secretaries are on top of that its terrible to miss a cup final but it seems to have happened a lot over the last few years

[Martinho II]

Dundalk look favourites to get third now imo , a miss fireing Bohs and the last match away to Derry who will most likely be resting their best players for the cup fiinal.

Harps v UCD a relegation play off final for all intents and purposes. Will probably pay the €7 to watch that one.

On the first division , John C must be a gonner if he lets the Comers down again and its hard to see them getting past bith Longford and Waterford.

Rovers v Derry is a dead rubber and both sides have bigger matches to worry about.
Two weeks until the cup final so Derry will probably have the stronger team out with Rovers concentrating on the last two European matches.

I wonder are any of the Derry or Shels players one booking away from missing the cup final....hopefully the club secretaries are on top of that its terrible to miss a cup final but it seems to have happened a lot over the last few years

Matty Smith is the only person I have heard so far that cant play. He isnt allowed to play for Shels as his parent club is Derry City which is understandable.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

They changed that rule recently so a player won’t miss the cup final with yellow cards

[oriel]

For now Dundalk are favs as we are 2 points clear with 2 games to go, but its a slim margin. However one thing for sure, we are the only one that can secure 3rd on Friday, that can happen by these events:

1/ Dundalk Beat Bohs, and Pats draw or lose to Sligo.

2/ Draw with Bohs then Pats lose (would be a gap of 3 points then with a GD of +5 min in our favour), wouldn't confirm 3rd, but would mean we'd have to lose 2 or 3-0 away to Derry & Pats win same home to Shels.

Then again if Dundalk lose on Friday and depending on result from Showgrounds it should be advantage Pats last day, I'd also say if Dundalk don't win v Bohs it will advantage Pats, as I don't fancy going to Brandywell looking to better Pats result, certainly lots of permutations and lots to play for!

[sbgawa]

For now Dundalk are favs as we are 2 points clear with 2 games to go, but its a slim margin. However one thing for sure, we are the only one that can secure 3rd on Friday, that can happen by these events:

1/ Dundalk Beat Bohs, and Pats draw or lose to Sligo.

2/ Draw with Bohs then Pats lose (would be a gap of 3 points then with a GD of +5 min in our favour), wouldn't confirm 3rd, but would mean we'd have to lose 2 or 3-0 away to Derry & Pats win same home to Shels.

Then again if Dundalk lose on Friday and depending on result from Showgrounds it should be advantage Pats last day, I'd also say if Dundalk don't win v Bohs it will advantage Pats, as I don't fancy going to Brandywell looking to better Pats result, certainly lots of permutations and lots to play for!

Given the team selection by Derry against Sligo when they still had a slim chance of winning the league i suspect the under 15s will be playing you guys the week before the cup final

[oriel]

And coached by the tea lady !

Look taking nothing for granted, a win against Bohs nudges us closer to europe, we shall see where that leaves us on Friday night.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Treaty/Waterford delayed to 2000 owing to some traffic issues around Limerick tonight, officials have been delayed I hear.

[joey B]

Waterford leading after 5 minutes,great start for them…..

[TonyD]

Given the team selection by Derry against Sligo when they still had a slim chance of winning the league i suspect the under 15s will be playing you guys the week before the cup final

Derry better have their act together for the cup final, that’s all I’ll say. If I was a Dundalk fan I’d be pretty confident of third. Might be different if Derry still needed a result on the final day. Still, we live in hope.

[joey B]

Longford ahead now aswell…..

[joey B]

Waterford 2 up,Patterson with both,he’ll be playing at a higher level next season 1 way of another….

[sbgawa]

Waterford Longford in a one leg final...waterford obvious favs but in fairness to Longford they just keep on keeping on

[joey B]

2-2 in Longford and 2-1 now in Limerick,Waterford missed a penalty in the first half and didn’t let the man on the hat trick take it!

[joey B]

1 tie dead and buried,the other all to play for….

[NeverFeltBetter]

Disappointing that Treaty weren't able to make a better go of it, but it's just a repetition of the three goal loss to the same opposition a few weeks ago. Fifth in the FD is the level of the side, just good enough to be play-off bound but nowhere near what would be required to get to the PD. To be honest I can't see that changing all that much with the finances available. The FAI Cup run, which had plenty of good fortune in the drawing, might have covered that reality up a bit.

[brendy_éire]

Given the team selection by Derry against Sligo when they still had a slim chance of winning the league i suspect the under 15s will be playing you guys the week before the cup final

Two ways of looking at it. Do you rest players, save them from picking up a knock or a red (if they carry into the final), maybe see the last two league games as a chance to play some of the younger lads?
Or do you put out a fairly full strength side, so that players are kept match fit? The likes of Duffy and Fats, just with the knocks they've had this year, I'd not play for too long. Though, it will mean that they'll go over three weeks between their last proper game and the cup final. Also, we haven't actually secured second place. A couple of 2-0 losses for us, and a decent Dundalk win at home to Bohs will see us third. Though does it actually matter if we finish second or third really?

It's a hard call. For me, I'd probably go fairly strong for the match tomorrow, try and get the point, then rest everyone the following week.

[oriel]

Finishing 2nd v 3rd is not worth a huge amount of money, maybe 20-30k more I`m not entirely sure, but its more the achievement after a long season, if I was in your position I'd want to finish 2nd**

Had thought of that, us finishing 2nd but would take 3 results for that, and it won't happen, as you say a big win v Bohs, Rovers to beat Derry then Dundalk to win again in BW, I`m only concentrating of getting A win first to try and nudge closer to europe.

**The only other thing 2nd v 3rd is, for stats in years to come, when you search, it will generally only display league winners, league runners up etc.

[pineapple stu]

So with no chance of Drogheda doing us a favour against Harps next week (given they're 4-0 down in Tolka already), we need a win in Finn Park really.

Went 1-0 down but that lasted 64 seconds, so back level again and having slightly the better of play.

Took the commentators 25 seconds to mention that the pitch was cutting up...

[ger121]

The free kick which resulted in the 1st Dundalk goal really is a shocker. LOI refereeing at its finest.

https://twitter.com/rorykirke/status...7Gu2o_0SZN9Kxg