Monday November 12th, 19.30, Venue: 3 Rock, SS Rovers V Boardeaux.

homerjay2005

well astro.ie has us down to play tomorrow @7.30 in 3rock, so i guess we will go with that.

ss rovers are the oppostion. they are 3rd in the league, with 10 points. we are 5th with 9 points, so a win will see us third, at least until Tuesday anyway. a win here would be a great result, as they will be tough opposition.

Carl -

Martin -
Darran -
Ed - will be there
Dan - will be there
Michael -
Geoff -
Simon -

Shay - injured
Colm Larkin -
Gav -
Sav -
Larry -
Dave -
Darragh -
Kenny -
Lepo -
Niall -

Joe -
Jules –
Art - will be there
Fran -

Q_Ball

Carl -

Martin -
Darren - will be there
Ed - will be there
Dan - will be there
Michael -
Geoff -
Simon -

Shay - injured
Colm Larkin -
Gav -
Sav -
Larry -
Dave -
Darragh -
Kenny -
Lepo -
Niall -

Joe -
Jules –
Art - will be there
Fran -

Savman

Carl -

Martin -
Darran - will be there
Ed - will be there
Dan - will be there
Michael -
Geoff -
Simon -

Shay - injured
Colm Larkin -
Gav -
Sav - will be there
Larry -
Dave -
Darragh -
Kenny -
Lepo -
Niall -

Joe -
Jules –
Art - will be there
Fran -

LeixlipRed

Carl -

Martin - Will be there
Darran - will be there
Ed - will be there
Dan - will be there
Michael -
Geoff -
Simon -

Shay - injured
Colm Larkin -
Gav -
Sav - will be there
Larry -
Dave -
Darragh -
Kenny -
Lepo -
Niall -

Joe -
Jules –
Art - will be there
Fran -

emc2

Carl -

Martin - Will be there
Darran - will be there
Ed - will be there
Dan - will be there
Michael - will be there
Geoff -
Simon -

Shay - injured
Colm Larkin -
Gav -
Sav - will be there
Larry -
Dave -
Darragh -
Kenny -
Lepo -
Niall -

Joe -
Jules –
Art - will be there
Fran -

kaizersoze1980

Good luck lads, get stuck into them early on

FrankGrimes

I can give lifts from sandyford so gimme a PM or text if you need a lift.

Interesting stats as always Statto . What's the link to the league table?
Those stats make it sound like it's a closely grouped league, which probably ties in with what we've seen to date - all the teams are in or around the same standard, with only Eddie Rockets being noticeably weaker. Means any team can beat any other and we can beat all of them on our day.....here's hoping we just have 12 of those days in a row...

Carl -

Martin - Will be there
Darran - will be there
Ed - will be there
Dan - will be there
Michael - will be there
Geoff -
Simon -

Shay - injured
Colm Larkin -
Gav -
Sav - will be there
Larry -
Dave -
Darragh -
Kenny -
Lepo -
Niall -

Joe -
Jules – will be there
Art - will be there
Fran -

LoBo

Carl -

Martin - Will be there
Darran - will be there
Ed - will be there
Dan - will be there
Michael - will be there
Geoff -
Simon -

Shay - injured
Colm Larkin - injured
Gav -
Sav - will be there
Larry -
Dave -
Darragh -
Kenny -
Lepo -
Niall -

Joe -
Jules – will be there
Art - will be there
Fran -

Still injured but will be back next week. Good luck tonight lads!

_blank_

This is the most up to date table available from Astro.ie

It's a lot of work to present it here, but I'll try my best to keep it up to date on a weekly basis.

I don't know if that link will work for you?

Maybe Ed could post his link to the league, anyway, here's the table.

Team|P|W|D|L|F|A|+/-|PTS
Fred West Ham | 7. | 7 . |0 . |0 .|25 . |7 .|18 . |21
Dunbar Pensioners | 6 .|6 .|0 .|0 .|14 .|3 .|11 .|18
SS Rovers |6 .|3 .|1 .|2 .|11 .|7 .|4 .|10
IBM DSL FC | 5 .|3. |1 .|1 .|5 .|4 .|1 .|10
Boardeaux |6 .|3 . |0 .|3 .|11 . |7 .|4 .|9
Ravenhill | 6 .|2 .|0 .|4 .|6 .|9 . |-3 .|6
Coffin Dodgers| 7 .|1 .|2 .|4 .|10 .|19. |-9 .|5
Trinity Biotech F.C. | 4 .|1 .|1 .|2.| 6 .|6 .|0 .|4
IFG United |4 .|0 .|1 .|3. |2 .|10 .|-8 .|1
Eddie Rockets |6 .|0 .|0 .|6 .|3 .|19 .|-16.| 0

_blank_

Carl - Will be there

Martin - Will be there
Darran - will be there
Ed - will be there
Dan - will be there
Michael - will be there
Geoff - Will be there
Simon - Will be there
Cathal - will be there

Shay - injured
Colm Larkin - injured
Gav - Work
Sav - will be there
Larry - Work
Dave - Will be there
Darragh - Will be there
Kenny - Will be there
Lepo - Will be there
Niall - Can't make it

Joe - injured
Jules – will be there
Art - will be there
Fran - will be there

BlackWizard

I thought it was on Tuesday, so I can't get out of college early enough for this.

Carl - Will be there

Martin - Will be there
Darran - will be there
Ed - will be there
Dan - will be there
Michael - will be there
Geoff - Will be there
Simon - Will be there
Cathal - will be there

Shay - injured
Colm Larkin - injured
Gav - Work
Sav - will be there
Larry - Work
Dave - Will be there
Darragh - Can't make it
Kenny - Will be there
Lepo - Will be there
Niall - Can't make it

Joe - injured
Jules – will be there
Art - will be there
Fran - work

FrankGrimes

that table makes for interesting reading. Pretty impressive stuff from the top 2. Fred West are definitely a very good team, but a certain amount of our loss was down to us being caught ring-rusty, and we will hopefully show that against them next week.

Not good to only have 9 points from 18 at this stage, but at least we didn't lose to any teams that are below us - beat those teams in the return legs and we should be climbing the table.

Looks like good numbers tonight, so hopefully we'll be goint into next week's game with a bit of momentum behind us.

WeAreShels

Looking at the top scorers on astro.ie, they seem fairly dependant on a Johnny Strongcock for their goals :eek:

_blank_

That's alright then, I hear Ed likes to get close to Cock.

LeixlipRed

Someone needs to manmark that strongcock fella an get him out of the game early. A quick hand shandy should do it

Savman

LeixlipRed wrote: »

Someone needs to manmark that strongcock fella an get him out of the game early. A quick hand shandy should do it

:D

WeAreShels

It's OK lads, rumour has it he's not coming tonight.

Q_Ball

I'm well up for this tonight?

homerjay2005

lost 4-3 after being 3-1 up at half time. they scored the winner with 2 minutes left.

it literally was a game of 2 halves, with their freak and poxy goal in the first half being the difference.in my opinion, the first half tonight was the best we have played that i have seen anyway.

we seemed to tire at the end and they pushed forward in the last 15 minutes, it was quite often 4 on 4 when they attacked.

LeixlipRed

I'm ****ing sick after that lads. Losing a game of football like that is soul destroying. The main difference tonight was the fitness and the fact we hadn't got the lads to come off the bench to freshen it up. Art did well when he came in second half but other than that we went stale. That's nobody's fault and I think everyone gave 100%. Some silly mistakes for the goals that can be put down to lack of concentration due to tiredness I think. The football we played in the 1st half was good but after the final result it's hard to take any positives at this moment in time

Savman

Looked like we had a few mix ups in Defence 2nd half, purely down to communication which is a team thing. If you ask me, we almost bet ourselves by not doing simple things correctly. I mean, in the 2nd half we had a few throw ins that we squandered and a few missed clearances, we got sloppy and we got punished.

It's hard to know what to make of it all really,we did the biz 1st half and looked like league winners, then a 2nd half horror show and we look like cannon fodder. Sometimes you have to throw away a good lead before you fully appreciate it, next time we go 2 in front we'll know the consequences if we switch off.

I thought their first goal was a clear foul, but no chance of that "Referee" (I use the term lightly) giving it from 50 yards away. On the flipside, we got a lucky break with our first goal so the door swings both ways like yorema

What to take from that game? Hmmm....never do that again.

WeAreShels

Savman wrote: »

On the flipside, we got a lucky break with our first goal .

Pfft, I meant that.

Anyway, as was said, the lack of communication at the back really killed us at times. There were occasions when a simple call would have meant that the player would have time to take the ball down and wouldn't have to rush a clearance and avoid making the mistake.

LeixlipRed

There's barely any communication at the back in all of our games tbh. I know a lot of the lads don't come from a soccer background so maybe that's part of it but everyone has to be constantly talking to each other. Any decent team I ever played for had excellent communication right throughout the side and that's something we really have to nail. And communication doesn't just mean giving out to each other (I'll hold my hand up and say I'm prone to a bit of this sometimes). It's encouragement mostly and guidance from those who can see the game developing, ie the center halves, centre mids and keeper

FrankGrimes

Yeh, absolutely gutted with that result and it’s all the more disappointing after the excellent first half we had. We fell into our old trap of sitting back too deep in the 2nd half, and unfortunately didn’t deal with the pressure as solidly as usual, but as mentioned above, that’s more a team mindset and responsibility than any individual – if the team is doing the right things each individual plays better and most individual mistakes can be covered. As Martin said, most of it would seem to go down to tiredness, which is poor given it’s only a 60 minute game, but at least it’s now clear it’s an area for development. On the positive side, at least we’ve demonstrated he quality football we can play before we get tired, even without several strong players missing last night. I know our training plans fell by the wayside (I think a 5-a-side at the weekends would work even if mates are need), so lads should be targeting doing a session or 2 a week in the gym or something like that to make up for it to make that effort for the team.

Going forward I felt we were quite threatening, with Sav in particular doing lots of battling against a physical defence. I felt whenever the ball came up to us we had them worried, and I managed to get a few shots away – should’ve scored that one after cutting back inside in the first half, but I feel the last 2 games the strikers are getting a little more ball and taking on shots a bit more, which is a good balance to get.

And fair play to Martin and Dan doing an overall great job as the makeshift centre midfielders which is the trickiest position to adapt to. I agree with Martin though – we need more voice throughout the pitch while the ball is in play, particularly in defence. Something he said made me realise that most of our talking is shouting while the ball is out of play, we need more talking to the men in the positions around you while the ball is in play, things like ‘push on I have you covered’ when a man overlaps you, ‘that’s your man know’ as you leave a player to go to the ball carrier etc. These are the basics and do lead to much improvement in organisation. You’ll notice the lads that have played a lot of football doing a lot of talk without having to think about it, and it needs to spread throughout the team. One centre-half has to boss the defence, one centre-midfielder has to marshal the midfielders pulling them in where he needs them. I can give my views shouting backwards from up front, but what we need is more of those spoken words to the man playing alongside you – that really comes with a sense of playing as a unit that has been difficult for us due to having a different squad each week.

The referee is well and truly a w*nker. We did much better keeping it shut this week, myself included, and any time I shouted across someone claiming something off him that was only to try keep him onside and I can totally understand the frustration. I don’t get it, he has no problem letting diving go unpunished ‘cos it’s part of the game’ but yet he takes issue with someone doing something as normal as claiming a throw should be theirs. He seems to show up (late) just looking for an argument and I’m convinced he does things like give that ridiculous first goal to them to try provoke a reaction cos he loves the aul power show. I know we’re not playing premier league stuff here, but the refs are not only a joke in terms of ability and fitness, their attitude stinks considering we’re paying customers after all.

LeixlipRed

The ref is beyond a joke. Hopefully with the switch back to Tuesday we wont have him next week. Any point complaining to astro.ie about him? That time when Sav ran the ball out and he let play go on was farcical

Q_Ball

I went home disappointed but woke up angry. We had an absolutely stunning first half. I think it was the best performance by the team that I've ever seen. But I have to agree with something Dan said after the match, that the belief wasn't there. When we were 3-1 up we were fine. At 3-2 I could see the confidence begin to drain quickly. Midfield started to drift apart and sit too far back. There was a lack of communication in defence, which was sometimes playing 4 across, sometimes 3, and no one was none the wiser. Towards the end it was headless chicken mode tbh.

LeixlipRed wrote: »

The main difference tonight was the fitness and the fact we hadn't got the lads to come off the bench to freshen it up.

The fitness was definitely a factor. They just pushed more towards the end because we didnt have the legs to carry us.

I dont agree that we didnt have the lads on the bench (not just saying that because i was a spectator for the match) but when it became obvious that the defence were struggling I thought we should have thrown either mike or myself on. If not for the fresh heads but for fresh legs and try shore things up.

Savman wrote: »

I mean, in the 2nd half we had a few throw ins that we squandered and a few missed clearances, we got sloppy and we got punished.

We lost most of our throw ins 2nd half. It seemed like we lumped it forward and hoped someone got on the end of it instead of playing it to the man. I think that this was due to tiredness as well as panic.

Savman wrote:

It's hard to know what to make of it all really,we did the biz 1st half and looked like league winners, then a 2nd half horror show and we look like cannon fodder. Sometimes you have to throw away a good lead before you fully appreciate it, next time we go 2 in front we'll know the consequences if we switch off.

I thought their first goal was a clear foul, but no chance of that "Referee" (I use the term lightly) giving it from 50 yards away. On the flipside, we got a lucky break with our first goal so the door swings both ways like yorema

What to take from that game? Hmmm....never do that again.

It was a foul, yer man kept backing in on carl. But as you said, we had the luck with our first goal and he was a sh!te ref for them too.

We can take the entire first half as a positive from the game. We played with confidence, we passed it around with purpose, we weren't afraid to play with the ball, we made runs, we were composed and we finished off two chances.

We just have to take it on the chin, dust ourselves off, and move on.

Savman

Q_Ball wrote: »

I dont agree that we didnt have the lads on the bench (not just saying that because i was a spectator for the match) but when it became obvious that the defence were struggling I thought we should have thrown either mike or myself on. If not for the fresh heads but for fresh legs and try shore things up.

See I'd be of the opinion that, with no disrespect to anyone, in games like that you need an Impact substitution. Someone who will give the opposition something to think about. Larry or Gav would've been a welcomed addition IMHO. I see what you're saying though, I just think throwing on a like for like change in such a tight game very rarely changes anything. In fact, sometimes the worst thing you can do is feck around with your defence or throw somebody on into the thick of things when we're quite clearly under the kosh.

In situations like last night, the Manager has to be able to turn and look at his Subs and think "who's gonna nick me a goal?"
That's the only thing that matters in that exact moment. That really wasnt the game to be giving lads a run out IMHO.

I don't think "shoring up" was really on anyone's mind, moreso I reckon we all wanted to kill the game off. The old cliche: the best form of defence is attack. Personally I'm not a fan of the whole shutting up shop idea, you just invite so much trouble and ping pong deflections in your own box, get hammered with corners, throws and dangerous free kicks conceded, it becomes a cynical dogfight and that doesn't suit a footballing side that we actually are. First half display being a case in point.

BlackWizard

I don't think players being tired is a valid excuse, especially if we have unlimited amount of subs. Even a player coming on to give someone a 5min break then coming back off again, could easily help out a lot.

Sounded like a good match to watch anyway. Lots of goals

Q_Ball

Savman wrote: »

See I'd be of the opinion that, with no disrespect to anyone, in games like that you need an Impact substitution. Someone who will give the opposition something to think about.

And art kinda shook things up when he came on. But we only had Art as an impact sub and we played that card.

Savman wrote: »

In fact, sometimes the worst thing you can do is feck around with your defence or throw somebody on into the thick of things when we're quite clearly under the kosh.

From a sidelines, we lost the game in defence and centre midfield in the second half. We put Art in and we were still losing it. Nothing is going to change unless you change it (not you personally ). Plus the subs would have been straight swaps, its not like we'd have been going from 4 at the back to 3.

Savman wrote: »

In situations like last night, the Manager has to be able to turn and look at his Subs and think "who's gonna nick me a goal?"
That's the only thing that matters in that exact moment. That really wasnt the game to be giving lads a run out IMHO.

I agree it wasnt a game to be giving lads a run out. Art was put on to nick a goal but it didnt happen.

Savman wrote: »

I don't think "shoring up" was really on anyone's mind, moreso I reckon we all wanted to kill the game off. The old cliche: the best form of defence is attack. Personally I'm not a fan of the whole shutting up shop idea, you just invite so much trouble and ping pong deflections in your own box, get hammered with corners, throws and dangerous free kicks conceded, it becomes a cynical dogfight and that doesn't suit a footballing side that we actually are. First half display being a case in point.

Maybe 'shoring up' was the wrong term but the team was really struggling. There would have been no harm in sending someone out who had a fresh pair of legs and who had been watching what was going wrong. I didnt say stick ten men behind the ball and play like italy.

I know this seems opportunistic of me, and i mean no disrespect to anyone, but I just want the team to do well. I wouldn't have come to games when injured to cheer you on if i didnt care.

It was quite a first half tho

LeixlipRed

BlackWizard wrote: »

I don't think players being tired is a valid excuse, especially if we have unlimited amount of subs. Even a player coming on to give someone a 5min break then coming back off again, could easily help out a lot.

Sounded like a good match to watch anyway. Lots of goals

It wasn't that sort of game. It was too tight to be changing things round constantly. You can do that against Eddie Rockets alright but against a good team who are always pressing it's not an option.

Also, had totally forgotten about it til now but how did my shot from 30 yards in the first half not go in? I could see the headlines in tomorrow's metro the minute I hit that one Bastard keeper

Savman

Feck you and yer poxy multiquote

Q_Ball wrote: »

From a sidelines, we lost the game in defence and centre midfield in the second half.

TBH that lets myself and Jules off too easily. The Striker is the 1st defender. The Goalkeeper is the 1st attacker. You should be attacking, and defending, as a unit at all times.
To be fair to the lads in the middle, they ran the show 1st half. You're suggesting they lost us the game, which really isn't the case. I could argue that if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have been leading so convincingly at half time. As for our defence, well it had some obvious miscommunication issues that have already been raised. I remember a few games back our defence was rock solid but we weren't looking great in the final third, so I'll cut them slack for all the other times they saved our bacon.

We put Art in and we were still losing it. Nothing is going to change unless you change it (not you personally ). Plus the subs would have been straight swaps, its not like we'd have been going from 4 at the back to 3.

All I'll say here is that more often than not, football seems like a much easier game from the sideline bud.

Maybe 'shoring up' was the wrong term but the team was really struggling. There would have been no harm in sending someone out who had a fresh pair of legs and who had been watching what was going wrong.

Valid point, I just don't think we thought we'd be chasing the game with 2mins remaining. And sure by then time just ran out.

I know this seems opportunistic of me, and i mean no disrespect to anyone, but I just want the team to do well. I wouldn't have come to games when injured to cheer you on if i didnt care.

Aww we know you love us really

In the first half, we beat them 3-1. In the second they beat us 3-0. On aggregate score, they were good for the win mainly because we were all over the gaff. For that, I don't need to look over at the sideline, the 11 of us who were on the pitch for the full game have to take full responsibility. Remember we hit the post and there were a few other chances first half, including Martin's which I was convinced was goal bound. We could have been leading 4 or 5-1 at HT and that would have been game over.

Lessons learned, take chances and defend better. I don't think we need to be told