Ireland are playing tonight - containing a lot of scores, hopefully

Sizzler

Didnt see it, but Im guessing we missed a few chances

darkman2

Sizzler wrote:

Didnt see it, but Im guessing we missed a few chances

Should have been ten,


oh and John O'Shea is rubbish, how does he get his game for United:mad:

and Kilbane always running up the pitch like a headless chicken was rubbish too.

Ronan|Raven

Was their a crowd at the game? One could hear a pin drop in between the OLE OLE brigade and the Reg Vardy flag

Chucky the tree

Chucky the tree wrote:

5-0 san marino.

Right result, wrong team. Ah well


Also, what the **** was Ray houghton talking about when Doyle scored our second goal? The goalkeeper flapping at it?! What bloody match was he watching?



Probaly the same one Eamon Dunphy was actually.

kinaldo

Yay for Robbie Keane, but that's the last time I pay ridiculous price (€45) for mickey mouse game.

StickyMcGinty

darkman2 wrote:

The difficulty for us of course is taking each game as it comes and getting the correct result. I think tbh Ireland ALWAYS perform better against better opposition.

spot on, we're the bolton of europe

kinaldo

Ronan|Raven wrote:

Was their a crowd at the game? One could hear a pin drop in between the OLE OLE brigade and the Reg Vardy flag

Just over 34 thousand of us actually, not bad considering what the weather was like before the game and the rip off price.

Ronan|Raven

Good good, I used to go to every international game until I got tired of getting told to sit down and shut up by the "should stay the **** at home" brigade. Cant wait to "hear" 80,000 of them in Croker.

Chardee MacDennis

kilbane was pure poison tonight - he ran into touch once or twice, and passed the ball out of play a few times. he frustrates me so much how he lasted so long...

what did the boys in the studio say about him.

Limerick Dude

Overall we got 3 points.

we easily could of gotten 10 goals but 5 is fine tbh.

Like dunphy said why are teams like san marino even in the qualifiers, surely they should have their own group along with other terrible teams.

San marino didnt even want to score they were perfectly happy with sitting back and conceding as less as possible.

Who are we playing in March? Is it Wales?

~Rebel~

Why were Finnan and O Shea on their wrong sides?

Finnan had a very good game anyway and just showed up how little O Shea was doing, actually cant get over O Shea's performance against such lowly opposition, he seemed to have forgotten how to do the basic things in football.

~Rebel~

BaZmO* wrote:

Fo me, you should always play your best players, and whether you, me, or anybody else for that matter likes it or not we haven't hadf anybody that's been much better than Kilbane for quite some time. And as for Carsley, he's only back because we have such a week midfield now, which proves the point thatyou should play your best (and proven) players.

My point though is that at the moment, we have a choice between playing Kilbane who has the experience and some ability, but isnt anything special, or someone like McGeady in his place who needs the experience, has bags of talent and potential and who will almost certainly be one of our most important players for the world cup campaign. Especially for a game like todays, i'd much rather him get as much experience out of it as possible. We knew we were gonna win. Kilbane already has tonnes of experience, we know exactly what we'll get out of him and we know that he has already peaked.

He has his purpose but for today i wouldnt have started him. Kilbane was grand in the first half, had one of his better games, and was glad to see him on the wing instead of midfield, think he contributes more there. In the second half dunno what happened to him, his touch totally left him and his passing got very bad. McGeady did well i thought when he came on, wasn't afraid to run at people and put in a few good crosses. Ill never know how McShane missed the one he put on his head!

Reganio 2

Limerick Dude wrote:

Who are we playing in March? Is it Wales?

Yes wales is our first match in croker. Anybody know where you can get tickets for it.

The Rooster

Ticket allocation for the Croker games will be very interesting alright.

Clubs will certainly get an increased allocation. And there will be a lot of corporates no doubt.

Obviously the current block bookers who have been shelling out for years, including going to all over-priced friendlies, will be looked after - I wonder will they be able to up the number of tickets per game they request? I would guess so.

Next on the list would be those who are on the waiting list for the block bookings.

Only after that would tickets go on general sale - which is probably unlikely to happen.

spacecoyote

yeah it was a good result, but not a great display. it was very typical of Irelands inability to put teams away (i know 5-0 could be seen to be putting a team away, but lets be honest here...). it was pretty average all over the pitch. I'm not going to get into a Kilbane/O'shea rant cos i won't stop if i start. McGeady looked sharp and inventive when he came on, he can definitely be a bigger player for us than duff ever was imo. Some of the touches and passing was very poor, you almost come to expect it at this stage unfortunately though.

I do think the cyprus match was a poor result for us though. I really believe we need the germans to just demolish everyone else in the group and run away with it and look to fight for 2nd place. The last thing we need are the likes of cyprus/wales etc picking up points here and there, it just makes our job of moving up through the group taht bit harder than we've already made it for ourselves

Raskolnikov

To me, the results so far only confirm that Staunton is an inadequate manager who's effectively ruined our chances of qualification from this group. The loss against Cyprus should never have happened, Staunton was wholly to blame. If we had a more ambitious or talented manager, I definitely think that we could have gotten the win against the Czechs at home. Germany, fair enough, a result against one of the world top teams at home is always a bonus rather than something expected. Even then, I'd expect us to have 9 or 7 points on the board at this stage, giving us a shout for qualification.

Jivin Turkey

Wasn't a great performance but it's not to be expected that a team can raise its game playing against that sort of standard.

Doyle scored a great header, delighted for him, about time Keane got back on the scoresheet as well.

Finnan again wasn't great for us. When will people realise that he is one of the few players we have of genuine quality, but this doesn't shine through when he is played out of position? I could understand why Staunton would do this if O'Shea was more comfortable on the right against a bigger side, as we would be more solid defensively, but against a minnow it meant that neither player got forward enough as whenever Finnan got about 20 yards from goal he'd always cut inside.

If he and Duff were on the right together they would have scorched them all night long. Has O'Shea ever got to the byeline in his life?

Atmosphere was poor, particularly for an supposedly emotional game, a few empty seats too. Hopefully the move to Croker can be accompanied by some propaganda trying to build an atmosphere. People should get on forums and radio stations and try and raise the crowd even before the game. We should look on it as a fresh start.

wheres me jumpa

Truly awful game of football last night. It was torture to watch. The only positives being Doyles first international goal and Keane back scoring albeit against woeful opposition. Stauntons first win but really there was no satisfaction in that win.

Why was Given rushed back?! Surely Paddy Kenny or even Henderson would have benifited from another cap and a clean sheet?

eirebhoy

Pacifico wrote:

Is Andy Reid the most unfit professional footballer ever....??

I heard last night that Reid said in a recent interview that he's fed up with people commenting on his weight.
How people can actually think it's possible for a premiership player to be overweight for 2 years and still get his game is beyond me.

Anyway, replace Ian Harte with O'Shea and S.Reid with Kilbane and we have an excellent team. Not to mention McGeady who will be replacing Duff if he can't get back to his best. Just need the manager to at least have them playing as a team.

Also, after seeing Cyprus' result last night it just makes me more annoyed that we didn't beat the Czechs.

Skittlebrau

Anyone have a link to the goals online? Been searching but can't seem to find one.

eirebhoy wrote:

I heard last night that Reid said in a recent interview that he's fed up with people commenting on his weight.
How people can actually think it's possible for a premiership player to be overweight for 2 years and still get his game is beyond me.

I remember reading around the time that Reid moved to Spurs that he was actually one of the fittest players at the club (according to the "beep" test anyway). He's always looked a bit "stocky" though.

BaZmO*

wheres me jumpa wrote:

Why was Given rushed back?! Surely Paddy Kenny or even Henderson would have benifited from another cap and a clean sheet?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006530336,00.html

Starting to think that maybe Stan was right to drop Paddy. It seems to be going from bad to worse for him.

Oh, and Given wasn't rushed back. Last night's game was as good as any to start back because in fairness, he was never gonna have much work to do last night.

eirebhoy

I can't believe the idiots that booed John O'Shea when he got the ball in the 2nd half. Also, when he hit a shot over the bar it got one of the biggest cheers of the night. I can't believe we are now booing our own players when he is doing nothing more than playing as best he possibly can. He's not playing badly on purpose.

BaZmO*

eirebhoy wrote:

I can't believe the idiots that booed John O'Shea when he got the ball in the 2nd half. Also, when he hit a shot over the bar it got one of the biggest cheers of the night. I can't believe we are now booing our own players when he is doing nothing more than playing as best he possibly can. He's not playing badly on purpose.

Yeah, I agree totally. One of our players isn't playing the best so what do some idiots do? Knock his confidence even further by booing him. :rolleyes:
There really is a horrible element creeping into the Irish game recently.

eirebhoy

What were people's thoughts of Andy Reid in the Alonso/Pirlo role in central midfield? I think it has probably been Stan's best decision yet as manager. I'm always comparing Reid to Emre and I think he can be at least as good as him with a run of games in central midfield. He's our most intelligient player and certainly our best passer of the ball. He's also not afraid to get stuck in.

Carcharodon

eirebhoy wrote:

What were people's thoughts of Andy Reid in the Alonso/Pirlo role in central midfield? I think it has probably been Stan's best decision yet as manager. I'm always comparing Reid to Emre and I think he can be at least as good as him with a run of games in central midfield. He's our most intelligient player and certainly our best passer of the ball. He's also not afraid to get stuck in.

Yea its good in theory but i dont think it worked that well last night in my opinion, too many players were clueless in what they were doing to really make benefit of it.
I thought Carsley was on of our best players last night, did the job he was asked to do and was effective

Gillie

BaZmO* wrote:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006530336,00.html

Starting to think that maybe Stan was right to drop Paddy. It seems to be going from bad to worse for him.

Oh, and Given wasn't rushed back. Last night's game was as good as any to start back because in fairness, he was never gonna have much work to do last night.

Jesus that looks nasty!

shane86

VinnyL wrote:

not really, we need germany to run away with this group

Maths have never been my strong point, but surely we need a few draws between the other teams (particularly when Germany and the Czechs play each other) in order for them both to get one poxy point, as opposed to one of them moving a few ahead, to give us a chance of second at the expense of either Germany or the Czechs. Our qualification now depends as much on a few bogged down affairs between the rest as it does on our need to win practically every match.

Yes we won, but I got the feeling that we started so tired and sluggish looking that if it was any of the other teams we would have been in trouble. Carsley and McShane hadnt the fire they had in the Czech match.

As for Given being rushed back, Henderson was alright, Kenny should never be allowed to play for us again no matter if Given and Henderson are out, he is brutal. Fact is that if not for Givens unfortunate injury we would now have 7 and possibly 9 points in the group. He is the most capable hard working determined player on the squad. Cyprus would never have knocked mroe than one past, if even that. The Czech match, well I dont know. But we would certainly be in great position and Stan wouldnt get half the flak he does (in fairness the team has had a severe run of bad luck injury wise)


Regarding the smaller teams issue, so people want to see all the minnows in one group? So who do you want to see in ours? Us, Germany, Holland, Italy and a few other European heavyweights who would murder us in our current state? 6 months ago people would have said Cyprus should be in the minnows group. Now theyre thrashing Ireland and drawing the Germans. If there was a minnows group tbh recent play would leave us in danger of being put with them (though that mightnt necessarily be a bad thing, after all if they set up two minnows groups and let them battle it out its likely the Irish would top one of the groups and sneak to the finals )

Oh yes, and Dunphy was mildly pissed

sofireland

Well what happened to kenny was rough as heck but i think stan was right to drop him, obviously the guys not gonna be focused on football after finding out his wife had been away with his two mates.

The reason we didn't have fire last night was cos it was bleeding San Marino with their 10 men and sheep behind the ball all night, normally when a team goes 1 down they wake up and snap out of it to make a match out of it.

At the end of the day, 3 points, Robbie back in among the goals, took 2 of em very well, hopefully it'll give him confidence coming up to the tougher matches of Wales and Slovakia at Croke Park next year.

The german result shows the cyprus team aren't a pushover, granted we made em look like brazil at times, but they probably could have won that one.

Jivin Turkey

shane86 wrote:

Regarding the smaller teams issue, so people want to see all the minnows in one group? So who do you want to see in ours? Us, Germany, Holland, Italy and a few other European heavyweights who would murder us in our current state? 6 months ago people would have said Cyprus should be in the minnows group. Now theyre thrashing Ireland and drawing the Germans. If there was a minnows group tbh recent play would leave us in danger of being put with them (though that mightnt necessarily be a bad thing, after all if they set up two minnows groups and let them battle it out its likely the Irish would top one of the groups and sneak to the finals )

I think you are completely missing the point.

eirebhoy

shane86 wrote:

Kenny should never be allowed to play for us again no matter if Given and Henderson are out, he is brutal.

And that's based on 1 mistake in his last 2 games? He has been excellent for Sheffield United this season and won them a point on Saturday.

wheres me jumpa

BaZmO* wrote:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006530336,00.html

Starting to think that maybe Stan was right to drop Paddy. It seems to be going from bad to worse for him.

Oh, and Given wasn't rushed back. Last night's game was as good as any to start back because in fairness, he was never gonna have much work to do last night.

Christ on a bike he got a bit of walloping.

shane86

sofireland wrote:

Well what happened to kenny was rough as heck but i think stan was right to drop him, obviously the guys not gonna be focused on football after finding out his wife had been away with his two mates.

The reason we didn't have fire last night was cos it was bleeding San Marino with their 10 men and sheep behind the ball all night, normally when a team goes 1 down they wake up and snap out of it to make a match out of it.

At the end of the day, 3 points, Robbie back in among the goals, took 2 of em.

Two mates? I reckon three- the one she ran off with, the guy mentioned at the beginning of the article and the fight man. With friends like that who needs enemies. Irrelevant tablodism i know but......

eirebhoy wrote:

And that's based on 1 mistake in his last 2 games? He has been excellent for Sheffield United this season and won them a point on Saturday.

Defensive errors aside he let in nine against Cyprus and Holland.


I wouldnt really view a hatrick against a side like SM by a premiership player as evidence hes back in form tbh.

BaZmO*

shane86 wrote:

Defensive errors aside he let in nine against Cyprus and Holland.

In fairness, you can't really blame him for all those goals. A goalkeeper should only be judged on his mistakes.

It's quite obvious that Stan only dropped him because of personal issues and not form, unfortunately he came in for a lot of stick for doing so. I think he was only only trying to protect him. Think about it, other than personal reasons why would he drop another Premiership keeper that was only gonna be on the bench anyway.

eirebhoy

shane86 wrote:

Defensive errors aside he let in nine against Cyprus and Holland.

Shay Given must be terrible letting in all the goals he does at Newcastle.