Weekend 17th of May to 20th May

[sbgawa]

Premier Division (all 19:45)

Friday 17th

Sligo v Bohemians
Shelbourne v Waterford
Dundalk v Shamrock Rovers
Drogheda v Galway
St Pats v Derry

Monday 20th

St Pats v Shelbourne
Shamrock Rovers v Derry


First Division

Friday 17th (all 19:45)

Wexford v Kerry
UCD v Harps
Cobh v Treaty
Bray v Cork

Saturday 18th

Longford v Athlone (19:30)

Monday 20th

Wexford v Cobh (19:45)

[sbgawa]

Two good results for Rovers against Dundalk and Derry combined with the Stephen Kenny led Pats???? taking points of Shels and things could look better.
Hopefully a few back for this double header.
A win for Drogs over Galway combined with a Rovers win in Oriel would have Dundalk 9 adrift.
I still feel they are to good/big to go down but Gartland leaving to join Kenny at Pats??? and King taking a bigger role doesnt auger well in terms of closiong a big gap.

Cork without looking impressive have established an 8 point lead and go to a Bray side that are a mixed bag but capable of getting a result.
UCD need to win a few to keep the league alive, hopefully Finner is back soon to drive them on

[placid casual]

Wouldn't be surprised if Rovers pick up only 1 or 2 points from the weekend double headers. The team is clearly on the downward slope and descending rapidly -Any decent, organised team could take advantage and claim the league.

[Onapointoforder]

Two good results for Rovers against Dundalk and Derry combined with the Stephen Kenny led Pats???? taking points of Shels and things could look better.
Hopefully a few back for this double header.
A win for Drogs over Galway combined with a Rovers win in Oriel would have Dundalk 9 adrift.
I still feel they are to good/big to go down but Gartland leaving to join Kenny at Pats??? and King taking a bigger role doesnt auger well in terms of closiong a big gap.

Cork without looking impressive have established an 8 point lead and go to a Bray side that are a mixed bag but capable of getting a result.
UCD need to win a few to keep the league alive, hopefully Finner is back soon to drive them on

Bray no better off points-wise compared to same stage last season, despite Ryan putting together a new squad effectively

[wonder88]

If hotel prices weren't so high in Ireland it would be a good idea for the Derry team to stay around Dublin for the weekend. Use it as a mid-season training camp. Is there no way the FAI computer could prevent these back-to-back away fixtures over a weekend.

[2 Year Contract]

If hotel prices weren't so high in Ireland it would be a good idea for the Derry team to stay around Dublin for the weekend. Use it as a mid-season training camp. Is there no way the FAI computer could prevent these back-to-back away fixtures over a weekend.

Mark Scanlon was on LOI Central a few months back talking about this. He said the league don’t want Bohs/shels at home on the same night and the same with pats/rovers which makes it a headache to prevent back to back away games over a weekend for all clubs. I think most if not all teams will get stung with it this season at least once. Pats had Derry and Waterford away in one weekend in March (losing both and resulting in me questioning my sanity after travelling to both)

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

They dont make any effort to stop it.

Easter weekend we played twice away and Waterford played twice at home

May B/H we had 2 home games and Waterford had 2 away

The best part about it is that we played Waterford each weekend so all they had to do was flip those 2 games and it would have been both clubs with home/away over both weekends

[sbgawa]

Wouldn't be surprised if Rovers pick up only 1 or 2 points from the weekend double headers. The team is clearly on the downward slope and descending rapidly -Any decent, organised team could take advantage and claim the league.

Im feeling a bit more positive than that PC. People starting to come back from injury and hopefully that will be enough for Dundalk, with Derry who knows

[pineapple stu]

Jays, if you're seriously talking about maybe dropping points to Dundalk then there's huge issues at Rovers to be honest...

[Nesta99]

This is the really annoying thing about Dundalk, we can pick up points against anyone, well capable of it anyway. If we simply had zero quality anywhere then fine, relegation it is and you have to accept that. But there is little harder to wastch is your club underperforming with a squad that could actually be nice and dull in mid table. It is unlikely but not impossible that a run of 3 wins and you are looking up rather than just over the shoulder. Its a lot easier to motivate indifferent players against a Rovers or Derry especially if you can convince them they are playing for a contract somewhere. If rumours are to believed we havent plumbed the depths for the club of odd yet!

[Calcio Jack]

This is the really annoying thing about Dundalk, we can pick up points against anyone, well capable of it anyway. If we simply had zero quality anywhere then fine, relegation it is and you have to accept that. But there is little harder to wastch is your club underperforming with a squad that could actually be nice and dull in mid table. It is unlikely but not impossible that a run of 3 wins and you are looking up rather than just over the shoulder. Its a lot easier to motivate indifferent players against a Rovers or Derry especially if you can convince them they are playing for a contract somewhere. If rumours are to believed we havent plumbed the depths for the club of odd yet!

Dundalk players to raise their game against Rovers….. who’d of thought …..

[2 Year Contract]

UCD player Harry Curtis has been hit with a 10 game ban for discriminatory language used towards a Kerry player

https://www.leagueofireland.ie/news/statement-ucd/

[mcgonigle]

Jays, if you're seriously talking about maybe dropping points to Dundalk then there's huge issues at Rovers to be honest...

Exactly, we couldn't be any more chaotic at the moment. Bradley for the chop if they don't win...

But I don't think Rovers fans seriously believe they will drop points on Friday, this is just the standard pattern to these match threads. Rovers fans come in say how worried they are about injuries, x, y, and z player not performing set the tone just in case they do drop points and when they usually then go on to win they come back gloating.

[sbgawa]

Exactly, we couldn't be any more chaotic at the moment. Bradley for the chop if they don't win...

But I don't think Rovers fans seriously believe they will drop points on Friday, this is just the standard pattern to these match threads. Rovers fans come in say how worried they are about injuries, x, y, and z player not performing set the tone just in case they do drop points and when they usually then go on to win they come back gloating.

You can probably include me in the worried about injuries and expecting not to win department and ive largely been right. very little gloating here.
6 wins in 16 matches id say the Rovers supporters are being realistic.

Weve just lost at home to Waterford , our keeper is good for a goal for the oposition in half at least of our matches and the last time we played you we had to come from behind to get a point.
We should win but am i confident , im about 6 out of 16 confident

[mcgonigle]

You can probably include me in the worried about injuries and expecting not to win department and ive largely been right. very little gloating here.
6 wins in 16 matches id say the Rovers supporters are being realistic.

Weve just lost at home to Waterford , our keeper is good for a goal for the oposition in half at least of our matches and the last time we played you we had to come from behind to get a point.
We should win but am i confident , im about 6 out of 16 confident

And yet 3 points off top. You could sleepwalk to this title there are no challengers

[legendz]

All games seem tough for Kerry at the moment who are on a poor run of results. Wexford away will be another tough one.

[Nesta99]

Dundalk players to raise their game against Rovers….. who’d of thought …..

Well you certainly obsess on it CJ!

[sbgawa]

And yet 3 points off top. You could sleepwalk to this title there are no challengers

Id agree it is an awful league, i know peopel always say that but this year it is true.
Not even one half decent team in it

[Nesta99]

Well there is one half decent team, the rest of it are usually sitting in the stand perpetually injured...

[sbgawa]

Well there is one half decent team, the rest of it are usually sitting in the stand perpetually injured...

Fair point but who could have predicted Clarke, Farrugia, byrne, gaffney, kavanagh, mcAneff would have been injured????