rovers 2 ucd 0

[mcglinchey]

didnt deserve to loose that one,we did well...young lad on the right,fitsey i think?was very good,attacked well and was a great outlet. The big let down was matt gregg in goal. he was ball watching for the two goals.He was like superman trying to come out and punch some of their crosses. Get quigley back in goal a.s.a.p. gregg was an out and out disaster.

[DmanDmythDledge]

I'd agree with was said. Gregg half came for both goals and left himself in a position where he was unable to save the headers, although in fairness the marking was poor.

Fitzgerald had a very good game, caused the Rovers defence plenty of problems. Once he went off injured we had no real attacking threat. I'd like to see him and Conan being are two starting wingers.

We were the better team without doubt. Rovers had 3 chances and scored from two of them. If Conan's goal wasn't disallowed after some disgraceful judgement from the linesman the result could have been different.

McFaul got man of the match. Hard to disagree with that, he had a very good game, although if Fitzgerald stayed on for the whole game I@d say he would have got it.

[DmanDmythDledge]

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/6...offsidekm2.png

[pineapple stu]

Good picture there.

Offside was a disgrace. Conan was past the last defender when the whistle went, and the keeper had no chance the way he finished, so I'm going to claim that would have been a goal, and we'd have held on and should now be on 21 points!

Usual problems for us though - we matched Rovers up to the front two. They got a couple of chances and scored them. We got a couple of chances and did nothing with them.

Fitz was superb. But now he, Conan, Paul Byrne and Alan Mahon are all injured...

[DmanDmythDledge]

Good picture there.

Is it coming up all black for you? It was grand earlier.

[pineapple stu]

Yeah, all black.

I had a look at the video though (it was only 30 seconds into the half, actually, just after the shot of me not giving you any of my chips!) and it was a ridiculous call. Like, the edge of the penalty box is there for the linesman to make his call, and Conan's clearly on the far side with a defender inside the box when the ball is played.

[DmanDmythDledge]

I had a look at the video though (it was only 30 seconds into the half, actually, just after the shot of me not giving you any of my chips!) and it was a ridiculous call. Like, the edge of the penalty box is there for the linesman to make his call, and Conan's clearly on the far side with a defender inside the box when the ball is played.

Yeah that's basically what my screenshot showed.

I'll edit the video I have and put it up on youtube or something tomorrow if I get the time. If not the day after.

[Red4Eva]

ye were robbed 2nite. mcfaul & fitzgerald(?) were excellent.

[DmanDmythDledge]

Pete Mahon said in his post match interview that Paul Byrne's injury "doesn't look too good" and is having a scan tomorrow.

[Sam Savic]

Good picture there.

They got a couple of chances and scored them. We got a couple of chances and did nothing with them.

.

Purcell and Rowe missed headers in the first half and Rowe had one kicked off the line. Couple of chances my backside.
Your offside effort would have been saved by Murphy. Nothing gets past him.
You said it yourself, you got a couple of chances and did nothing with them. The whole idea is to stick the ball in the net. So you lot think you should have won because you got a couple of chances and did nothing with them.

[Angus]

Sam, I think you can sense our frustration. We have 5 or 6 players who really played well, namely Kenna (as usual) Bermingham the left back, Finn and McFaul in centre mid, Fitzy on the right and even Sammo looked half decent up front.

Of course you had more than one or two chances but I went away "kicking the cat". With all respect to Rovers, I think you were much better at our place the first game than last night - you did not look as quick or as connected as in the first game.

I feel as if we let this game go because of 2 bad mistakes at the back. By the way, why did we only have 10 men on for the second goal ? It took ages after Fitzy went down to get a sub on, and our own players clearly did not appreciate we were down to 10.

AAAGGGGHHHHH !!!! Feel better now.

[DmanDmythDledge]

So you lot think you should have won because you got a couple of chances and did nothing with them.

No one said that we should have won. We were easily the better team though.

By the way, why did we only have 10 men on for the second goal ? It took ages after Fitzy went down to get a sub on, and our own players clearly did not appreciate we were down to 10.

Pete signalled towards Doyle, who was in corner to the left of where we were, that he wanted to make a sub. Tony Mc went up to Pete to see who he wanted to bring on, found out and went back to Doyle to tell him he was going on. He jogged back and got togged out. Meanwhile Rovers score down our left. No way the full back would have been able to overlap if we weren't down to ten men.

Crowd was 1050.

[John83]

I watched the game again on Setanta this morning. The lads passed the ball really well last night. Very disappointing to lose that at all, and the second goal was, as people have said, directly because of Fitzgerald being down injured - Sammo was tracking back, but was too late, to slow to catch the overlapping full back who got in the cross.

In fairness to Rovers, they defended very well, especially after Reynolds came off.

[pineapple stu]

So you lot think you should have won because you got a couple of chances and did nothing with them.

I don't see anyone claiming we should have won.




UCD slipped to a third league defeat in a row - and a fourth in five matches - with a 2-0 defeat against Shamrock Rovers in Tolka Park in the live Monday night game. In an even and very keenly contested match, the only real difference between the two sides was UCD's old Achilles Heel of not converting what chances came their way, while Rovers' front duo of Ger Rowe and former Student Tadhg Purcell both found the back of the net.

To add insult to injury, Conan Byrne had a perfectly legitimate goal ruled out for a woeful offside decision, while Pete Mahon now has to look to the Longford on Saturday without Paul Byrne, Shane Fitzgerald, Conan Byrne and possibly Alan Mahon, all of whom picked up injuries.

Mahon sprung a surprise in his starting line up, bringing in Shane Fitzgerald for his first league start in place of Derek Doyle, while Ian Bermingham pushed captain Tony McDonnell down to the bench.

An even first half saw Alan Mahon go close with a free kick after just ten minutes, before he was in action again at the other end of the pitch to clear Ger Rowe's shot off the line, with Matt Gregg taking a large share of the credit for getting a good block on the ball from point blank range. However, UCD were dealt a blow midway through the half when Paul Byrne injured himself in a challenge and had to be replaced by Darren Forsyth, making his first league appearance otuside of a couple of last minute cameos.

It was Shane Fitzgerald, though, who was stealing the show with a number of scintillating runs reminiscent of a full flight Pat Kavanagh from last season. One run brought him from the edge of the UCD box to the edge of the Rovers box before he was finally crowded out by three hooped shirts, while another 40 yard run ended with him firing in a low shot which only just flew past the post, with Barry Murphy a spectator in the Rovers goal. And in first half injury time, Fitzgerald was again to the fore, delightfully skipping past one Rovers player before sending in a low cross which Darern Forsyth sent straight at Murphy.

It was certainly a positive first period from the Students, whose enthusiasm was summed up by a couple of uncharacteristically hard challenges which earned Shane McFaul and Fitzgerald yellows; a fifth booking of the season for McFaul, later named Man of the Match, means he is now in line for a suspension.

30 seconds into the second half, it should have been 1-0 to UCD. Conor Sammon was pushed off the ball 25 yards out, Alan Mahon took a quick free kick to set Conan Byrne away but, as he brushed off the challenge of the last defender, the referee blew for an offside call. Byrne's finish was clinical, across the dive of Murphy into the far corner; the linesman's call was a good three yards wrong, as Byrne was the far side of the 18 yard line when the ball was played while Rovers had at least one player still inside the box.

However, the Hoops weathered the storm and struck on 54 minutes - a corner from the right was missed entirely by Matt Gregg, and Ger Rowe was able to head into an empty net.

It was a very poor goal for UCD to concede, but it got even worse a quarter of an hour later when they went 2-0 down to the exact same goal. With Fitzgerald off the pitch with what appeared to be a hamstring injury, Rovers used their numerical advantage on their right to whip in a cross to the far post; this time Gregg stayed on his line, but the result was the same as Purcell nodded home unapposed.

That took the wind out of UCD's sails, and although Murphy was called on to make a good stop from Darren Forsyth when the young striker got clear in, Rovers were never in any danger of seeing out the match, which they did with a ninth clean sheet in ten home games. Things went from bad to worse for UCD when first Conan Byrne and then Alan Mahon went down with injuries; Byrne was replaced, but Mahon was forced to hobble on for the last couple of minutes with all three subs used.

The injuries mean a potential selection headache ahead of the trip to bottom of the table Longford, with a win now vital to start putting space between the bottom four again.

UCD - Gregg; Mahon, Bermingham, Kenna, McNally; Finn, McFaul; C Byrne (McDonnell 86), Fitzgerald (Doyle 70); Sammon, P Byrne (Forsyth 22). Subs not used - Quigley, Shortall

Att - 1050

[NY Hoop]

No one said that we should have won. We were easily the better team though.

What??? You get what you deserve in this game. We converted 2 of the many chances we had. You're making it sound like we had only 2 opportunities while you dominated the game??

Said the same to Pineapple after the game but at the time he said that UCD didnt have any chances! Must have been the chips messing with his vision! Well Fitzgerald certainly did.

UCD are a decent side and will comfortably finish in the top half.

KOH

[swano]

UCD are a good team but I don't see how they'll comfortably finish in the top half.

[MyTown]

Thought Fitzgerald was class. The co-commentator was making allowances for the Shamrock Rovers full back being right footed in a left back role, but Fitzgerald did not deserve to be on the losing side.

[John83]

Thought Fitzgerald was class. The co-commentator was making allowances for the Shamrock Rovers full back being right footed in a left back role, but Fitzgerald did not deserve to be on the losing side.

I think that was his first league start, possibly even his league debut. He played very well in the league cup v Harps. He's a very nice prospect, loads of pace and eager to run with the ball at his feet.

Pity he's not left sided; Conan's been playing so well that it would be a pity to move him to the left (heck, Doyle doesn't really deserve to be dropped, but someone had to make way).

[John83]

UCD are a good team but I don't see how they'll comfortably finish in the top half.

Agreed, there's good competition in the mid tables this year, and we're guaranteed nothing of the sort. Still, 6th is probably a reasonable hope.

[Bald Student]

I thought the Shams deserved the win, they ran through our midfield way too often and the defence had to make up for it. You're always going to concede soft goals when you're defending your own goal so often. I don't like playing Finn and McFaul together, they're too similar, but Tony doesn't seem fully up to speed this season.

On another night we might have gotten a draw, or at least scored, but we can have no real complaints. Fitzgerald was class so we can take at least one positive from the game.