He's available just wasn't selected. Probably found out late on Thursday or this morning he was available and the match day squad would have already been decided by then.Originally Posted by tommy_c12000
If Cashin not available, I’d have O’Brien in for McEntee. And if purely considering development, I’d have Ferguson and Noss in for Tierney and Wright. But given that the result takes precedence, I trust Crawford with his selection. Pretty good team. Looking forward to the game!
He's available just wasn't selected. Probably found out late on Thursday or this morning he was available and the match day squad would have already been decided by then.
That might be your first mistake right there.
Poor Kenny Cunningham seems like a nervous wreck with their passing game…. Just get the ball in the box!
Why are we playing in orange? (Especially with their keeper in red)
Odubeko is a long way from the finished article, I would bring Ferguson on at HT, need someone better at holding up/linking up play. I’ve been unimpressed with Tierney as well, time to give Noss a run out? Maher been ok, should have come out to sweep up for their one true opportunity- he hesitated and to my eye he would have made it - but thankfully he made the save, his distribution has been poor. Others doing ok.
Why were we not able to make the substitution at the time of McEntee’s injury?! Bizarre that we had to be playing with 10 men for 2 minutes.
I think Tierney has been a bit unlucky, he makes some super runs and finds a lot of space. We seem to be very conservative with our forward passing and not getting the ball to him in those spaces enough. Similar with Odubeko, not really enough good ball in to him. Started second half well. I think Bagan is still very underrated, sitting near the bench and they seem worried about their 7 so Bangan is not attacking a lot but his positioning is excellent and he never gives the ball away.
Couldn't understand that - and they should have scored in that time too.
I can only presume the sub wasn't ready to come on, but that sounds really careless if so
Crawford needs to do something here. Ferguson and Noss for Odubeko and Tierney please
Excellent, the motivational post works again!!
Massive horn!
Solid performance without being great. Took their chances well and defended solidly for the most part (blessed to get away with the free header from the corner). They lacked a bit of dynamism and creativity I though, a little too happy to play the safe pass too often.
What were Ticketmaster at with the ticketing? I looked online at lunch and there was only a few single tickets available. Then watch the game and there’s no one at it.
There was definitely something weird with the way the tickets were being sold alright. The accident on the m50 would have definite had an impact but it didn’t explain the random scattering of single tickets they were making available to buy.
I think loads of season ticket holders signed up for free tickets and didn’t go. That’s what I heard anyway
Very solid win, without play well for large portions of the game but always looked the more likely to score.
Felt awful sorry for Conor Noss. They had him doing an intense warm up for 30 mins of the second half with the fitness coach - sprints and everything. Then he looks up and sees ireland have made their last set of subs (Devoy for Kilkenny - but one sub left overall) and tells the fitness coach, both look confused and he trudges back to the stands where he sits alone. Looked totally disconsolate.
Maher is pretty impressive. Regularly makes winning saves. Thought both fullbacks were very solid on both sides, both going forward and defending. You could nitpick about Lee’s performance but overall he’s finding form again. McGuinness is a real leader at the back, gradual improvements since the start of the campaign. McEntee was good and we suffered a little after he came off for about 10 mins. I thought the midfield was disappointing. Coventry and Kilkenny are two of the best players in the side but Kilkenny in particular was very anonymous and Coventry wasn’t as influential as he can be. Tierney also didn’t have the impact you’d have come to expect in recent times. Saying that, the assist for Mipo’s goal was pure class. Wouldn’t really agree with playing Smallbone or Tierney wide - like has happened - I’d just choose one of them or Noss to play behind the striker. Smallbone was good, he’s very progressive, likes to receive the ball on the half turn, so he can drive forward. Both Wright and O’Neill did well, a lot more good than bad. Up top, Odubeko and Ferguson are still a long way from the finished article. Odubeko wins plenty of headers, more than his fair share. He gets to the first ball more often than you’d hope and he has a bit of spark about him. Gave the ball away badly a few times and the decision making was poor at times, when he shot in the second half, where he should have squared to Smallbone. Still, he’s probably better than anyone else we have who hasn’t graduated to the seniors. Ferguson is equally raw but there’s obviously a player in there. I wonder if there’s any more pace in the body - he’s young enough at 17 that he could gain an extra yard or two. Would make a huge difference.
This 21s are a weird team - they get results - they often don’t play particularly well but they carve out plenty of chances while not playing great. Even at home to Italy, they were 1-0 down and Tierney missed a sitter late on to get a draw.
Were it not for a couple of missed penalties and that sitter miss, they could be topping the group - all that while missing up to 9 players who have moved to the senior team
I think individually it’s a good team but as a collective I don’t think it’s amazing, it feels like a lot of the goals or chances we create are down to individuals making something happen rather than training ground moves coming off. Funny enough similar to the senior team we did the double over our direct rivals Sweden and Bosnia but lose and draw away to the winnable games in the group.
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