Ireland V Cyprus

ibh

charlie mchugh wrote: »

This is my biggest pet peeve of pro footballers. Gerrard is guilty of it, Geremi is guilty of it , and by heck, McGeady is certainly guilty of it.

I cannot for the life of me understand footballers who consistently can't beat the 1st man on a corner. It is such a waste, and with the pace that is in football these days, it can seriously cost you against a team that counters well.

I was think about this on Sunday. We played a friendly game and every corner taken by our centre forward was right on the money. He didn't hit the first man once. How the fcuk do pro's get away with being incapable of doing this. Makes me laugh, (and cry a little) when i see this happen so often..

_blank_

ibh wrote: »

Makes me laugh, (and cry a little) when i see this happen so often..

It makes me throw things and shout.

If my lads do it for Boardeaux, they get berated.

It's something that should be beaten out of players at a young age, imo.

BaZmO*

Des wrote: »

Some people on here defend it though.

Really?


I agree though, the amount of times pro's can't beat the first man at corners is fairly shocking alright.

_blank_

BaZmO* wrote: »

Really?

Yep, a soccer mod at that.

Spouted some shíte about players are actually trying to get speed on the ball rather than accuracy, which I think is complete bullshít.

conceited

Anyone notice how slow keane is? My grandmother could run faster he's terrible.

BaZmO*

Des wrote: »

Yep, a soccer mod at that.

Spouted some shíte about players are actually trying to get speed on the ball rather than accuracy, which I think is complete bullshít.

I'd tend to agree.


What's the point in trying to get "speed on the ball" if you can't even get the ball to where you want it? Unless of course you're trying to maim your opponent.

Nalz

estebancambias wrote: »

We are 4 points ahead of Bulgaria and 2 ahead of them based on the results against Montenegro and Georgia. Times are good.

I think the point being made here is that we were playing Cyprus at home! As much as they have come on, if we play like that against Bulgaria and Italy at home we wont get the results we want. I'm even worried about Cyprus away and Montenegro at home and I shouldnt be.

We defended well(ish) cas we've Dunne and an inform O Shea, Kilbane and McShane were poor. Kilbane just didn't seem with it. The likes of Berbatov, Georgiev and the two Petrovs will punish us on our own soil if we play like that against them.

Nalz

Boggles wrote: »

If Traps wants to turn Ireland into a Greece like team, he has to get some basics right. e.g taking a corner, I laughed last night when Mcgeady under the guise of taking a corner passed the ball to their right back. When he went to do it the 3rd time, Duff walked over and took the ball of him, making him look a right tit.

good post - I heard afterwards Dunphy had a right go. Saying they must be twiddling their thumbs out in Malahide or something along those lines

monkey9

I'm feeling good about this group. Qualifying for tournaments is a results business. I'd rather be in our position than Bulgaria's!

noodler

All it takes is a spanking against Italy when Bulgaria play Cyrpus at home for evrything to change. Don't let our easier start fixtures wise fool you.

event

noodler wrote: »

By my count the Cypriots had just as many chances as we did. They deserved a point-we got lucky.

can you mention them here then, cos i dont remember them.

Cyprus - the shot that struck given. Okkas had a shot after skinning mcshane, but it was a poor effort. Constantinou was blocked by Dunne. given saved well at the end.

Ireland - the goal. doyles turn and shot. Mcgeadys chance first half. they had to clear one from under the bar. mcgeadys great chance. doyles great chance. Duff near the end and whelan should have followed it up.

i make that 4 for cyprus, and 7 or 8 for ireland. So we had double really, not as many chances at all.
How did they deserve a point? Did given have to make any great saves? One hit him and a great block at the end, thats it. they rarely opened them up. They can have all the possesion they want but they did fúck all with it.

noodler

Are you actually kidding me or do you just walk about with Green tinted specs all your life?

They were all over us in the second half. They deserved a point-they were good for it.

You can live in la la land all you want though-keep telling yourself that.

They did plenty with their possession.

Finally, no just no, we can't allow team like Cyprus (improving as they are) all the possession at home.

NabyLadistheman

Great start to the Group. Id rather have out total points so far playing badly than having not so many points playin magnifisantly. But the bigger tasks are still to come - can we go to places like Rome & Sofia with no midfielders to pass the ball and hope to hold on. If last night was anythig to go by we can't rely on the 2 bucks that were in there last night. Fair enough, he has given them a chance, it didn't work - he has to realise it's the most important part of the team and we need a small bit of experiance there.

On a plus side, Steven Reid & Stevie Finnan will greatly improve there respective areas

Mr Alan

conceited wrote: »

Anyone notice how slow keane is? My grandmother could run faster he's terrible.

yea he's ****e, awful player.

any other pearls of wisdom?

_blank_

Mr Alan wrote: »

yea he's ****e, awful player.

any other pearls of wisdom?

Yo Al.

Don't take it so personally.

I knew this would happen when Keane signed for Liverpool.

Knew it.

I even posted about it.

monkey9

noodler wrote: »

All it takes is a spanking against Italy when Bulgaria play Cyrpus at home for evrything to change. Don't let our easier start fixtures wise fool you.

I'm not

Mr Alan

you knew wat?

If someone said he was a ****e player,i'd defend him?

If someone said he was a ****e player 12mths ago i'd have defended him I'd imagine.

Watever peoples feelings on the bloke (i'm not mad into him myself) he is undoubtadly a quality player.

Boggles

Not having a go at Keane, but does anyone else think it is criminal Dunne is not the captain?

redout

We are doing fine at the moment. Last night was not the best performance but we got the three points. Just need to grind out results against Georgia and Bulgaria at the start of next year. If we can get six points from them two games I think that we will be in a very strong position to at least grab second spot considereing the 4 point and 5 point gap we have over Bulgaria and Montenegro at present.

Mr Alan

Yea i think Dunne should definately be captain.

monkey9

noodler wrote: »

Are you actually kidding me or do you just walk about with Green tinted specs all your life?

They were all over us in the second half. They deserved a point-they were good for it.

You can live in la la land all you want though-keep telling yourself that.

They did plenty with their possession.

Finally, no just no, we can't allow team like Cyprus (improving as they are) all the possession at home.

They didn't deserve anything because they weren't good enough to create anything. Should have scored when McShane allowed his marker to go by him easily, but if you want to look at it black and white you can say that Ireland should have won 5-2 going by the chances

BaZmO*

torresistheman wrote: »

But the bigger tasks are still to come - can we go to places like Rome & Sofia with no midfielders to pass the ball and hope to hold on.

I don't think getting anything off Italy away was ever on the cards. Getting anything off Italy will be a bonus, and the same could be said for Bulgaria. We never travel well. We need to be beating the smaller teams home and away and winning our home matches. That should always be the goal.

Charlie

Boggles wrote: »

Not having a go at Keane, but does anyone else think it is criminal Dunne is not the captain?

Yes. Dunne and Given were much better candidates for the role when it wen't to Keane. Both always lead by example in nearly every intl. I see them play in.

redout

Boggles wrote: »

Not having a go at Keane, but does anyone else think it is criminal Dunne is not the captain?

I agree, as good a player as Keane is he is not a natural leader. Dunne suits the roll better and he has been city captain for a couple of years now.

monkey9

Boggles wrote: »

Not having a go at Keane, but does anyone else think it is criminal Dunne is not the captain?

Yes, i do!

_blank_

Boggles wrote: »

Not having a go at Keane, but does anyone else think it is criminal Dunne is not the captain?

Me

NabyLadistheman

BaZmO* wrote: »

I don't think getting anything off Italy away was ever on the cards. Getting anything off Italy will be a bonus, and the same could be said for Bulgaria. We never travel well. We need to be beating the smaller teams home and away and winning our home matches. That should always be the goal.

I think that's ridiculous. Sure enough beating small teams home & away is the way to go but I think we can definately get a result against italy. We have an Italian manager and Assistant. Itsaly are not as good a people make out - Montenegro should have got a result there last night. Why can't we win the group? I reckon it's our most realistic way of qualifing. Play-offs are seriously dodge especially as there could be some seriously good teams finishing 2nd in their groups - Like Italy hopefully

noodler

monkey9 wrote: »

They didn't deserve anything because they weren't good enough to create anything. Should have scored when McShane allowed his marker to go by him easily, but if you want to look at it black and white you can say that Ireland should have won 5-2 going by the chances

To be honest I think it would be more like 7-6.

We were the home team though. I honestly think thats shying away from the realities of last night. Balls being cleared to the Cyprius midfield constantly, ball not sticking in midfield, McShane in general.

Boggles

noodler wrote: »

To be honest I think it would be more like 7-6.

We were the home team though. I honestly think thats shying away from the realities of last night. Balls being cleared to the Cyprius midfield constantly, ball not sticking in midfield, McShane in general.

McShane doesn't worry me, he won't get near the team when Finnan is back. What does worry me is Stephen Reids cronic injury problems, I'd say it is safe enough to say we have not seen the back of the Gibson/Whelan partnership and this terrifies me. If S.Reid is injured again for the Polish match I guarantee you will see that midfield paring again, in Traps mind if that is indeed his plan B with Reid out he will want to give them more game together, actually more game time full stop, Whelan was dropped for his performance against Bolton in the opening day of the season and is something like 5th choice central midfielder at Stoke, Gibson might get another 20 minutes in the Carling cup.

Fanny Cradock

For me the most worrying thing about last night was Traps unwillingness to change things. Especially when we had good options on the bench. And looking back over the game, I would have been fearful for a victory had we not had that major stroke of good fortune when Cyprus lost yet another player to injury just before the match.

Even as a keen Sunderland supporter, I think that Reid is being hyped up as some sort of Riquelme type figure. However, it's very arguable that his introduction (at Gibson's expense) early on in the 2nd half would have provided the accuracy and creativity in CM that was lacking last night. Again, and depending on the impact Reid made, there was a good case to take Keane off sometime around the 70th minute and introduce Folan instead. I struggle to recall one good thing Keane did in the second half.

Fair enough, we go the three points, but how we struggled.

SectionF

Boggles wrote: »

Not having a go at Keane, but does anyone else think it is criminal Dunne is not the captain?

Absolutely.

Much prefer to see a midfielder or defender as a captain rather than a striker. I'm sure I'm asking for it here, and that there's a ton of examples to the contrary, but forwards are meant to be predatory and selfish, and motivating a bunch of people behind you doesn't fit too well with that.

BaZmO*

torresistheman wrote: »

but I think we can definately get a result against italy.

Yeah we "can" get a result against them but look at at past record against big teams away from home. When was the last time we beat a big team away from home in a competitive match? Generally the best we can do is a draw.

torresistheman wrote: »

We have an Italian manager and Assistant.

But unfortunately we don't have any Italian players.

torresistheman wrote: »

Why can't we win the group? I reckon it's our most realistic way of qualifing. Play-offs are seriously dodge especially as there could be some seriously good teams finishing 2nd in their groups - Like Italy hopefully

We "could" win the group and if we do the things that I mentioned we're in with a good shout but our history would suggest that coming second and making the playoffs is a more realistic goal. And don't get me wrong, I'd love it if we actually topped the group and didn't have to go through a dodgy playoff but I really can't see past Italy topping the group.

bigstar

we could win this group but only because international football isnt great in general (although england look like theyre getting the hang of it). but last night we played some awful stuff, say what you like about being better organised and defensively sound, to give up possession like that is unforgivable. are we really not able to keep the ball against cyprus. thats not what football is about, and you can say what you like about the modern game but negative football should never be praised. a lot of players played well last night, dunne and doyle in particular, but the full backs are not good enough, actually theyre not even fullbacks. id hate to be a liverpool fan watching last night, keane is so frustrating to watch, he just looks to get free kicks. the centre of midfield did nothing, even defensively they did nothing, it cant be a tactical decision to just have numbers on the pitch, gibson didnt even look like he knew what he was supposed to be doing. we might go to south africa but it will be because other teams played badly not because we are good.

event

noodler wrote: »

Are you actually kidding me or do you just walk about with Green tinted specs all your life?

You can live in la la land all you want though-keep telling yourself that.

:rolleyes:

noodler wrote:

They were all over us in the second half. They deserved a point-they were good for it.

They did plenty with their possession.

can you tell me what they did with their possession?
cos i saw them have a few chances, the best created by Duff's mi****.
can you tell me exactly how they deserved a point?
Dont respond wiht a jibe about green colour specs, an actual answer?
they had the ball but did SFA with it, we rarely let them into the box

redout

Cyprus were missing 5 of their starting eleven last night. It would have been a different game if they had not. That was not the team that thrashed us last year. Go watch the match analysis on http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/index.html

Het-Field

event wrote: »

:rolleyes:



can you tell me what they did with their possession?
cos i saw them have a few chances, the best created by Duff's mi****.
can you tell me exactly how they deserved a point?
Dont respond wiht a jibe about green colour specs, an actual answer?
they had the ball but did SFA with it, we rarely let them into the box

Totally agree with you. The Cypriots had one decent chance, and that was straight after the Irish goal. Most teams are at their most vunrable after a goal, and you could have predicted they would get a chance.

On he other hand, Ireland, created four chances in the second half to Cyprus's two. McGeady's and Doyle's chances were far more clearcut that the Cypriots, who were drummed out of it by Dunne, Given and O Shea.

Ireland were better than Cyrpus over the ninty, and Cyrpus never looked like scoring. It was a professional, if not astetically pleasing, job.

Boggles

Het-Field wrote: »

Ireland were better than Cyrpus over the ninty, and Cyrpus never looked like scoring. It was a professional, if not astetically pleasing, job.

I don't know about that, there was severe panic in the Irish box in the dying minutes when it was all hands to the pump.

Het-Field

redout wrote: »

Cyprus were missing 5 of their starting eleven last night. It would have been a different game if they had not. That was not the team that thrashed us last year. Go watch the match analysis on http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/index.html

Without Finnan, Stephan Reid, Stephan Ireland, and Andy Reid on the bench, Ireland were down four of their best players, and Lee Carsley's omission would also call into question whether Ireland had five of their best out.

Hence, you could say it would have been a differenct oucome had Whelan and Gibson been replaced by the two Reids, McGeady been replaced by Ireland, and Finnan replaced McShane.

Your point is moot, and its based on variables

redout

How so ? Trappatoni decided not to play these players. Cyprus had no such choice ? Some injured yes but not all.

Het-Field

redout wrote: »

How so ? Trappatoni decided not to play these players. Cyprus had no such choice ? Some injured yes but not all.

Yes, but they were not on the pitch one way or the other. The one thing I am willing to chastise Trappatoni about was his reticence to bring on Andy Reid. This is a reticence which has been articulated since Trapppatoni took the job on. For all intents and purposes Reid might as well have been injured.

Finna and Reid are two of Ireland's most pivotal players. They are the difference between a former Champions League winner, who plyed his trade at Fulham as they bolted their way to the Premiership, or a man who couldnt get into the Sunderland team last year, playing full back, and a clear midfield dynamo, or a Man Utd rookie playing at centre mid.

Stephan Ireland is another matter, however, he has proven himself as a goalscorer (4 in the Euro Qualifiers when Ireland Sucked), and the longer he stays in exile, the more we lose.

Carsley's omisssion baffles me, however, I am in no position to talk to Trappatoni about it.

We were down five players one way or the other. Simply because they were not picked does not add validity to your previous statement

noodler

Het-Field wrote: »

Totally agree with you. The Cypriots had one decent chance, and that was straight after the Irish goal. Most teams are at their most vunrable after a goal, and you could have predicted they would get a chance.

On he other hand, Ireland, created four chances in the second half to Cyprus's two. McGeady's and Doyle's chances were far more clearcut that the Cypriots, who were drummed out of it by Dunne, Given and O Shea.

Ireland were better than Cyrpus over the ninty, and Cyrpus never looked like scoring. It was a professional, if not astetically pleasing, job.

Never looked like scoring? I don't know, maybe more people here need to play the game. Lets disregard the fact Cyprus had 3 of the better chances in the game for a moment.

We had no midfield link between defence and attack, ball went from our clearances to their midfield. Second half they ran the show, this is unacceptable at home against a lesser seed in any case.

Obviously there are some people being fooled by Dunne, Given and Doyle having brilliant games. If they had not-we would not have won. Cypriots would have got two and whatever forward possession we did have second half would have been reduced further without Doyle busting a guy to retain the ball.

The excellence of two or three players shouldn't make people think this was a 'professional' performance. Professional performances usually involve not gifting chances to the opposition or ceding possession for most of the second half, nor do they involve carrying our two centre midfielders for massive chunks of the game.

Het-Field

noodler wrote: »

Never looked like scoring? I don't know, maybe more people here need to play the game. Lets disregard the fact Cyprus had 3 of the better chances in the game for a moment.

We had no midfield link between defence and attack, ball went from our clearances to their midfield. Second half they ran the show, this is unacceptable at home against a lesser seed in any case.

Obviously there are some people being fooled by Dunne, Given and Doyle having brilliant games. If they had not-we would not have won. Cypriots would have got two and whatever forward possession we did have second half would have been reduced further without Doyle busting a guy to retain the ball.

The excellence of two or three players shouldn't make people think this was a 'professional' performance. Professional performances usually involve not gifting chances to the opposition or ceding possession for most of the second half, nor do they involve carrying our two centre midfielders for massive chunks of the game.

Remember Roy Keane's excellent performances between eptbember 2000 and November 2001 got us to Korea

noodler

Silly comparison tbh. Keane did more then anyone but there were also massive contributions from the other players-too many others to mention. We didn't have to carry our central midfielders.

I don't expect every player to play like Doyle and Dunne did last night. The simple fact is the midfielders didn't perform to the minimum acceptable level. I don't blame them, they didn't pick themselves.

redout

Het-Field wrote: »

We were down five players one way or the other. Simply because they were not picked does not add validity to your previous statement

I cannot agree with that. Just because you think that they should have been on the pitch changes nothing. I agree with you that some of those players are better than what we had out last night but at the end of the day trapp picks the team and he choose that one when he had the choice of picking these other players. So my point is completely valid.

Celtic67

Obviously the most important thing here is we get the 3 points and move on. However it was a poor display and Cyprus can feel slightly hard done by not getting anything from the game.
Given, Dunne & Doyle were great but the rest were no more than average.
I read the player ratings in the Indo and Duff got 9 out of 10 and I couldnt believe it. He did great for the goal and one or two other moves but that was it. For years the press having been giving him man of the match awards for no more than mediocre performances. I love McGeady for Celtic but apart from one or two moments last night he was poor he kept running into blind alleys, not looking up or turing infield.
The strong Criticism of Gibson (thought he had a decent 2nd half) & Whelan (you know what you will get from him graft not guile) is quite harsh though they did lack creativity on the ball.
Apart from the goal, Keane was anonymous - he needs a serious kick up the hole.

A Reid, J O'Brien and S Hunt must have been seriously asking questions watching that from the bench for 90 mins.

event

noodler wrote: »

Never looked like scoring? I don't know, maybe more people here need to play the game. Lets disregard the fact Cyprus had 3 of the better chances in the game for a moment.

again, which are these 3 better chances?
better than duffs one-on-one at the end?
better than mcgeadys before that?

noodler wrote:

We had no midfield link between defence and attack, ball went from our clearances to their midfield. Second half they ran the show, this is unacceptable at home against a lesser seed in any case.

so winning isnt good enough now, we have to dominate the games too

noodler wrote:

Obviously there are some people being fooled by Dunne, Given and Doyle having brilliant games. If they had not-we would not have won. Cypriots would have got two and whatever forward possession we did have second half would have been reduced further without Doyle busting a guy to retain the ball.

true, and if me auntie had balls she'd be me uncle.
sure if dunne didnt have a great game, maybe o shea would have. thats the thing with ifs, no one knows.
What we DO know is that dunne DID have a great game.

ill ask again though:
can you name the great chances they had, the ones better than ours?
can you tell me how they deserved a point?
what did they do with all the possesion they had?

Latchy

Boggles wrote: »

I don't know about that, there was severe panic in the Irish box in the dying minutes when it was all hands to the pump.

That has being the norm for many years in irish defences during the dying minutes of a game , headless chicken time .

My first post in soccer to

noodler

event wrote: »

again, which are these 3 better chances?
better than duffs one-on-one at the end?
better than mcgeadys before that?

Their first one, saved by Given, the follow up which was put over and the on in the second half when we were completely cut open and were only saved by the player's miscontrol in the 6 yard box. Finally, the one where the right side of our defence was ripped aprt as they sauntered through and set up for Dunne to Block. Now I hope you are taking note but theres two moments where we were ripped apart by the Cypriots and another two chances which came from our own mistakes.

event wrote: »

so winning isnt good enough now, we have to dominate the games too

You love to sum things up in one line don't you? Lets delve a little deeper shall we? If we had our best team available on the pitch and if our midfield had been in existance then winning would have been good enough despite being totally dominated at home by much lower seeds for huge chunks of the second half. However we were dominated as a result of stubborn team selection (if Whelan or Gibson were on fire for their clubs then maybe their inclusion would be more justified at the expense of the more talented Reid).

event wrote: »

true, and if me auntie had balls she'd be me uncle.
sure if dunne didnt have a great game, maybe o shea would have. thats the thing with ifs, no one knows.
What we DO know is that dunne DID have a great game.

If Given doesn't make that point blank save then they score. If Dunne doesn't make that block then they score. We played poorly even with two or three excelling, what are you saying? That these players playing worse may NOT have affected the outcome? Tell me your theory on how the result would not have been in doubt had these three players not excelled?

LuckyLloyd

Fun thread. Over / under on how many more games before Andy Reid is given official messiah status?

WE BELIEVE IN A MAN CALLED ANDY REID.

But why? He's an above average midfielder with some good qualities - and some truly awful ones for a player at the top level.

But nevermind that we have 7 from 9 (and two tricky away ties out of the way). Nevermind that we now seem to be playing with a discernible and consistent style and system game to game (which was one of our severe problems under Staunton).

No, all of that is bull**** - because we don't pass and move and duck and weave like the true contenders.

TRAPP DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE IS DOING.

I beg to differ. One of the greatest managers of all time has made his assessments and decided upon the best course of action to follow in order to get us to SA. Sure, I may have been surprised that he hasn't made changes in the past two games - but I don't have his credentials. And isn't it great that we have someone in charge who seems to be playing by his own rules and ignoring what all of us clueless punters and journalists think? **** us. We haven't won what he has. And we don't know anything near as much as we think we do. I think that the longer he demonstrates a steadfast conviction in the way he does things and ignores idiots like me and you the better it will be for our football team.

And finally, my favorite bit of the thread:

CYPRUS ARE **** MAN.

Yeah. The team that have outperformed us by some margin in our last three ties are rubbish. The country that have their club teams ****ing people up in European competition this year are pushovers cause that's just the way it's always been right?

:rolleyes:

I'm officially in the tank with Trapp. Bring on Georgia please.

noodler

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Fun thread. Over / under on how many more games before Andy Reid is given official messiah status?

WE BELIEVE IN A MAN CALLED ANDY REID.

But why? He's an above average midfielder with some good qualities - and some truly awful ones for a player at the top level.

But nevermind that we have 7 from 9 (and two tricky away ties out of the way). Nevermind that we now seem to be playing with a discernible and consistent style and system game to game (which was one of our severe problems under Staunton).

No, all of that is bull**** - because we don't pass and move and duck and weave like the true contenders.

TRAPP DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE IS DOING.

I beg to differ. One of the greatest managers of all time has made his assessments and decided upon the best course of action to follow in order to get us to SA. Sure, I may have been surprised that he hasn't made changes in the past two games - but I don't have his credentials. And isn't it great that we have someone in charge who seems to be playing by his own rules and ignoring what all of us clueless punters and journalists think? **** us. We haven't won what he has. And we don't know anything near as much as we think we do. I think that the longer he demonstrates a steadfast conviction in the way he does things and ignores idiots like me and you the better it will be for our football team.

And finally, my favorite bit of the thread:

CYPRUS ARE **** MAN.

Yeah. The team that have outperformed us by some margin in our last three ties are rubbish. The country that have their club teams ****ing people up in European competition this year are pushovers cause that's just the way it is right?

:rolleyes:

I'm officially in the tank with Trapp. Bring on Georgia please.

Maybe there should be a "lets close our eyes and hope for the best" thread for posts like that.

Cyprus are better than their rank. No one will disagree.

Andy Reid is simply our most gifted midfielder-theres no messiah status, a country should select their best players. Instead we got two players who haven't played an entire 1st team game between them this season. Its shooting yourself in the foot.

I will not indulge in this "its Trap so lets just assume he knows what he's doing" school of thought. People in a democracy should make criticisms and observations as they see fit.

There is no way Trap watched the second half of the game and thought to himself "Yep, Gibson and Whelan-that was the best call to make". I fully believe a more talented midfielder with more game time this season would have made for a much more comfortable victory.