The view from behind, that ball looked as if it came off the midriff and on to the arm. Is that still a penalty if ball is goal bound? For all the years watching football and this stuff confuses.
Ok we really should be at about 2-5, post twice, missed penalty, the sitters 2nd half...when your luck is in...
I honestly think if we lost that game we couldn't have had too many complaints. And yet, we won and played some nice stuff at times too. I still don't think the starting setup was right, but maybe the number of injured centre mids we have right now contributed to that call.
Finland are probably the highest ranked team we've done the double on in a group for a long, long time.
It's still not great, but it's a huge step forward from the Kenny era.
Pretty grim stuff in some ways (gave it away far too easily in our own half), but a couple of years ago we were losing these matches by the odd goal, not winning them.
If ever there was evidence that lucky generals exist then that was it. As bad as any performance in the last few years but what matters is the result and this time it was in our favour.
Will lost by 5 or 6 to England without a dramatic improvement. Knight suspended for it too. Expect Cullen, Molumby and Azaz to start that one.
any kind of win is welcome at this stage. we could have shipped a few but could have scored a couple more ourselves. kelleher has really come on in the last year or so and is a huge asset.
shocking stuff if we are honest , we are so far off being halfway decent it isnt funny
Have tickets for the rigby tommorow and am looking forward to watching an ireland team that look like tjey give a **** and actually might win against a team ranked xxx in the world
I’m definitely in a minority here it seems but I was never really worried at all in that second half. Even when waiting for the (inevitable) penalty award, I was sure we’d go back up the pitch and win it. They had chances, fair enough, but I thought we looked very comfortable. First half was different, weird half, they should have scored a couple but we played some good stuff too and did actually score.
Bit harsh to say th dont give a ****. We obviously lack confidence as much as ability throuhout the squad - rushing passes out of the block, i was relieved a few times when they just went long down the line, charging in to a block that was never on too. There was something riding on this game, must not lose, and played in a must not make a mistake way rther than with any freedom. It wouldnt surprise me to see a better general performance against England in a dead rubber for us, there wont be a result but its a good opportunity to build the rebuilt rebuild!
I never took you for a Rugger head sbgawa, you day-tripping barstool bandwagoner. Though you may have said you said you grew up near to AIL clubs in the past?
Main positive takeaway for me is how they saw out the game from the 85th minute. Really mature and made all the right decisions. The impact O'Shea had on the team was immense and I feel he's crucial for us. Agreed that I never worried in the 2nd half and yeah, huge step in the right direction from the Kenny era.
One thing I did like was that we seemed much more purposeful when we did have the ball. It didn't always work but we were trying to advance the ball up the pitch a lot faster than we have been in recent years. Plenty of attempts to get the ball in the box as well. None of the pointless dicking about with the ball at the back that was a hallmark of the last few years.
I don't think there was a moment where we passed the ball straight to a Finn and left them straight in on goal. That's almost a ridiculous thing to even have to say, but we've done it so often in the last couple of years that it's worth noting that we didn't tonight.
Looking ahead to the England game and with Knight now gone as well we're going to be desperately short in midfield. Cullen, Molumby and Azaz will all have to start, but that just leaves Moran to cover from the bench. There will have to be one more call up to replace Knight at a minimum, Coventry is probably the most likely and a reasonable chance he will get his debut off the bench on Sunday.
Bunch of moany cnuts on here to be honest. We got a win and the mood is still just constant negativity.
It wasnt brilliant, but we got a win in a game we didnt play very well. How many times in recent years have we played much better and lost games with stupid mistakes or shots from outside the box. They put us under pressure in 2nd half and they got a break with the penalty but, other than that Kelleher wasnt exactly making save after save. We did look dangerous enough going forward at times too and with some better decision making at times we might have created a bit more. We also went into preserving the lead mode towards the end so of course they were the ones putting us under pressure as the game wound down.
Massive positive for Ferguson to score, and an excellent strikers goal it was. The hang time was class and it was the perfect ball by Johnston to him. I thought Collins was excellent throughout but other players had good moments and bad during the game. Festy for example looked brutal at times, but he also did scare them with his pace.
I thought Azaz was very good when he came on. For me he'd have to start against England. Id add him to the midfield as part of a 3. The 2 man midfield just isnt enough and I thought both Knight and Cullen were crap.
A win is important, we've too much of a habit of losing or drawing close games. We have players to still come in and improve us over the next year or so. Im happy to take the postives where they are, and if we cant be happy with winning a game then whats the point!
Its really not that complicated!!!
Yep.Originally Posted by Razors left peg
Can I ask all to go to youtube and search for Ireland Finland 2020 and watch the highlights from the two one nil defeats. Then go watch the highlights from tonight and post match interviews. The difference in attitude, belief, body language, personnel and most importantly, THE RESULT tonight....come on. We were at absolute rock bottom. I always felt we'd win tonight. Everything is changed, utterly.
It's far from perfect, we all know that, but it's so much better it's unreal. Fantastic to get another win and we have some absolute gems in this team.
Delighted.
I think the big difference is that while we were lucky last night (and the reality is that we were lucky), it was partly because we gave ourselves a chance to be lucky.
The change for me is that under the previous manager, and also the caretaker period, we just weren't giving ourselves a chance at all. We were ponderous in attack, hardly created any chances, but were also wide open at the back, and especially susceptible to long shots. There's a narrative that we were unlucky then, but we weren't really, we just never gave ourselves a chance due to the tactics being so poor and unsuited to the players we have.
We were still lucky last night, because we're still giving up chances. And that will continue to be the case until we adequately resource the centre of midfield. But at least we're more purposeful going forward and actually giving ourselves a chance by putting the ball in dangerous areas.
Just taking the goal last night, if that had been a year or two ago that ball would have just been played back outside the box again, the cross wouldn't have gone in and the attack would have just broken down. That's the area we have improved the most in under Hallgrimsson. Previous to this it really does feel like that game would have been a draw or a narrow loss, and after the game we'd be yet again hearing about narrow margins, 14 injured players (which is what we currently have) and how unlucky we are. Sometimes you make your own luck.
Last edited by Eirambler; 15/11/2024 at 8:53 AM.
Thanks for this post.
HH finds ways to win, not the exact opposite.
I actually believe if they had scored the peno we would have got another goal and won it anyway.
Btw Nathan Collins was man of the match. He was amazing.
Sums it up really. Unlucky many times before, lucky tonight. Happy with the result, not the performance. Learn and move forward."Yes, happy with, of course, winning," said Hallgrimsson, speaking at the post match press conference.
"It's always good, not only the points, but I think psychologically good to have a win, good to give the fans a win here at home is a good feeling."
"Performance, some good, some bad and surely we were lucky - they hit the post twice and Caoimhin saved a penalty," he added.
"But I think this group of players probably deserve luck. They have been unlucky many times, so probably they deserved a little luck.
"But of course happy with a lot of things, but we are under no illusion that we need to play better than we did today."
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2024...e-finland-win/
Yeah, it's a fair summary. I'd definitely prefer to be winning games and feeling lucky about it than what went before. I think he has to realise we can't cope with two small lads trying to manage the midfield. Johnston was stepping in to make a third a lot of the time be he looked completely lost. Azaz looked a lot more confident coming on last night, he's in good club form and if he brings that across he could become a real option in there. At least has a bit more physicality about him, even if he's still a very attacking player.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Tallaght Stadium Regular
Yep, I think that's spot on. And I think it's ok to say it. RTÉ sum it up as "The truth is Ireland were second best and rode their luck, but the Boys in Green will take that" and that's a similar view.
I don't agree with the after-betting - the idea that we wouldn't have worked the goal under Kenny, or that we would have gone on to win even if they'd scored the penalty. I think it's outcome bias to a large degree. It was a Finland team in decline and we scraped past them. "Stephen Kelly says it is "worrying" the amount of chances Ireland coughed up in the game given the step-up in quality England will be on Sunday" is on the RTÉ site too and I think it's fair.
And for all that, we've been a side in need of a win or two of late, so we certainly can't sniff at two in a month. If it gives the side a bit of Iceland Tournament confidence, I'm all for it. (On Eirambler's point, based on Eloratings I think it's the best double we've achieved since beating Turkey home and away in Euro 92 qualifying. Of course, World Cup/Euro qualifying doesn't give you many games at your own level so that stat is probably less surprising than it sounds)
I can't see this at all. Still largely the same bunch of useless players. We're going nowhere.
Interesting looking at the whoscored ratings (and as always, don't take them as gospel, but they're objective and can raise a point or two all the same) - they have Kelleher as man of the match,which is completely fair. 8.3 rating.
Next three are Scales, Collins and O'Dowda, all around the 7.6 mark. Scales and Collins again - reasonable. (And when your keeper and two centre-backs are your top players, it tells you a bit about how the game went). But O'Dowda? I was a bit worried when he got booked after five minutes, and Finland in the first half seemed to make good progress down his side. I think their attacks in the second half came more down our right, leaving O'Dowda freer to get forward more, which is arguably playing to his strengths.
Not sure how he'll cope v England when we will be defending a lot, but certainly was an improvement on his last game for us (which was the one in Greece I think). I suspect Coleman has played his last game for us, and McClean presumably has as well (though wouldn't say never with him), and as the wing-back options dwindle it becomes more important to find someone who can play there...
At the other end of the scale you have Cullen (6.0) and Festy (6.4 - not a particularly bad rating, but I think as others here said, he had some good flashes through the game without a huge amount of end product)
No need for the faux outrage. Most people are more or less saying the emboldened. Calling people cnuts is yobbish.
Go Coillte Mach rachad / ní stopfaidh me choíche /
Go seasfaidh mé síos / i lár Chondae Mhaigh Eo.
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