Irish B squad to play some match

Seaneh

I'd say you could get in for about two shiney pebbles and a packet of pop rocks.

eirebhoy

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Think I'll pop along to this one. Any idea of the Scotland starting XI eirebhoy?

Maloney and Thomson have pulled out through injury so they only have 16 players. Webster, Whittaker, Smith, Adam, Scott Brown, Pearson, Naismith and Boyd will almost certainly start so they have'll have a strong team.

eirebhoy

From the BBC commentary, Alan O'Brien is man of the first half but he went off after about 40 minutes for Hunt (just tactical I think). Joe Gamble is also getting a bit of a mention and had 2 good chances. Scotland should have had a peno but the ref thought it was a foul on Brown outside the box. Apparantly it was about a yard inside.

Rollo Tamasi

what's the ireland b starting eleven?

Pacifico

Paddy McCarthy
Alex Bruce
Kevin Foley
Joe Gamble
Stephen McPhail
Alan O'Brien
Roy O'Donovan
Lewis Emmanuel
Darron Gibson
Andy Keogh
Darren Randolf

Pighead

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

what's the ireland b starting eleven?

Post Number 45 is your friend Rollo.

Pighead

Ireland B 0 Scotland B 0 FT

ninebeanrows

Pighead wrote:

Ireland B 0 Scotland B 0 FT

sounds like exciting stuff:eek:

Xavi6

Absolutely awful game and a waste of €15. Gamble came closest to scoring with an effort that was parried wide late on. Not a lot to right home about performance wise. Right back Kevin Foley was given man of the match so that says it all.

Only player who looked like he could make the step up was Stephen Hunt. Very quick and lively on the left when he replaced O'Brien. Gibson made some good early tackles and looked decent. Keogh and O'Dononvan played up front and weren't too effective. Gamble had a pretty poor game wide right and a lot of sloppy passes. McCarthy for me was excellent at the back. Won every header and looked very comfortable on the ball.

Stokes came on and didn't do an awful lot but I guess he can be excused as he played 90 minutes last night. Shane Long only got ten minutes.

The rest were pretty poor, especially the lad Carroll who came on at centre half. Every time he touched the ball the crowd were as nervous as he was.

All in all a bit of a waste of time, especially considering I missed the first ten minutes due to the ridiculous congestion outside with just one corner of the ground open and one poxy cabin selling tickets.

applehunter

Newstalk reporter was full of praise for Paddy McCarthy and the 2 left backs, Roy O'Donovan and Joe Gamble were central to most good things in the 1st half.

Also said Stokes got a big roar when he came on.

Were yee watching the same game Xavi?

Xavi6

applehunter wrote:

Newstalk reporter was full of praise for Paddy McCarthy and the 2 left backs, Roy O'Donovan and Joe Gamble were central to most good things in the 1st half.

Also said Stokes got a big roar when he came on.

Were yee watching the same game Xavi?

Sure didn't I say McCarthy was impressive? Ireland only had one left back all game - Lewis Emmanuel. He played the 90.

Yeah Stokes got a roar. Doesn't mean he played well.

The eircom league lads did ok but like the rest they weren't spectacular.

tetsujin1979

eirebhoy wrote:

From the BBC commentary, Alan O'Brien is man of the first half

Don't know what game he was watching, O'Brien was probably the worst player in the first half.

I didn't think it was a bad game. Thought it was competitive, although both sides lack a killer instinct up front. Naismith was good for the Scots, he started on the right and moved into the centre.
For Ireland, I thought Paddy McCarthy and Andy Keogh stood out. Gamble had some nice touches and probably Ireland's best chance on the night with a shot from just outside the 6 yard box very late on.
Stokes came on early in the second half and was playing behind Keogh and peeled off to the right. He did have some nice touches and some of Ireland's best work on the right happened when he came on.
Frecklington came on for Gibson and didn't do much for me. Emanuel started at left full and played the full 90. He was right in front of me in the first half and didn't look out of place.Certainly more deserving of his place than Alan O'Brien, who looked jaded and disinterested for most of the first half.
Darren Randolph was rarely called upon, but made a vital touch to a late free kick to keep the game scoreless.
Alex Bruce wasn't great, and O´Cearuill looked better in the 30 minutes he was on than the 60 Bruce was there.
McPhail just played the first half. I didn't see much of him from where I was.
Gibson was impressive, full of forward running and looked to make through balls to Keogh up front.
Quigley had little or nothing to do when he came on, I honestly don't think he touched the ball.

Other positives were that the team did seem organised, and worked hard for each other. Seeing as how most of the players had never played together before, this was impressive.
I did think we played a little narrow in the first half, with the defence and midfield similarly playing very close to each other, but this was less of an issue in the second half.

Ireland were probably lucky to get away with a draw, Bruce pulled back one of the Scots, and I'm convinced it was inside the area, but the referee was content to award a free kick right on the line of the box.

MrJoeSoap

Crap match, crap performances, crap price, fairly crap all round.

Randolph had little to do.
Foley was steady, nothing special but got MOTM.
Emmanuel looked overweight, didn't play horrendously but was average at best.
McCarthy was impressive, won lots in the air and was comfortable on the ground.
Bruce did very little, couple of aimless long balls.
Gamble was decent first half, very poor second. Played out of position and forced one decent save.
O'Brien got forward well but his end product wasn't great.
Gibson was quite impressive, made two great tackles early on, looked strong and made a run or two.
McPhail was alright, spent most of his time on the ball spinning around though.
Keogh wasn't great, didn't have much to work with and found himself jumping for headers he either couldn't win or had no reason to win, as there was nobody to flick it on to.
O'Donovan looked reasonably sharp, had a chance or two.

Of the substitutes, Stokes looked immediately sharp when he came on and linked up well with Hunt, but faded quite a bit and didn't do too much after that. Hunt looked very good, I would have given him MOTM. His delivery was good and he looked up for it, unlike quite a few. None of the rest really made any impact.

MrJoeSoap

tetsujin1979 wrote:

Quigley had little or nothing to do when he came on, I honestly don't think he touched the ball.

Touched it once I think, a horrible fluffed kickout.

tetsujin1979 wrote:

Ireland were probably lucky to get away with a draw, Bruce pulled back one of the Scots, and I'm convinced it was inside the area, but the referee was content to award a free kick right on the line of the box.

That was Gibson, and it was outside the box but fell inside. Bruce missed the interception on the pass.

Andrew 83

Was at it too, wasn't great at all as others have said. Thought McPhail was good while he was one. Hunt was lively when on though took the wrong option a couple of times. Keogh did alright up front - held the ball up reasonably well and won some decent knock ons that no one really latched on to.

Thought McCarthy did well defensively but wasn't great on the ball. He didn't really seem to think quick enough about what to do with it sometimes and held onto the ball so long there were no options left to pass to. Not sure what the Newstalk reporter was at - as someone said Emmanuel played the whole game at left back (and wasn't too impressed with him either, close control wasn't great).

By the way looked a penalty for the Scots from where I was too but it was right on the line.

MrJoeSoap

Oh yeah, forgot to make known my absolute disdain for the morons who decided to boo Kris Boyd. Obviously they were only making idiots of themselves, but its a pity they weren't as vocal in supporting their own team.

Xavi6

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Oh yeah, forgot to make known my absolute disdain for the morons who decided to boo Kris Boyd. Obviously they were only making idiots of themselves, but its a pity they weren't as vocal in supporting their own team.

Agreed. And so diehard were they in their disdain for the Gers that they completley overlooked the introduction of Charlie Adam towards the end. Now that's dedication.

MrJoeSoap

"Highlights" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2d6iozEP5M

Says it all really. (Will take a few minutes to verify on YouTube)

bohsman

Im guessing Kris Boyd plays for an English club?

MrJoeSoap

bohsman wrote:

Im guessing Kris Boyd plays for an English club?

Rangers...

LoBo

The phantom of the opera had a good game - I'm guessing that was McCarthy?

_blank_

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Oh yeah, forgot to make known my absolute disdain for the morons who decided to boo Kris Boyd. Obviously they were only making idiots of themselves, but its a pity they weren't as vocal in supporting their own team.

Plebs.

tetsujin1979

As promised pics from the game: http://picasaweb.google.com/tetsujin1979/IrelandBVSScotlandB
Picasa is too simple for words, so here's some: import all pics from the camera, click upload to web album and bingo bango bongo - all pics available on the interweb!
They're a bit dark, the lighting wasn't the best.
Indicentally, the man leaning over to sign an autograph is your friend and mine - Walter Smith!

eirebhoy

Xavi6 wrote:

Agreed. And so diehard were they in their disdain for the Gers that they completley overlooked the introduction of Charlie Adam towards the end. Now that's dedication.

I'm happy with that as they certainly can't be accused of being Celtic fans. Not only did Charlie Adam come on but he replaced Rangers first choice left back. Anyone with an interest in the SPL would certainly know who these 2 players were. The Irish public should stop treating these people as Celtic fans. This Indo put it well:

"While the Scottish support was boisterous enough, there was little for the home supporters to cheer about aside from the handful of morons who decided to boo every touch from Rangers forward Kris Boyd. They lacked the football knowledge to twig that left full Steven Smith also plays for the Glasgow giants."

LoBo

It was just a bunch of kids at the left end of the stand, looked like a school outing.

MrJoeSoap

eirebhoy wrote:

I'm happy with that as they certainly can't be accused of being Celtic fans. Not only did Charlie Adam come on but he replaced Rangers first choice left back. [/I]

McEvily replaced Smith, but they did come on a the same time.