Games weekend 23rd to 26th June

Originally Posted by Dermobohs

Would love to know which of the rovers ultras thought a banner saying” that’s right you die” was a good shout on a night Ronnie Nolan and Christy Dignam were getting a minutes silence, with family members present too?? D’oh!!

What’s that banner in reference to anyway ? Not exactly helping to create a family atmosphere with a banner reading that.

Originally Posted by D24Saint

What’s that banner in reference to anyway ? Not exactly helping to create a family atmosphere with a banner reading that.

It's an odd one but I assume they planned it beforehand and didn't think to change it. Whatever, it was the wrong thing to do. I don't have an issue with it not being family friendly but it was stupid. **** too, to be honest, regardless.

Bohs Tifo was class and huge. The title of my brother's book on Bohs' early period. We were sat behind it without a clue what it said and speculating on it. He saw a picture of it after a few drinks and couldn't contain himself :-D

Awful stuff last night. Not sure Russell will survive this. UCD were shocking for most of the game as well but we kept them in it.

Great start after the break we brushed Longford aside in second half could have been more and to top it off Wilson Waweru on loan from us scored the winner for Cobh ,
Lead back out to 13pts is it time to start planning the celebration fireworks for EDP yet ?

we should have had at least 1 up in derry in the first half. we died a death 2nd half. someone somewhere will explain to me what all the hype is around higgins. his teams are very ordinary, money or not.

Originally Posted by Jd2793

we should have had at least 1 up in derry in the first half. we died a death 2nd half. someone somewhere will explain to me what all the hype is around higgins. his teams are very ordinary, money or not.

There is no hype around Higgins. A lot of Derry fans fed up to the death with his turgid, negative football.

I'm starting to find duff a tiresome little ****.
Hopefully Joey will smack him into line sooner rather than later.

Originally Posted by DCWA

There is no hype around Higgins. A lot of Derry fans fed up to the death with his turgid, negative football.

certainly was last season. maybe not so now fair enough. cant believe how average ye are with the players that are there, even accounting for the poor pitch.

tbf I'm not sure you should be caining anyone for overhyping managers - you thought Ian Ryan was the best manager in the First Division last year and he couldn't even make the play-offs... He's just about inside play-off contention now with Bray, with much less fancied sides ahead of him like Cobh and Athlone.

Originally Posted by placid casual

I'm starting to find duff a tiresome little ****.
Hopefully Joey will smack him into line sooner rather than later.

He’s becoming an embarrassment to himself, Shels and the League - there’s plenty of clips on Twitter etc. that show him clearly making an obscene gesture towards the Pats fans… then afterwards he states he was punching the air and did nothing wrong ….. someone should tell him to grow up…. Behaving like that as some commentators seem to think isn’t a sign of him being passionate and emotionally invested… it’s the sign of an immature baby.

Originally Posted by Calcio Jack

He’s becoming an embarrassment to himself, Shels and the League - there’s plenty of clips on Twitter etc. that show him clearly making an obscene gesture towards the Pats fans… then afterwards he states he was punching the air and did nothing wrong ….. someone should tell him to grow up…. Behaving like that as some commentators seem to think isn’t a sign of him being passionate and emotionally invested… it’s the sign of an immature baby.

he has the emotional maturity of a toddler - it was obvious since he started his tv work with rte a few years back. But he certainly brings eyeballs to the league so the good outweigh the bad imho. Plus i find it humorous to see him repeatedly making a tit of himself.
I know Brian Kerr gave him a bit of a tongue lashing before about his conduct, but he’s unlikely to change.

Originally Posted by DCWA

There is no hype around Higgins. A lot of Derry fans fed up to the death with his turgid, negative football.

There certainly was - he was seen as a bg loss to Dundalk and the double whammy with losing SK. He is an exceptional opposition analyst, thorough and was able to call effective tactics to negate opposition threats. He was a key part of any progress in Europe when at Dundalk and when Derry approached the FAI he was not only seen as a big loss to the SK setup but a missed chance for other clubs that were in the hunt for stable management. There was no shortage of clubs in LoI, IL, and Scotland that had sounded him out. He was also seen as having strong man management ability. Obviously his strengths or maybe more his weaknesses were as part of a management team and are not transferring to being the head coach - possibly why McLoughlin was seen as a fix to compliment Higgins. He isnt the 1st that has been a highly rated coach that didnt kick on, in our own league Trevor Croly, an excellent coach and assistant, didnt cut it as a manager really. He seems to have accepted that and was happy to be assistant after leaving Rovers and was credited with a lot of Bohs progress with young players and high squad turnover. Vinny Perth was seen as a players coach, was populat as a go between with players and management and when appointed as a manager seemed to alienate those same players for whatever reason.

It is possible that the issues at Derry are expectation with the resources available, it still can take time to properly build a squad. He erred in signing top Derry natives that were crocked, imo too eavily relied upon or how much they could play. His is inexperienced as a manager so maybe all considered was too big a leap in one go. Derry are now caught in a similar situation to Rovers pre Bradley, how long to stick as happened with Croly, appoint an experienced person like a Fenlon, and then bck to a young coach with a long term plan. This might irk some Rovers fans but Bradleys breakthrough was partly due to the failings at dominant clubs like Dundalk and Cork and it wouldnt be a suprise if similar has to happen for Higgins if Derry stay the course - Bradley could move on (the best of succession plans dont always work), there will be turnover of the Rovers squad, thereare a number of quality players that provide the strength in depth that keep Rovers ahead of the pack that have to be minded more and more with the age profile and of course players like Byrne in league winning sides will always be on the radar as a bargain for foreign clubs. Considring the length of time that it took Bradley, as a young manager to build a squad that is capable of nack to back titles, well Higgins is currently in a similar situation. If Derry were working off the 4th highest budget in the league like every club, the turgid stuff would be accepted as a means to an end.

I dont think it is coincidence that Higgins and O'Donnell seem to have similar templates even given the different resources - they want things tight defensively, dont score heavily, and rely on key attacking players to carry that threat, lose one to injury and a slump follows buuttt the squads get added to with 2 or 3 quality players during transfer windows, with Dundalks limited resources supplemented with loan players. The principles of what they both are doing are the same but on different time scale.

Having said ALL of that, we've seen how quickly a change in a head coach can change fortunes at Cork and Waterford, even Devine at Bohs so maybe showing total loyalty to Higgins isnt the right direction for Derry. If McLoughlin is next on the list surely he would be adding to his credit rating already. Time will tell but I still think its too early to bin the current plan, a 50% win ratio for a 1st time manager bodes well, 2nd in the league, in touch with an established squad looking for a record equaling 4 in a row but not tearing things up as they could be, meanest defense, add some goals, string 3 or 4 wins together and the picture changes as we've seen with the seesaw nature of this season - St Pats now in the picture after a purple patch and Bohs falling back (incidently imo Devine's weakness has been an inability to maintain the early form his sides show after being appointed...and that Ive never really seen goalkeepers end up being top coaches much).

Been a while since being able to make any lengthy post so some catch-up musings...

Originally Posted by Calcio Jack

He’s becoming an embarrassment to himself, Shels and the League - there’s plenty of clips on Twitter etc. that show him clearly making an obscene gesture towards the Pats fans… then afterwards he states he was punching the air and did nothing wrong ….. someone should tell him to grow up…. Behaving like that as some commentators seem to think isn’t a sign of him being passionate and emotionally invested… it’s the sign of an immature baby.

Duff is a classic quiet man that now feels he is in a position of superiority to shout at everything 'look at my medals and caps'. He showed an impetulant streak as a pundit albeit often not far off the mark. He is now doing the 'im now dragging in professionalism' to this league except he is often not doing it in a professional manner. Its certainly not setting a good example to younger players as a coach compared to the quiet way he got on with things as the consumate pro he was as a player. Again his arguments are not always wrong but getting sent to the stand, giving manic post match interviews and now riling fans and feigning innocence - I agree with CJ's commets above. If he is going to be passionate and emotionally invested he should just own it and not behave in conflicting ways to what he says he is trying to do. Its entertaining but not in they way he would like to come across!

Originally Posted by D24Saint

That was brilliant, Duff completely threw the toys out of the pram tonight.

Any footage floating about?

Originally Posted by Nesta99

Any footage floating about?

"I was only punching the air" - celebrating my 1-0 defeat, like!

https://twitter.com/donalburke10/sta...491170306?s=20

Originally Posted by patsdad

"I was only punching the air" - celebrating my 1-0 defeat, like!

https://twitter.com/donalburke10/sta...491170306?s=20

Having not seen the post match comments live surely the punching the air comment was tongue in cheek....otherwise he does look like a complate ass!

Originally Posted by kksaints

Lost 2-1 to us against 10 also.

We weren't particularly good and nor was the match but still 3 points is 3 points. Mulraneys free kick is a cracker. Duff's petulance at the end was hilarious.

Missed that one, plus it was 1-1 at the time of Pats going down to 10, possibly 25-30 mins left and SOD changed to 3 at the back, madness, worse was Pats only shot in second half meant they won the game. We were brutal 10 v 11.

Originally Posted by Calcio Jack

He’s becoming an embarrassment to himself, Shels and the League - there’s plenty of clips on Twitter etc. that show him clearly making an obscene gesture towards the Pats fans… then afterwards he states he was punching the air and did nothing wrong ….. someone should tell him to grow up…. Behaving like that as some commentators seem to think isn’t a sign of him being passionate and emotionally invested… it’s the sign of an immature baby.

Rarely smiles, always seems to be in 'cranky' form, that was really poor the footage last night - gesture to the Pats fans on camac side, like something you would expect to see in Eastern Europe, he's an odd ball.

Originally Posted by DCWA

There is no hype around Higgins. A lot of Derry fans fed up to the death with his turgid, negative football.

Good few of us on DFC weekend away were chatting about Higgins recently. He really should be doing a lot better, the budget he has is massive, Rovers losing two b/s games away to Cork and H to Drogs and they are still a good margin ahead.

I think Derry could do a lot better than Higgins, for me he is the classic very good coach, not quite the manager material. For the competitiveness of the league I have to say I`m disappointed with Derry's season to date, not exactly Cork City right up Dundalk tailcoats is it - 2014-2018.

Weirdest thing about Duff's carry on was unless I missed something he wasn't really getting any mad abuse off the Camac - we were all laughing at him in reaponse but pretty baffled at the same time. Forrester was laughing his head off at him after.

Do think he has them coached quite well in fairness, but they just lack quality. Too reliant on Moylan to make anything happen in the final third but they do a good job of playing up til that point. You can see what he's learned off some of the managers he's played under as they're a very cynical side giving away cheap fouls to kill the play (ironically worked against them for the goal) and looking for them themselves.