Utd 1-0 Rovers

**Gaillimh Al** · 03/06/2006, 7:52 AM

Great result last night and a very good second half performance. Pride and passion were very much in evidence and that has to continue for the rest of the season, against the lesser teams even more so. Pity that Limerick snatched a late winner up in Monaghan, but let's hope we can build on this win. I wish we didn't have that break now as the players confidence will be up for the next few weeks. Anyway, here's my player ratings from last night:

Alan Gough - Made good 2nd half save and dealt well with most things that came his his way. 7/10
Nigel Keady - Very solid and covered well. 7/10
Billy Clery - Excellent 2nd half display.Won every battle. 8/10
Ronan Frawley - A few heartstoppers in 1st half but powerful 2nd half. 8/10
Philip Reilly - Distribution let him down badly in the first half but confidence grew after the goal and defended well. 6/10
Derek O'Brien - Dangerous on the ball and used it well. Didn't get enough chances to run at the defence. 7/10
Mixie Harty - Best performance of season from Mixie. Aggressive as always but used the ball a lot better. 8/10
Fran Carter - Honest effort and commitment from Fran, but should only be a back-up option in centre midfield. 7/10
Dave Goldbey - Played out of position wide right and gave his all. Should have seen more of the play near the end when free. 7/10
Alan Murphy - Cracking drive brought great save and involved in goal. Tireless effort.
Barry Moran - Top class performance from Barry, held the ball up well all night and brought others into game, culminating in the match winning goal. 9/10 MAN OF THE MATCH

Dave Cooke - Did very well when brought on. 8/10
Supporters - Great effort from everyone involved. 12th man. 10/10

**Terry** · 03/06/2006, 8:02 AM

spot on there, only difference I would say that I would have given David Cooke a 9/10 also, superb display.

Also, I wish we would stop defending the 1-0 when there is only minutes left in a match, I don't think my heart can take much more of it !!!

**Gaillimh Al** · 03/06/2006, 8:33 AM

I know it was nail biting, but they were playing with 6 up front for the last ten minutes. Cooke was impressive. Find of the seson so far.

**Conor H** · 03/06/2006, 8:39 AM

Ah don't forget about Cretaro though.....player of the season so far.
Only surprise for me was Goldbey started from the outset considering Cooke's earlier performances in the season.

**Gaillimh Al** · 03/06/2006, 8:45 AM

Didn't say he was player of the season. We all knew Cretaro was going to be good. Cooke has been the unexpected surprise of the season.

**Terry** · 03/06/2006, 8:48 AM

I did watch Cooke play for the u21's for the past 2 seasons and knew he'd be good but not as good as he has been this season

**Conor H** · 03/06/2006, 8:55 AM

I wonder though would Cretaro be due back for Harps in 3 weeks?

**Gaillimh Al** · 03/06/2006, 8:58 AM

According to report i read, he's out for at least 4 weeks and because he'll wont be able to eat solid foods for a while it could be 6-7 due to lost fitness.

Anyone know what happened with the couple of Rovers fans getting kicked out. They were upset at somethin anyway.

**Terry** · 03/06/2006, 9:05 AM

I would guess that it would be around 8 weeks before regaining full fitness. As Al says, his eating will be all over the shop due to it being all blended for him, sore dose

**Tir Oilean** · 03/06/2006, 11:53 AM

We got on well enough without Cretaro last night and i take the point of sitting back on 1-0 leads. From where I was sitting I could see that we were defending well and was confident we wouldnt do a Kilkenny on it. REmember Shams had a pot shot from there own half and a shot that was easily held by Gough. They were nowhere to be seen during the majority of the game. If I were a sham I'd be disgusted with the performance....

**A Phoenix** · 03/06/2006, 4:25 PM

Fran Carter may not look the part in centre midfield but we do better when he plays there. He’s played there twice this year, against Limerick and Shamrock Rovers, which have been our 2 best results. He had a good run there 2 seasons ago.

I think Ciaran Foley has been our weak point this year. He has looked impressive at all and was suspended for the first 3 games and again last night. We didn’t concede a goal in any of those games and they included the wins against Limerick and Rovers. We’ve only had 2 clean sheets in games that he’s has played in.

**A Phoenix** · 03/06/2006, 4:45 PM

I meant Foley hasn't looked impressive this season.

**thescoringgoals** · 03/06/2006, 8:11 PM

bad match and shams were sooooo poor,how the hell are they ahead of us??????????shows how bad we were at start of season.cooke was amazing,fired up big time and won every tackle and made a fool of the winger for shams marking him.ref was brutal,blindsman too.the reson it was a poor match was mostly due to shams going to ground every few mins to break up the game,it was a very sinical game plan but they got what they deserved in the end which was S.F.A.good performances all round though,our lads were really fired up and the clenched fists at the end by the players showed how much it meant to them.more of the same please.

**Red4Eva** · 03/06/2006, 10:23 PM

fair play on the result lads but what a terrible game of football. that has to be one of the poorest performances by a shamrock rovers team in a long time. i can really remember about 4 shots in the whole match, one of bein murphy's spectacular effort. if both sides play as poorly as that regularly i'd say limerick cud win division by 15-20 points. in fairness ye did show good character typified by cookie's cameo appearance. did any shams supporters get arrested cos i think one of em might have lamped a steward? i wore my premier division rovers jersey on purpose and i get a nice reception off em when i walked by

**Conor H** · 03/06/2006, 10:41 PM

That's caus they were pulling the mick with us beforehand in Fox's singing "sligo sligo" so if they saw your jersey they were away with it!!

**Red4Eva** · 03/06/2006, 11:15 PM

Originally Posted by Conor H

That's caus they were pulling the mick with us beforehand in Fox's singing "sligo sligo" so if they saw your jersey they were away with it!!

i was down da bottom of eyre square&i cud hear em makin a fair bit of noise alright. one of em say my jersey and said "there's only on rovers mate" and i shouted back "and what division do we play in?", i think a few of them wanted to swing for me when they heard that. not pleased to say da least, i made sure not to walk by em again after that

**Conor H** · 03/06/2006, 11:20 PM

Ah excuse me that was both sets of fans down there.

We were the one's with drums and flags.

I must say thee singing and crack down in Fox's with both sets of fans beforehand was absoloutely brillaint.
All the tourists and other Galwegians stopping and taking photos.

Unreal!

**hoopy** · 04/06/2006, 8:51 AM

Just a quick note to thank you all for a great weekend. Although obviously dissappointed with the result the best team won so no complaints. Always nice though to visit a place where you feel welcome. Lastly to the Sligo fan posting here, cop on to yourself, everyone had good craic together and it could be said that if you purposely walked by us with a Sligo jersey you were either looking for trouble yourself or are an attention seeker

**NY Hoop** · 06/06/2006, 11:57 AM

Super weekend. Thanks to the GUFC supporters for some great craic.

Dont know who these shams are but Rovers were very bad alright. Didnt think there was a whole lot between the sides and the pitch was bad. No excuses however.

Saw better football in salthill saturday!

FAO of the sligo fan nobody "lamped" any steward but thanks for coming to see us play.

KOH

**Red4Eva** · 07/06/2006, 4:14 PM

Originally Posted by hoopy

Lastly to the Sligo fan posting here, cop on to yourself, everyone had good craic together and it could be said that if you purposely walked by us with a Sligo jersey you were either looking for trouble yourself or are an attention seeker

jesus christ such an over reaction, i was hardly lookin for trouble considering there was 1 of me & 250 of ye. SORRY

Originally Posted by NY Hoop

FAO of the sligo fan nobody "lamped" any steward..

i didn't see any1 get hit but some1 else told me it looked like a steward could have got hit. fair play on the atmosphere ye created, the match was atrocious but the atmosphere still made it entertaining