2006 Season

[sligoman]

My League prediction.

Cork
Shels
Derry
Drogs
Bohs
Rovers
UCD
Bray
St Pats
Longford
Waterford
Dub City.

, What I would give to finish that high. Avoiding relegation is our target for next season and then, if we manage that, start planning on moving up the table the following season.

[daniel]

rafa b catch urself on will ye, its not that Derry were taught a lesson by Cork, in my opinion i feel we made Cork look better than what they are but take nothing from Cork on the night the were outstanding and as the title came down to friday then Cork deserved to win the title because they had more bottle about them, they took advantage of Derry's young players not having the bottle for this occassion and tore them apart, and can i add congratulations to Cork, we as Derry fans are very very gracious in defeat, we seen the better team won and congratulated them now give over and stop actin a w*nker ffs will ye!!

[KK77]

[ Getting a little worried now at this stage, back to the wall time........

?????

[dahamsta]

Rafa B, weren't you banned before for acting the maggot on Foot.ie?

Here's the deal fella: You're very specifically going to quit attacking other posters, and you're generally going to quit acting the maggot completely, otherwise you're going to be banned from the site permanently. Then after I've banned you I'll have a word with the system administrator of the network you're coming from, pointing him to examples of your behaviour, and how his resources are being wasted.

Am I making myself fairly clear? Would you like me PM your name and where you work so we can be sure I'm right?

adam

[Block G Raptor]

No matter who does what, hopefully it will be another close-run fantastic spectacle of a season!

Here Here !!!!

[pete]

I think title will come down to Shels & Cork City next season. Some key players underperformed for Shels this year so would expect more next year. Cork City can only improve as several young players who we haven't seen the best of yet. O'Donovan was in first season & could be as good as Kevin Doyle.

More than anything else City & Shels have a lot of european experience now as squads so will be able to handle big games like no other teams.

Setanta Cup & Uefa Cup could take a lot out of Drogs & Derry City so will be interesting to see how they go.

Bohs have some great players but too much crap players mixed amoung them - lack of europe & Setanta could give them an advantage in push for european places.

the gap between top & bottom will continue to stretch.

[Speranza]

So will you explain why we won't be back up despite only missing out on the title? Nothing is going to change at the Brandywell in fact things can only get better. Todays papers talk about us signing Michael Collins (arguably best midfielder in IL) and bringing Darren Kelly home (one of thr best defenders I have ever seen in EL)

[lofty9]

Next years headlines :

Michael Collins shoots down rebel Army!

[Block G Raptor]

Next years headlines :

Michael Collins shoots down rebel Army!

With a sub header: Revenge for Beal Na Blath

[daniel]

Ye no something am ****ed off wey every1 in the Eircom league, be it referees, fans and officials of other clubs, commentators etc etc and im sure every other Derry fan is aswell because they have written us off all season and are doing so again before the season starts...Pete Derry have a large enough squad to compete in Europe, Setanta and in the League so worry about your own teams fitness because i can assure you now that we won't be beaten in fitness by any team in this league next season, we showed this year we never tired out hence all those late goals, f*ck the lot a ye's coz we'll be back bigger and stronger next year!!!

[lofty9]

Daniel, calm yourself! We got plenty of credit. We finished second and at the start of the year ye would have bitten someones hand off if offered that. We were getting credit on tv with Osam, and even Shoddy Collins gave us credit. Its not up to posters here of other teams to give us any - in fact why should they? I don't see much praise coming from Derry fans to any other team, we weren't giving Cork much credit last year for finishing 2nd, and especially weren't giving credit to last years winners. That is football, enough of the Cork back slapping and get back to the real world in which we are supposed to hate each other's teams.

[pete]

The point i was trying to make is that europe has proven to take a lot mentally out of teams. We suffered a lot last season but learned from that experience & coped very well this year.

[Real ale Madrid]

One reason Derry will up there again - Stephen Kenny. Cork, Shels and Derry going hell for leather would be just fantastic and there is no reason why it cant happen. Kenny is a bit of a grump(i've never actually seen him smile) but he has done fantastically well wherever he has gone. All three teams should do well in Europe as well, making it a level playing field in that regard. Everyone thinks Shels great run in the league towards the end will mean they will win it this year - but Shels had practically given up hope of winning it at that stage so the pressure was off. I wonder what Shels record against Cork/Derry reads in all competitions - doubt if it makes nice reading for Pat Fenlon. On the other hand Fenlon is another good manager who can bring the best of the team so long as he knows what his best team is. As for Cork City - its a case of how do you top the last season? But with the pressure off Rico and the lads now there is nothing to say they cant repeat the feat again. I would expect City to come out of the blocks quick when the season starts because they will have big crowds at home for the first few games and big away support as well. And the feel good factor will still be lingering. With that i would like to think Cork May just edge out the other two but here's hoping for a close run season again.

As for everyone else i cant see Drogheda buying their way into the title race and everyone else is pretty medicore. I expect Sligo and the playoff winners to be fighting for relegation come next season.

[Block G Raptor]

. I expect Sligo and the playoff winners to be fighting for relegation come next season.

I think Sligo and Dublin City Might Surprise a few people Next year
I'm Tipping one if not both to avoid relegation

[Dricky]

I think most see it as City fans Bragging, we've earned those rights. However I think there are a lot of people missing the jist of the mail. The EL took a huge step forward this year as Shels hadn't it their own way, there were challengers from out side of Dublin, the list goes on. The El has got some great footballers with some class games not involving Dublin Derbies.

My worry for Derry was Kenny asked for a one year commitment from the players, I hope he can get the same from them next season because Derry do add to the excitment of the EL.

[Cosmo]

Next years headlines :

Michael Collins shoots down rebel Army!

Is collins a done deal? He'd be a great signing for anybody in the league - wouldve loved to have seen with with drogs

[Krstic]

Is collins a done deal? He'd be a great signing for anybody in the league - wouldve loved to have seen with with drogs

This is the first I've heard of it.
And to be honest the amount of players whom Derry have signed from Irish League clubs, that have been a success in the EL, is almost zero.

In fact I can only think of 2 players who came from the IL to El and were a success. Felix Healy and Johnny Speake.

Therefore I'm not getting too excited.

[Dricky]

This is the first I've heard of it.
And to be honest the amount of players whom Derry have signed from Irish League clubs, that have been a success in the EL, is almost zero.

In fact I can only think of 2 players who came from the IL to El and were a success. Felix Healy and Johnny Speake.

Therefore I'm not getting too excited.

totally off point but have Derry their Shirt sponsors sorted for next year.

[Speranza]

AFAIK our new tops will be avaiolble along with Season tickets for Christmas so I assume the sponser issue has been decided. There was a load of speculation about changing it but seems to have died out now.

[Slash/ED]

What's this nonsense idea everyone seems to have that Shels were awesome when they 'finally got it together' at the end of the year ?

They couldn't beat Cork at home in a key game that they needed to win to keep anything alight for their season ! That suggests to me that they'll be inferior to at least Cork next year.

what on earth are you on about? We didn't need to beat Cork, our season was over. All we could do was ensure Cork needed a win rather than a draw from their last game, win or draw was the same deal for us. And we drew/

And over the last series of matches, do that consistently and we'll win the league whether we beat Cork or Derry once or not.

Also, we did beat Cork last season, just not in the league.

I'm confident Shels will be challenging again next season. We were superb in the last series of games, playing everyone and loseing only once, winning most matches very comfortabley and playing, for the first time all season, proper football.