Limerick 1-0 Athlone

[Éanna]

Limerick beat athlone 1-0 thanks to a steve o'flynn goal. limerick could have had 4 or 5 against a poor athlone side, ref was very poor as well.

[JohnD]

It was a wet night and you couldnt help thinking that we were never going to get the goal. It was pure relief when Stevo did score finally. Thought we played very good...at least we played. Athlone were Sh***te. Kilkenny are better than them. How did they beat Bray ?. They defended a 0-0 draw from the outset.

Considering the wet weather there was a nice attendance, even some Cork people came up to see real football

The draw between Mons and Dublin city was a good result too...Lets hope we can keep this going at Finn Harps

[deise deserter]

I was absolutely livid with the refereeing. I don't think I have ever seen such gross incompetence in my life. The linesman on our side was usless too, didn't assist the referee and turned around to tell us to be quiet rather than keeping his eye on the game.

We were by far and away the best team out there, and were unlucky not to put them away 3 or 4 nil. Cooney was unlucky not to get a second in the dying minutes of the game, and our two new Kerry boys had great games. I am getting more and more impressed by them.

Healy had a very iffy game I thought. There were a few times I thought he was about to gift goals, but I suppose we can chalk it up to the desperate weather. He pulled off the saves when he really needed to. Though that he wasn't feeding to the two backs enough, instead preferring to hoof the ball unfield.

Stevo had a very good game and deserved the goal. John Whyte had a good game when he came on (and brought the average age of the team on the field up by decades ). His experience really shows and he definitely had a great impact on the mid-field.

I was delighted to see that our bad luck against teams like Bray and Dublin City whom we outplayed without getting the results we deserved has started to go. I'm starting to get a very good feeling for the season.


(PS: pics of the Kilkenny game, last night's game and team photos will not be up on my site until Monday night at earliest).

[BlueisBeautiful]

Thought we were excellent again, especially second half - domineering as usual and getting the all important goal too!!

O'Flynn was outstanding, best striker we've had since Billy Hamilton. Anybody agree (Is there even an argument?) Great finish!

Purcell - commanding display (yet again)

Cooney - fine match, especially when he was switched to the left.

Sugrue _ I was very impressed with and O'mahony was solid aswell.

All in all things are looking good but we need 4 extra players for the overall squad when the window opens again or else it could turn pear shaped!! (injuries, suspensions etc...)

[Nempton]

A good win for Limerick. But there were a couple of points to be taken from the game.

It was good to see Limerick win a game which they dominated throughout, something they have'nt done against any of the other teams I have seen them play this season. However, Athlone are an average team and we still seem to be lacking that killer edge. We did well to get the goal because it looked as if the game was going to end as a draw. But towards the end, to highlight my point of not having that killer edge, Keating makes a break into the Athlone box, he has an opportunity to shoot but instead he passes to Cooney, Cooney has the ball, controls it, has an opportunity to shoot but passes back to Keating, onto Foley and so on. Limerick could have killed of the game and wrapped up the three points. Just imagine if Athlone had gone straight up the field and equalised after that. It would have been demoralising for everyone. Limerick need to learn to be more clinical in front of goal still, we play nice football at times and I even noticed that last night, a concentrated effort by all to get into the box whenever we had the ball out wide. However the negative to that was at times players were lacking support because players were running away from the ball which is another problem I noticed, our inability to do the basic thing. When it came to throws, there was no one showing for the ball. Also Deise mentioned it earlier, but whenever Healy got the ball he was too slow in releasing the ball and starting a counter attack. Maybe this is something Mike has instructed them to do, hold up the ball and wait until everyone is in position but at times there was an opportunity to catch Athlone on the break. I noticed also an improved display by our defence, especially with Finucane. I feared at the start that Paul was going to play as he had done in previous matches so far this season but he got the better of his man and even broke out with the ball from defence. Overall though I can't really complain, we got the three points and only two points away from Dublin City. Hopefully other results will go our way.

As I said Finucane had a good game along with the other defenders. I feel more comfortable with John Healy in goals then Jimmy Ffye. He might not have the same talent but he bosses his defence and keeps talking to them and more comfortable in dealing with crosses than Jimmy. Overall I think John is ok and if you compare him to the Athlone keeper, a Man Utd reject, you would have noticed that John was a lot better than him. Molan in my opinion was fantastic, he might have had little to do at times but there was never going to be any threat down that flank by Athlone. I don't think we have to worry about the left back position too much. Purcell is in good form and consistent bar the Sligo match. O'Mahony did well, he looks light and my only concern is that other teams might put a big player on him to win balls in the air, but O'Mahony puts in the tackles and supported the play at every opportunity without neglecting his defensive duties. I just wouldn't let him take attacking free kicks into the opposition box though.

Sugrue did ok but at times he didn't do the simple thing. He needs to learn that he doesn't always have to step over the ball twenty times before passing it. But the two Kerry lads look very good and can only get better with experience. They are an asset to Limerick. Foley did well when he came on, although he still needs to be more clincial up front, but along with Sugrue, he will be unlucky if they don't demote McCarthy and Heffernan from the starting line up in the next match. Competition for places seems to have brought out good performances in some of the players. I thought Derek did ok, he didn't see a lot of the ball compared to Steve O, which is a little bit worrying, but he has the skill and never stopped chasing and won us a few attacking throw in's and corners which people failed to notice. He had a few half chances but things didn't seem to go his way. As for Colm, another below par performance, like Derek he just needs a break and to be playing more on the right wing rather than the left. Remember how we were raving about how strong our right side was at the Sligo match when attacking, which was mainly due to Colm. If Mike puts Cooney on the left and Colm on the right he might get going again. Steve O was just fantastic, enough said. I nearly forgot to mention about Cooney and Keating in the middle. I think Cooney is far more effective on the left wing and capable of creating chances. I was disappointed to see him pull out of a challenge at one stage, which is something a central midfielder should never do, and I hope it was just a once off. But for me Cooney should be on the left. Keating had a superb game in the middle, he challenged and won balls in the air and on the ground and was able to pass it around without any bother. I think our midfield will be a lot more competitive and dominating if we keep Keating in the middle and he could form an effective partnership with Sweeney when he comes back from injury. John Whyte still has that bite in him but not the legs. But you cannot fail to notice his influence.

I put in another thread my thoughts of who the starting eleven should be.