Dissapointing

**Tir Oilean** · 21/10/2006, 7:21 PM

Last night was disappointing on the pitch I think Tony should've put the fallout with Derek behind him and played him from the start. Murph doesnt try hard enough and hasnt all season. O'Donnell is simply not good enough. Nigel will allways give a 110% he is not a mercenary. The offside decision was chronic and could have put a different spin on things but Dundalk were way ahead of us and what great supporters they brought with them. I was on the far side of the pitch and it was great to see and hear both sets of supporters giving it their all.

Its onwards and upwards for United we all have our bogey teams and we have to accept it. We should all make the trip to Kilkenny to give the lads our thanks for a great season remember its been a long time since we've had such success. roll on Athlone

**Terry** · 21/10/2006, 7:24 PM

the only problem tir oilean is that athlone are our bogey team !!!!

**Conor H** · 21/10/2006, 7:29 PM

Originally Posted by Terry

the only problem tir oilean is that athlone are our bogey team !!!!

Ya but it's vital the lads don't wallow in self pity after last night.We should win our last 4 games and if we do that will be 33 out of 36 pomits.Any other year that would probably win the league but we were beaten by a very good team last night and we just have to get on with it.JC made a very good point though....we have been far better than Rovers in Terryland twice this year but Dundalk hammered us last night!
The lads must keep playing with 100% commitment until it's mathematically impossibe.....if we keep winning it won't be until the final game.Keep the faith!
Roll on the B team!

**Dave drummerboy** · 22/10/2006, 2:19 PM

Just want to come on say fair play lads . My bus only got to galway at 7.20 so went into ground then . The place was very well organised . It was a good game thankfully we came out on top , its the best performance all season by us . Also glad that we brought more fans then rovers quite a lot more at that . Got talking to few galway fans outside not sure if it was any of you lot i had a drum in my hand so you can tell me if it was you . lets all hope rovers slip up and dundalk win it followed by galway .

**damoGUFC** · 22/10/2006, 2:37 PM

I walked down past ye lads and the noise that ye created was unbelieveable, there waz about 400+ singing so fair play 2ye!! I was talking to a guy with a drum so it must be you!

Yer a sound bunch!!

**Dave drummerboy** · 22/10/2006, 2:49 PM

Yeah it was me id say two drummers walked out together i was one with glasses .

**damoGUFC** · 22/10/2006, 3:09 PM

I know ya now...I was the guy with the glasses and spikey hair!

what time did
ye get home? ye didnt go to fox's or fibber magees??

**Dave drummerboy** · 22/10/2006, 3:23 PM

got home about three no went back to bus and to off license stacked up and had a party on bus .

**damoGUFC** · 22/10/2006, 3:33 PM

Nice one!

Match was poor but ye deserved the win. Hopefully United can pick themselves up for Athlone on Saturday. Who dundalk playing next?

**Dave drummerboy** · 22/10/2006, 4:51 PM

got kilkenny on thurs night .

**MyTown** · 23/10/2006, 9:27 AM

For what it's worth now, I think Alan Keane's injury was a huge set back for us & I told him so on Friday night. That & having to pull Conor out of the Harps game unsettled the confidence the team had having beaten Shamrock Rovers.

MO'Donnell has taken some stick here & I cannot find anything to soften the blows ye've given him based on his display on Friday except to say that at UCD & Dublin City he never occupied the roles he's been given to fill for us on the left hand side.

The manager has taken a bt of stick too which really surprises me except that he is probably a victim of his own success. He doesn't seem to rate Mixie Harty & I think that's a pity. Mixie had a great spell at right back a few seasons ago & to me was a much better option than Nigel. He's a much more complete footballer. Also, for my money Raf was very uncomfortable there when Wes went off.

The manager had a very lengthy discussion with John Russell out on the pitch while the teams were in the dressing room prior to kick off. From the body language, Russeler seemed to be listening intently and accepting who was the boss, although someone beside me felt Tony was just explaining to him why he didn't make the squad.

In central midfield you can choose from Foley, Fran, O'Donnell, Russell, Mixie & it's always going to be 2 out of the 5.

As has been acknowledged by all, Dundalk were the better side in every area of the pitch and fully deserved their win. For me only Foley and David O'Dowd (for his work rate) came up to the required standard for us.

What is worth noting is the improvement in Dundalk since they last came to town. In June they arrived on the back of four defeats and were no better than the teams at the bottom of this league, but they were a totally different proposition on Friday night. They were professional and at times a little bit cynical (their No.2 was just dirty, but their no. 11 was a nasty piece of work going down for no reason, staying down for as long as possible and then doing his best to antagonise the crowd with gestures you're all familiar with), but they definitely showed they have what it takes to survive at the higher level. Given the tribulations John Gill had at Athlone and Dublin City you'd have to say he's done a great job. Philip Hughes showed all night while he's having a great season and we failed to cope with him especially after Wes (who was obviously far from right BEFORE the kick off) went off. I thought their No 7 was the best player on view and cut out everything that came his way as well as using the ball sensibly.

Congratulations again to all involved with the stewarding. They did a brilliant job. It is a great pity that the fair weather supporters will now fade away again until our next run, but as I've said before that's the sporting public. Everyone likes to be associated with success.

(A little off thread, but I heard the presentation on Friday morning was brilliant, including the video / dvd. Hopefully it will make its way onto the website if things go our way with the outcome on December 11th.)

Let's regroup for Athlone. Come on United.

**gufct** · 23/10/2006, 9:46 AM

Dundalk were the better team no complaints.But to pick out individuals and start knocking them is a bit hard to take.No one played well on friday we never played as a team and allowed ourselves to be bullied out of the game. People sniping at the manager after we have set a record of 7 straight wins is a bit Irish.We need to regroup and look to win our last 4 games we wont do that by being disunited.

Finally a word of Praise for the Dundalk fans they might have had a lot of drink in them but they were a credit to their club and were a joy for the stewards.Thanks!

**GUISAUltra** · 23/10/2006, 10:50 AM

when i was knocking players on this, it wasnt solely on the basis of friday night.

i've never rated mick o donnell as a player, but one thing ya can say about mick though is he does trojan work in every game but i feel hes not up to it. maybe it is just because he is being played out of position because he was very well liked by the fans in dublin.

as for nigel, i dont like him at all. really uncomfortable on the ball at all times, even with alan injured we've still got better right backs than nigel. mixie for one. he also does trojan work however and you cant fault him for that.

i wasn't complaining about cousins after the last night i was simply saying that he got it wrong and i'd say if ya asked him now i'd say that he'd tell ya it himself. i'm a great fan of cousins and hope to see him at the helm for as long as possible.

**corbyeire** · 23/10/2006, 1:28 PM

in general we have been lucky along the way in our run of 7 games - some of those faults were found out on friday night

reilly cant pass
neither can keady - long ball cross field to mick, throw in - again
mick cant run or read the game
carter was off the game, no close control
wes shouldnt have started - injured/brutal first touches
raf wasted at the back

same could have been said for the harps game - distribution was brutal

murph shouldnt have started

foley and odowd gave their all at least - gough solid - billy passable

derek on earlier with gethins starting

a combination of utd being their very worst and dundalk wanting it way more

when we decided to pass it short in the last 10mins we created chances - we panicked for the majority of the game after they took the lead

their midfield and defence mopped up every loose ball and punished us on the break

up next our bogey team - its bound to go right there some time

**Conor H** · 23/10/2006, 1:36 PM

Bogey team or not the fact is Athlone are useless!
I mean Rovers and Dundalk have hammered them a few times this year.We have to remember this team has done what many have failed to do in the last few years.
-We won away to Cobh and Harps!!
-We won 7 in a row
-We beat Rovers twice
-We won 5-1 away from home
-We're 3 points off top with 4 games to go.

It was very much a no-show v Dundalk but i'm confident we'll beat Athlone providng the players have the right attitude and under Cousins i think they will.

**corbyeire** · 23/10/2006, 1:40 PM

i would be optimistic that we cant play as badly as a unit as we did friday night

i just hope that this bit of improvement will be enough to beat athlone and break the hoodoo

personally this is the game i hope we win the most - having watch them play athlone this season - especially in terryland - they have taken part of my soul and my will to live in the drab fare this season

**Conor H** · 23/10/2006, 1:45 PM

Originally Posted by corbyeire

i would be optimistic that we cant play as badly as a unit as we did friday night

i just hope that this bit of improvement will be enough to beat athlone and break the hoodoo

personally this is the game i hope we win the most - having watch them play athlone this season - especially in terryland - they have taken part of my soul and my will to live in the drab fare this season

Well it's imperative we keep winning.Our next 4 games are all games that should be won tbh.If we win those i reckon we'll come at least 2nd as Dundalk and Rovers have harder games than we do.Above all years 2nd might be good enough.