Victory for 21's

mchurl

A good win for the u-21's in Azerbaijan this afternoon 2-1.

http://www.rte.ie/aertel/p223.htm

Great win for the lads and happy to see Keogh get off the mark as well. 2nd leg is to be played on Buckley Park in Kilkenny. if the Irish hold out for the win they will progress to the European championship group qualifying stages.

MrJoeSoap

Quigley has been on a shocking run of form recently, two howlers in recent league games and now a red card for the u-21's.

Still, well done.

eirebhoy

Fai.ie:

UEFA Under-21 European Championship Preliminary Round first-leg tie
Azerbaijan 1 Republic of Ireland 2

Ireland's Under-21 striker Andrew Keogh scored twice in only his third appearance at this level to give the Republic a crucial advantage ahead of next Thursday's return leg at Buckley Park in Kilkenny.

Azerbaijan broke the deadlock midway into the opening half at the Shafa Stadium in Baku through Murad Aghakishiyev but a spirited response from the Irish resulted in them turning the tie in their favour during the second half.

Scunthorpe United striker Keogh, five days short of his 20th birthday, provided the equaliser after 58 minutes by heading in at the back post from Aiden McGeady's free-kick on the left.

The Dubliner settled the game in the 88th minute when he swivelled in the penalty area to pounce upon a loose ball and convert the winner. Republic 'keeper Darren Quigley was issued with a straight red-card by the Referee in injury-time after reacting to a heavy challenge by one of the home side's strikers.

Ireland's performance improved as the game progressed, with Paul Keegan of Drogheda United bossing the midfield area and Andrew Keogh impressive as the Republic's sole striker in a 4-5-1 formation.

The well-deserved victory puts Ireland in pole position to advance into the Group phase of the competition against Belgium and Greece, scheduled to begin in early September.

Ireland manager Don Givens was delighted to emerge from the first-leg with a good result: "We made a sloppy start to the game and had to withstand some pressure after going a goal behind. We didn't give them too many chances, though, and once we came into the game late in the first half, I was confident we would get goals."

"Andy (Keogh) was superb up front," admitted Givens. "The two wingers, Roy (O'Donovan) and Aiden (McGeady) spent most of the game tracking back and Andy did a fantastic job for us on his own up there. He deserved the two goals because of the effort he put in."

The Republic can look forward with optimism to the return leg in Buckley Park, Kilkenny next Thursday (May 18th), Kick-off 7.30pm.

"We should finish the job off next week at home," said Givens. "The pitch here was very poor, so we're looking forward to playing in Buckley Park on a good surface."

Ireland:

Darren Quigley U.C.D
Kevin Foley Luton Town
Richard Keogh Bristol City
Alex Bruce Birmingham City
Marcos Painter Birmingham City
Paul Keegan Drogheda United
Willo Flood Manchester City
Michael Timlin Fulham
Roy O'Donovan Cork City (Shane Long - Reading 82 mins)
Andy Keogh Scunthorpe
Aiden McGeady Celtic

It should be an easy win for them next Thursday.

MrJoeSoap

There was a thing on Quigley there on some programme on RTE1, ended with the rather humourous line of "Best of luck to Darren in tonights game"...

I might upload it at some stage.

Kingp35

Great result for the 21's which means that they should go through. Good to see them doing well and it can only be good news to see the underage teams do well.

eirebhoy

Kingp35 wrote:

Great result for the 21's which means that they should go through. Good to see them doing well and it can only be good news to see the underage teams do well.

In fairness, they shouldn't have had to play this playoff in the first place. If they lost there would have been no U21 competitives for 2 years.

John_C

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Quigley has been on a shocking run of form recently, two howlers in recent league games and now a red card for the u-21's.

Still, well done.

I don't agree. He did let in a howler against Shels (you'll have to remind me where the second one was) but his form has been excellent. He was always a good shot stopper but this season he's been commanding the box much better, coming for crosses and battering forwards. I'm not too surprised at the sending off, last weekend he did seem to clatter into any Sligo forward that came anywhere near him.

Does anyone know if he's suspended for the game in Kilkenny?

MrJoeSoap

John_C wrote:

I don't agree. He did let in a howler against Shels (you'll have to remind me where the second one was) but his form has been excellent. He was always a good shot stopper but this season he's been commanding the box much better, coming for crosses and battering forwards. I'm not too surprised at the sending off, last weekend he did seem to clatter into any Sligo forward that came anywhere near him.

Does anyone know if he's suspended for the game in Kilkenny?

The second howler was against Bohs at Dalymount, wasn't at it but a friend told me he came for a ball he could never get.

I'm not saying he's not a good keeper but its just not been the best 3 weeks for him.

KdjaCL

Why is DonGivens still managing possibly the best damn 11 we have ever produced?


Seriously he got us to the position of having to qualify for the qualifiers and people cheer it? Against Azerbijan.....anyone else think theres something really really wrong here?



kdjac

tetsujin1979

can't understand why people are saying this was a great result. we were 1-0 down for ages, and only went ahead with less than 5 minutes to go. against azerbaijan, not france, or spain, or one of the footballing heavyweights, it's a tiny country with an even smaller footballing population, how anyone can see this result as anything other than insulting is beyond me. we should be thumping the likes of them in friendlies at this level, not grinding out results in competitive games. i would almost see not qualifying as a good thing, as it might just be the end of givens

John_C

From today's indo:

Sadly, the victory was marred by the dismissal of UCD goalkeeper Darren Quigley in the dying moments for violent conduct. Quigley retaliated after being gouged in the eye and shoved into the back of the net as he caught a cross.

The second leg takes place next Thursday at Kilkenny's Buckley Park.

I say fair dues to him.

Is anyone heading down to Kilkenny on Thursday?

Zebra3

tetsujin1979 wrote:

can't understand why people are saying this was a great result. we were 1-0 down for ages, and only went ahead with less than 5 minutes to go. against azerbaijan, not france, or spain, or one of the footballing heavyweights, it's a tiny country with an even smaller footballing population, how anyone can see this result as anything other than insulting is beyond me. we should be thumping the likes of them in friendlies at this level, not grinding out results in competitive games. i would almost see not qualifying as a good thing, as it might just be the end of givens

The u21s have no competititve games for two years unless they knock out Azerbaijan. Going over to Asia and getting a win with the home leg still to come is excellent.

I'm no fan of Given, but credit where it's due.

If anyone is in the Kilkenny area that night I hope they drop in to support the team. This game is crucial to the development of Irish players over the next couple of years.

Anyone know if Sky plan to show the home leg?

KdjaCL

Zebra3 wrote:

The u21s have no competititve games for two years unless they knock out Azerbaijan. Going over to Asia and getting a win with the home leg still to come is excellent.

I'm no fan of Given, but credit where it's due.

Its his fault we are in this position. We have possibly the worst U21 team ever even the North are better ffs. And its not down to lack of players jesus an EL only U21 team would qualify to the WC and Euor champs with a decent manager. Add in the players who have played their in the last 6 years and you wonder how we managed to stay beaten for 2 years.

He needs to go asap and get in a proper manager and not a mate of Micks.



kdjac

applehunter

How Givens has that job I'll never know.

It took 4/5 players to drop out of the squad before he chose Roy O'Donovan FFS!

He's an FA PIMP.

MrJoeSoap

3-0 win at Buckley Park tonight, with Roy O'Donovan scoring one and creating another.

The other scorers were Kevin Foley and Andy Keogh.

mchurl

On to the Group stages now where they will meet Greece and ?? My mind has gone totally blank:p