Potter MOTM. Fully deserved.
Lapira should be included in every squad from now on simply because he looks like a sun-kissed Justin Lee Collins. A million miles from the grizzled likes of Dunne.
Ou-est le Centre George Pompidou?
3 min injury time
lapira to score the winner to seal the fairytale... before he goes back to school in the morning...
ECU have a man getting sent off
Castro ejected
ALL OVER, 1-1, well done fellas, good result
Thats it finished 1-1 and off to bed I go.
brilliant - better than the soccernet and fai matchtrackers anyday. thanks again.
Good result, very good performance despite poor defending. Sets us up well for Saturday and it's good to see the fringe players getting a run. Potter, O'Halloran, Doyle and Murphy have done their chances a world of good.
Ou-est le Centre George Pompidou?
Very good performance in the 2nd half, we were a different team after half time.
Yep Potter by a mile.
No post match interview with Stan.
That rounds off a spirited performance very nicely, even though I could have done with that adrenalin reducer.
My Guarantee
Am looking for old Irish matches on VHS, PM me if you have some and I'll upload them here
I just got home from the match. I would say the stadium was 85% Ecuador fans and 15% Ireland fans. My uncle told me it would be like that but I didn't buy it. He won the bet.
Watching it in person, I was most impressed by the play of Hunt and Murphy, as they were busting their butts up and down the pitch for the whole time they were in there. Kilbane seemed to take over for Hunt in that regard between the time when Hunt left and when Kilbane eventually left. #6 (Potter?) was solid. Both Doyles were also good. When Kevin Doyle went off it didn't really feel like there was a real threat to score a goal until Anthony Stokes got in there.
Keogh was dreadful in my opinion and Shane Long wasn't much better. Stan should definately start Stokes in place of Keogh next time.
I wanted to see more of Stokes and Joseph Lapira. Lapira had a nice burst of speed and it would have been great to get a longer look at him. The neat thing about Stokes was the guy wants the ball all of the time. I think he's going to be a great playmaker for Ireland. He didn't take his one decent chance he had but he really made it into more of a chance than it actually was.
By the way, when Lapira went on there was a nice little chant of "USA! USA!" that broke out briefly, so it was nice to see that that section of the crowd was knowledgable.
Overall, both teams wasted a couple of chances but all in all this third string Irish squad impressed greatly. Hunt, Murphy, K. Doyle and Kilbane set the example nicely for the young players with their effort. Ireland was the better team.
Last edited by Kivlehan; 24/05/2007 at 4:18 AM. Reason: added points
Hopefully we'll look back on this as the day a new team was born! And can we remember this the next time someone whinges that Kilbane is on the team ahead of McGeady or A Reid. If all our playes had his commitment we'd qualify every time
Brilliant reading lads.
Far better than a jolly in Portugal. Sounds like Potter has played his way into the squad at the very least, plus a few others. Doyle is really finding his feet at this level.
I was deeply critical of the decision to overlook Whelan & Garvan, but it seems that Stan had his thinking right in giving Potter the nod. Credit to that man.
I only saw the 1st half but I thought O'Halloran looked ok at left back. Kevin Doyle always looks to have a threat about him, O Halloran set him up well for when he hit the post. Didn't see the second half but thought they did ok. I suspected we were going to get mauled.
'And Crouch must score'
Have to say the exercise was all very worthwhile. Impressed by Potter, he had a really good game. Doyle is starting to look a real international. Murphy has come leaps and bounds. Lots to be positive about.
Always look on the bright side of life
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