P6 W0 D2 L4:

[Paddyfield]

The inability of a couple of posters in here to debate my very simple point is disappointing. I'm simply posing the question as to whether promotion that came too early on the field will be of detriment to a good off the field set up. Languishing near the bottom with a winless streak will damage crowds and confidence about the club. Disagree with me by all means but don't go throwing insults at my club due to an inability to debate the point at hand. I'm not WUMing and I am not seeking to deabate the validity/invalidity of your promotion but simply the effects of an exceptional circumstance. In regards to this debate it serves no relevance to point out that UCD stayed up by the same process as we would have stayed up more than comfortably in a normal season.

Poor Stu, I re-read your original post minus my wind-up specs and see where you are coming from but I was by no means insulting UCD.

'Tis a long road without a turn...

[Poor Student]

Fair enough, Paddy.

[pineapple stu]

Stu the least you could do is wait until you see us play till you decide to pass judgement or try to debate the issue of our fully merited invitation to join the new FAI Premier Division.

That has absolutely nothing to do with the passage you quoted?

Galway don't deserve to be in the Premier; that's fact, accept it. It doesn't matter that the clubs were bullied into voting the system in; that doesn't make it in any way deserving that Galway skipped the queue. However, I think you could actually suffer in the long run for it. That's your starting point for any debate. Anything else is best left in the past.

[Student Mullet]

TGalway don't deserve to be in the Premier; that's fact, accept it. It doesn't matter that the clubs were bullied into voting the system in; that doesn't make it in any way deserving that Galway skipped the queue.

This has nothing to do with the discussion in hand. You can't go around calling WUM at others and then post stuf like this.

If (when?) Galway get relegated it'll be because of the ****ness of their senior team, not because of the strength of the rest of their club.

[Paddyfield]

Galway don't deserve to be in the Premier; that's fact, accept it. It doesn't matter that the clubs were bullied into voting the system in; that doesn't make it in any way deserving that Galway skipped the queue. However, I think you could actually suffer in the long run for it. That's your starting point for any debate. Anything else is best left in the past.

Galway United don't deserve to be in the Premier Division is like saying that Shelbourne don't deserve to be in the First Division. Then again...

However Stu, I am interested in debating your belief that GUFC could suffer in the long run because the club skipped the queue (or as we say in the west, was deemed good enough to be promoted )

Hear me out...

In last season's First Division, the only team to completely outclass GUFC was Dundalk. They deservedly finished above GUFC on the league table and qualified for a play-off, which they won fair and square.

The team that Dundalk beat over two legs, Waterford United, were relegated and un-relegated/promoted by default because the on-the-field Premier Division Champions (Shelbourne) were relegated for their off-the-field sh1tehawking.

The team that won the First Division, Shamrock Rovers, went from one crisis to another, both on and off the field, and spent 20 years moving around Dublin (and Cork!) renting grounds and are still homeless but were still promoted because their on-the-field and off-the-field activities were all deemed hunky dory.. and I don't dispute the findings.

Meanwhile, Galway United, who missed out on reaching the Play-Off by one point (because Dundalk beat us at the end of the season). Incidently, Limerick FC were the early pace setters in the Division and had they kept it up and won the Divsion, they would have still been been effectively made defunct and ultimately replaced by Limerick 37.

And my point is this: All Clubs signed up to a Set of Standards in 2004. To qualify for inclusion the the new League, all clubs were to be rated (yes, I'm going to use those cliches again) on-the-field and off-the-field. Galway United realised that even if the club won the Euro Lotto and bought 20 international class players, won the Premier Division and the Champion League, the FAI Licencing Group could still dump GUFC into the First Division because the record over the previous ten (?) seasons wouldn't account for enough points. Thus, to be in with a chance for inclusion in the new super dooper league, GUFC had to get maximum points for all the other stuff.

And that's pretty much what happened. We didn't skip the queue though. We were just at the top of the queue already.

[Tir Oilean]

That has absolutely nothing to do with the passage you quoted?

Galway don't deserve to be in the Premier; that's fact, accept it. It doesn't matter that the clubs were bullied into voting the system in; that doesn't make it in any way deserving that Galway skipped the queue. However, I think you could actually suffer in the long run for it. That's your starting point for any debate. Anything else is best left in the past.

Stu get over it will you. Were in the Premier whether you like it our not. When you say anything else is best left in the past I presume your talking about our invition to the new league so can you listen to your own advice and drop the antics on deserving to be in Premier or not its getting a bit boring and bordering on Wumming at this stage to be honest. Not saying any more on this subject.

[JC_GUFC]

I'd say some people on here don't remember the last time we were in the Premier Division... I remember going up to Monaghan for the third game of the season and the players were happy to get a 0-0 draw for our first point of the season - at the time I thought if we're only drawing 0-0 with Monaghan without having any chances we're in trouble.
The next week we were hammered 5-1 by Bohs in Terryland, the goal was the first we'd scored all season and it was an OG by Dave Hill!!!
Sure enough we finished with 19 points, Dundalk who finished in 10th had 39 points! Monaghan only picked up 11 more points after drawing with us.

This season we've been playing well and been unlucky, the players were disappointed with only drawing in Dalymount. Of the teams we have left to play in the first series of games only one of them is in the top half of the table.