Republic of Ireland - v - Georgia (WCQ) Group 8 - 11/02/09 MATCH THREAD

eirebhoy

shane86 wrote: »

Also, despite the obvious I still rate Kelly above McShane. He got his act together in the 2nd half, even doing the business up the top end. I havent seen McShane hold improved consistency through a game......ever, since the Czechs. Hope he gets first pref in future if Finnan is unavailable tbh.

McShane is a very poor right back. Jesus I'd have about 10 players there before him. Centre half beside a top organiser is his position. A good organiser makes up for his lack of pace and poor positioning. And he has proven against Koller, Berbatov, Davies and Santa Cruz (motm against them all) that he knows how to mark a target man. His motm performance against Colombia showed he could do well against a pacy side too. He just needs to be playing centre half regularly beside a top player. He's played that position at club level literally about 10 times since he left Brighton. In fact the 2 times he played there for Hull he kept a clean sheet against a Newcastle side that are rarely kept scoreless.

Paul Tergat

A lot of you will wake up tomorrow and realise that all that mattered was:

3 POINTS!!!!

eagle eye

p_larkin99 wrote: »

A lot of you will wake up tomorrow and realise that all that mattered was:

3 POINTS!!!!

I believe that Trap said something in a pre match interview on RTE about not expecting a good performance and that all that mattered right now was the result. Apparently he also said that there is plenty of time to work on the team but right now its all about getting a result.

As you say we got what mattered most.

Boggles

In Fairness to Keane for all his failings as a footballer and a person, he was brave twice last night, for the peno and for attacking that low cross with his face to score the winner, he could have got well smacked.

After been threated like dirt for the past couple of months I was delighted for the fella, well done Robbie!

On the match itself, it was actually quite exciting and entertaining.

On Whelan, I feel sorry for the guy, he is a squad player at a relegation battling club that he newly joined and at the same time is now a full international playing with a team that is expected to qualify for a world cup.

ciaran76

Fella in work was telling me that most of the papers saying Andrews had a terrible game. Have not seen the papers myself but am surprised they think he played bad. I thought he played well for his 1st competitive game.

everdead.ie

Keane must have scored the first goal ever using your ear 3 points all that matters!!

shane86

ciaran76 wrote: »

Fella in work was telling me that most of the papers saying Andrews had a terrible game. Have not seen the papers myself but am surprised they think he played bad. I thought he played well for his 1st competitive game.

And Dunphy claimed Keane had his worst ever game for Ireland. Come on like :pac:

Andrews played relatively well, scored a goal that should have stood, he can improve but it was a respectable performance.

whiskeyman

Nice to get a bit of luck for once.
So many times, we've been on the opposite end of something like that!

Great result, and amazing performance by Kevin Doyle. Some of his pressure play and tackles were fantastic to watch!

LuckyLloyd

eirebhoy wrote: »

I have to say well done to everyone in the singing section tonight. Non-stop from start to finish. Maybe 20 seconds was the most it went without a song. Fair enough a lot of it was the usual songs but it was still singing.

I hear it couldn't be heard at all on TV but what do you expect from 700 people in that big a stadium.

I lost the plot after a couple of minutes because people telling us to sit down. I stormed from where I was sitting to an open area and a chap decided to give me abuse, telling me to sit down. I just kept looking at the pitch and the stewards kindly told him which section he was in. The stewards in our section were brilliant and I congratulate the FAI on this.

The crowd booed at half time, we all sang for the team. I know which one of them would make the team want to come out and give their all for their country.

Just one thing - McGeady probably wasn't great tonight until the last half hour. But boy god to the Irish really dislike him. It honestly is a case of McGeady has to do something brilliant or else it's a mistake that gets abuse from many. Hunt and Duff are allowed float a cross into nobody without the abuse. It really angered me tonight and for the first time I actually wished McGeady wasn't playing for Ireland. And I hope people know by now I'm certainly an country before club.

Super, super post.

Being told to sit down / people booing the team off at half time - is ****ing disgraceful.

Everything clicked for McGeady last night in the second half - and he was the obvious choice for MoM. But on the occasions when it doesn't click, it sure isn't for the lack of trying. The lad turns up and runs his heart out for the team. People should respect that effort and commitment for the cause. Sigh.

_blank_

The Doyle offside was the right call, imo.

If the disallowed Georgia goal was the right call, then so was the Doyle incident, no question.

He was offside, in the six yard box, anyone who claims he wasn't interfering with play is a numpty tbh.

As for the penalty, lol, worst decision ever.

Felt sorry for the Georgian team tbh, they deserved at least a point.

Yeah, McGeady had his one good game that he has every so often, but still, his crossing is absolutely abysmal, when he actually decides to cross it, most of the time he tries beating an extra man when there's no need for it.

Whelan was atrocious, giving away possession after possession, a shambles. Fair play to Andrews though, he had a good game, and with a better player beside him would have been MOTM.

Ireland really, really need Finnan back from injury, but the big joke is that even a draw against Bulgaria will probably be good enough for this Irish team to get a play off place, and a bit of luck, of the order that they got last night, against Italy, and they might even top the group.

International football is at such a crap standard these days it's not even funny.

Sherifu

So many people are still predicting the right score. *votes*

Quint

What's the story with the big screen at the games? Do they think if they show a "controversial" decision there'll be a riot? Any off side, dodgy tackle, disallowed goal etc everyone looked up at the screen to see the replay, only to see an ad for the ****ing indo or eircom! You could hear the entire crowd say "oh, ffs" each time.
Stuff like that doesn't encourage the casual fan.:mad:

Mitch Connor

Quint wrote: »

What's the story with the big screen at the games? Do they think if they show a "controversial" decision there'll be a riot? Any off side, dodgy tackle, disallowed goal etc everyone looked up at the screen to see the replay, only to see an ad for the ****ing indo or eircom! You could hear the entire crowd say "oh, ffs" each time.
Stuff like that doesn't encourage the casual fan.:mad:

Uefa don't allow teams to show replays of decisions that could be called into question, as the fans would have more reason to get on the back of the ref. Its not an Ireland issue.

anladmór

any links to the goals last night?

Quint

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Uefa don't allow teams to show replays of decisions that could be called into question, as the fans would have more reason to get on the back of the ref. Its not an Ireland issue.

Fecken stupid. I knew there was an idiotic reason for it like that.

GLaDOS

anladmór wrote: »

any links to the goals last night?

http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/2080792/

anladmór

football looks so different on tv.

SlickRic

lol at the nostradamuses still voting for the right score :rolleyes:

Des wrote: »

International football is at such a crap standard these days it's not even funny.

yeah, but at least it gives us Irish a chance though

noodler

Des wrote: »

The Doyle offside was the right call, imo.

If the disallowed Georgia goal was the right call, then so was the Doyle incident, no question.

He was offside, in the six yard box, anyone who claims he wasn't interfering with play is a numpty tbh.

As for the penalty, lol, worst decision ever.

Felt sorry for the Georgian team tbh, they deserved at least a point.

Yeah, McGeady had his one good game that he has every so often, but still, his crossing is absolutely abysmal, when he actually decides to cross it, most of the time he tries beating an extra man when there's no need for it.

Whelan was atrocious, giving away possession after possession, a shambles. Fair play to Andrews though, he had a good game, and with a better player beside him would have been MOTM.

Ireland really, really need Finnan back from injury, but the big joke is that even a draw against Bulgaria will probably be good enough for this Irish team to get a play off place, and a bit of luck, of the order that they got last night, against Italy, and they might even top the group.

International football is at such a crap standard these days it's not even funny.

Crap standard? If anything the gap has closed. Back in the day Cyprus and Gerogia would be well beaten by most international teams, not just us.

PHB

I personally enjoyed the game. Best atmosphere (I was in the lower Davin) I've ever experienced at an International. It was however, very unful, which is annoying. I wish they'd just bunch everyone together and re-issue tickets, and leave a large section of the stadium not filled. It really saps from the atmosphere when there is nobody else on your row.

Great for Keane though, he deserved it.

noodler

I wish they would cop on and realise you won't fill Croker for Georgia with ticket prices starting at 50e.

anladmór

protest?

anladmór

PHB wrote: »

I personally enjoyed the game. Best atmosphere (I was in the lower Davin) I've ever experienced at an International. It was however, very unful, which is annoying. I wish they'd just bunch everyone together and re-issue tickets, and leave a large section of the stadium not filled. It really saps from the atmosphere when there is nobody else on your row.

Great for Keane though, he deserved it.

in the singing section? maby i saw ya.

Third_Echelon

CiaranC wrote: »

I didnt attend the game due to being allergic to giving the GAA money and assorted other reasons, but Im curious as to how the new singing section malarky went. Hard to judge on the television, but the atmosphere seemed a bit livelier than usual. Anyone who went care to comment?

anladmór wrote: »

BTW was great craic in singing section. so the tv people couldnt hear us? meh was epic. although some people were slightly confused about the purpose of such a singing section.

I was just beside the singing section and they did create quite a noise. Good to see it and the atmosphere was the best yet at Croker. I like the whole idea of what they are trying to do....

There was a fanzine that they had on all the seats and it was quite good. I enjoyed reading it, but the whole League of Ireland 'holier than thou' doctrine was rife. "You watch the premier league on sky therefore you are not a real Irish supporter".

I had a look on the 'you boys in green' forum this morning as I was thinking of signing up for it.

Same bullsh*t on there as well. Basically if you didn't stand up and sing at the game you were a w*nker.. Can't stand that rubbish.

People support the team in different ways. I prefer to sit for most of the game. I sing, I shout, I get involved and swear quite a bit I also stand up when I need to.. because I don't do it for the whole game, they seem to have an issue with this.

Again, I like the idea of what they are trying to do... If they want to get people on board and expand the whole 'Ultra' thing, they are going to have to drop their superiority complex.

Quint wrote: »

What's the story with the big screen at the games? Do they think if they show a "controversial" decision there'll be a riot? Any off side, dodgy tackle, disallowed goal etc everyone looked up at the screen to see the replay, only to see an ad for the ****ing indo or eircom! You could hear the entire crowd say "oh, ffs" each time.
Stuff like that doesn't encourage the casual fan.:mad:

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Uefa don't allow teams to show replays of decisions that could be called into question, as the fans would have more reason to get on the back of the ref. Its not an Ireland issue.

Its the same in the premier league. No big or perceived bad decisions are not shown for fear of the crowd rioting basically :rolleyes:

Pissed me of no end as well!

Quint

Agreed about it being a good atmosphere. If it was full it would have been class. Going a goal down and ireland having to attack was probably the best thing that could have happened from an atmosphere point of view.

anladmór

against ITALY IT WILL BE EPIC, but i prob won't be able to get tickets for the proper singing section.

i only got into the good seats because it wasnt full. where i was originally was meant to be singing section but not really.

Quint

Bulgaria will be good to. It's a saturday match and ko is at 7:45 so everyone will be locked at that stage:D. Hopefully the team play their part and manage and get a good shots in, and play with a high intensity to keep the crowd interested.

roryc

Des wrote: »

The Doyle offside was the right call, imo.

If the disallowed Georgia goal was the right call, then so was the Doyle incident, no question.

He was offside, in the six yard box, anyone who claims he wasn't interfering with play is a numpty tbh.

As for the penalty, lol, worst decision ever.

Felt sorry for the Georgian team tbh, they deserved at least a point.

Yeah, McGeady had his one good game that he has every so often, but still, his crossing is absolutely abysmal, when he actually decides to cross it, most of the time he tries beating an extra man when there's no need for it.

Whelan was atrocious, giving away possession after possession, a shambles. Fair play to Andrews though, he had a good game, and with a better player beside him would have been MOTM.

Ireland really, really need Finnan back from injury, but the big joke is that even a draw against Bulgaria will probably be good enough for this Irish team to get a play off place, and a bit of luck, of the order that they got last night, against Italy, and they might even top the group.

International football is at such a crap standard these days it's not even funny.

+1... agree with everything bar the last line (depending on what point you are trying to get across). I agree the standard of the higher teams has gone down slightly, but the standard of 'lower' teams such as Georgia, Cyprus etc has improved ten-fold over recent years.

So so happy Andrews played last night. Blatantly obvious now that with what we've got he is our first choice central midfielder... would love to see him play alongside Reid/Ireland but meh... big improvement on Gibson IMO. Disgusted to see his goal disallowed, correctly or not. Whelan and Kelly both had shocker last night, but who have we got to take their place? McShane and Gibson :eek:

In terms of qualification, I don't know why everybody is talking about almost having second place secured. Yes, we are seven points ahead of Bulgaria, but they have drawn with Italy, drawn with Montenegro (same as us), and drawn with Georgia (the team that NEARLY beat us last night!), and have a game in hand.If we beat them next month we are in a very good position, but not before then.

One last thing, if we bag 2nd in the group we are nowhere near guaranteed an easy team in the play off. We will more than likely face one of the following teams... Portugal, Hungary, France, Israel, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Croatia, Lithuania or Scotland.

Anyone still feel overly confident?





(I am...)

boy_wonder

Third_Echelon wrote: »

I was just beside the singing section and they did create quite a noise. Good to see it and the atmosphere was the best yet at Croker. I like the whole idea of what they are trying to do....

There was a fanzine that they had on all the seats and it was quite good. I enjoyed reading it, but the whole League of Ireland 'holier than thou' doctrine was rife. "You watch the premier league on sky therefore you are not a real Irish supporter".

I had a look on the 'you boys in green' forum this morning as I was thinking of signing up for it.

Same bullsh*t on there as well. Basically if you didn't stand up and sing at the game you were a w*nker.. Can't stand that rubbish.

People support the team in different ways. I prefer to sit for most of the game. I sing, I shout, I get involved and swear quite a bit I also stand up when I need to.. because I don't do it for the whole game, they seem to have an issue with this.

Again, I like the idea of what they are trying to do... If they want to get people on board and expand the whole 'Ultra' thing, they are going to have to drop their superiority complex.





Its the same in the premier league. No big or perceived bad decisions are not shown for fear of the crowd rioting basically :rolleyes:

Pissed me of no end as well!

Our gripe is that if you buy tickets for "the singing section" there is a small assumption made that you should make a conscious effort to participate in creating a "12th man" atmosphere which hopefully spurs the team on. A lot of people have campaigned for long enough and worked hard enough for this to happen and having "supporters" in this section that sit down ad boo their team off at half time defeats the whole purpose.

Early days yet for the singing section but a good start!

stovelid

Transferred our subscription to the Davin from the Cusack, and it was definitely an improvement. Was able to shout at the game without comments or weird looks. We are in the upper but I assume that the singing section was below us?

I agree that it's pathetic to have tickets starting at 50 quid when there are so many empty seats.

shane86

roryc wrote: »

One last thing, if we bag 2nd in the group we are nowhere near guaranteed an easy team in the play off. We will more than likely face one of the following teams... Portugal, Hungary, France, Israel, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Croatia, Lithuania or Scotland.

Anyone still feel overly confident?





(I am...)

Can someone remind me are the play offs two legs, one in each country, or a single match in a neutral venue.

ROCKMAN

shane86 wrote: »

Can someone remind me are the play offs two legs, one in each country, or a single match in a neutral venue.

2 legs , HOME and AWAY

Xavi6

Thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Croker last night, especially seeing as the result went our way in the end. Wasn't as cold as I expected either.

Ratings -

Given - 7 - Couldn't do anything about the goal, but made some excellent saves and his handling was spot on.

Kelly - 5 - Absolute 'mare of a first half but to be fair he steadied in the second and looked more comfortable.

Kilbane - 6 - Nothing more than average. Some awful passing and no longer has the pace to skin people down the line. Decent left bacl to have though.

O'Shea - 8 - IMO he was superb. Never put a foot wrong and was always talking to his team mates organising things along the back line. Proof of what a good run of first team football will do to a player.

Dunne - 7 - Solid as well, and good to see him and O'Shea forming a nice partnership.

Whelan - 4 - Absolutely awful. Couldn't pass wind for 90 minutes and was more of a liability than anything else.

Andrews - 7 - Committed some stupid fouls but overall was very good considering he's a limited player. Carried Whelan throughout. Well done.

McGeady - 7 - Such an exciting talent when he gets going. Some mazy runs that terrified the Georgians but his crossing really lets him down sometimes. Finds the first man far too often.

Duff - 7 - Like Kilbane, has lost the pace that once made him so dangerous. Still has the ability to create space though and was good last night.

Keane - 6 - The two goal hero stepped up when he was needed but he was anonymous for large portions of the game. The usual pointless stepovers were out but there was some good link up play with the midfield.

Doyle - 8 - MOM for me. The guy ran his bollox of for 90 minutes and was a thorn in Kaladze's side, both on the ground and in the air. Deserved a goal for the effort he put in. Time to go back to the Premiership.


Looked like it was going to be one of those nights for a long time but we got the job done.

The new singing section was pretty much unnoticable once the early goal went in. Couldn't hear much singing at all during the first 70 mins tbh, though it dod pick up a bit after the penalty.

dogpile

Quint wrote: »

Bulgaria will be good to. It's a saturday match and ko is at 7:45 so everyone will be locked at that stage:D. Hopefully the team play their part and manage and get a good shots in, and play with a high intensity to keep the crowd interested.

Bulgaria away not so good! June 5th...what a ridiculous time to have a game, over a month after the seasons end :rolleyes: how the fck are players going to be kept preoccupied in that time??? having said that I can see the likes of Berbatov pulling a sicky on some Bahamas beach

mark renton

Could help noticing how well Steven Ireland would have fitted into that midfield last night

PHB

Stephen Ireland wouldn't have fit into that midfield. He's just too offensive a midfielder for Trappontoni.

I think the best we can hope for

----McGeady

---

Andrews/Whelen

---

S. Reid

---

Duff----

---

Ireland

---

---

Keane

---

Personally I'd be much happier seeing
----McGeady

---

Irealnd

---

S. Reid

---

Duff----

---

Keane

---

---

Doyle

---

But I'd imagine it's too attacking.

mark renton

PHB wrote: »

----McGeady

---

Irealnd

---

S. Reid

---

Duff----

---

Keane

---

---

Doyle

---

But I'd imagine it's too attacking.

Thats the one once we go 1-0 down to a team like Georgia, after that the holding midfielder wasnt overworked

emc2

dogpile wrote: »

Bulgaria away not so good! June 5th...what a ridiculous time to have a game, over a month after the seasons end :rolleyes: how the fck are players going to be kept preoccupied in that time??? having said that I can see the likes of Berbatov pulling a sicky on some Bahamas beach

Last game of the season is May 24th only 2 weeks before the Bulgaria game!

shano_88

anyone have a link for highlights of the game. Looked at footytube and google and no luck. was working and couldnt watch the match. even a link to the goals would be great.......

roryc

Just saw the poll. We are awesome at score predictions

Third_Echelon

boy_wonder wrote: »

Our gripe is that if you buy tickets for "the singing section" there is a small assumption made that you should make a conscious effort to participate in creating a "12th man" atmosphere which hopefully spurs the team on. A lot of people have campaigned for long enough and worked hard enough for this to happen and having "supporters" in this section that sit down ad boo their team off at half time defeats the whole purpose.

Early days yet for the singing section but a good start!

That's absolutely fine... If you are in that section, that is what you sign up for..

I am talking about people who sit in other sections. The amount of "look at those sad b*stards" comments that I heard from the singing section crowd towards the other areas of the stadium was ridiculous... (from the forum and at half time in food stand queues etc)

You are correct that there has been a lot of work put into it.. Don't ruin it by alienating people... that's all

stovelid

Third_Echelon wrote: »

I am talking about people who sit in other sections. The amount of "look at those sad b*stards" comments that I heard from the singing section crowd towards the other areas of the stadium was ridiculous... (from the forum and at half time in food stand queues etc)

You are correct that there has been a lot of work put into it.. Don't ruin it by alienating people... that's all

Aye, my friend was in the Hogan and he overheard them saying judgemental things about him over in the Davin. He's never going back again.

eirebhoy

Xavi6 wrote: »

The new singing section was pretty much unnoticable once the early goal went in. Couldn't hear much singing at all during the first 70 mins tbh, though it dod pick up a bit after the penalty.

It was non stop where I was. Maybe 50 people singing sounds like hundreds when you're part of it though. I will say that I downloaded the match and flicked through it and heard plenty of songs. You could hear plenty even in the first 10 minutes of the match just after we conceded. Surprised you were at the match and thought it was unnoticeable.

Also remember that any ounce of a song last night started from our section. And the drummers were with our section too. They joined in with songs more than trying to start any.

Xavi6

eirebhoy wrote: »

It was non stop where I was. Maybe 50 people singing sounds like hundreds when you're part of it though. I will say that I downloaded the match and flicked through it and heard plenty of songs. You could hear plenty even in the first 10 minutes of the match just after we conceded. Surprised you were at the match and thought it was unnoticeable.

Also remember that any ounce of a song last night started from our section. And the drummers were with our section too. They joined in with songs more than trying to start any.

To be fair I was at the complete opposite end of the ground in the upper tier of the Cusack down beside the Hill so it could very well have been noisy down towards the singing section.

As I said in another thread, the first significant sounds to come out of out our part of Croker were the disgraceful boos at half time.

yabadabado

we need finnan back fit asap,he should be back in 2/3 weeks ,not much time to get fit for bulgaria game .also have we anyone to take whelans place.trap doesnt seem to want andy reid or carsley,steven reid has no luck with injuries and nobody knows if steven ireland will be back?

eirebhoy

Xavi6 wrote: »

To be fair I was at the complete opposite end of the ground in the upper tier of the Cusack down beside the Hill so it could very well have been noisy down towards the singing section.

Fair enough. the SS is expected to double in size for the Bulgaria match. Being a Saturday night I can't wait. It really adds to the excitement now.

keane2097

Agreed, Glenn Whelan is a disaster and will be even more exposed (if possible) in the games against Bulgaria and Italy imo.

I never thought I'd see the day when I longed to have Lee Carsley back...

anladmór

eirebhoy wrote: »

Fair enough. the SS is expected to double in size for the Bulgaria match. Being a Saturday night I can't wait. It really adds to the excitement now.

ya if there are not all gone. would ybig be the best bet to get good singing section tickets?

Pro. F

I couldn't get to the game - the atmosphere seamed good from what I could here on tv, except for the stupid booing at half time :rolleyes:.
I was quite happy with the performance last night.

Even if we got some outrageous fortune with the penalty, we were piling on the pressure up until then anyway. The amount of fouls they committed outside their box was ridiculous and it was a sign of the pressure the team was putting on their defence.

Other than the severe problems at right back (Finnan's injury troubles are really bad news for us) our defence looked decent. With the whole team doing their bit. The CBs and Keeper were assured.

I was very happy with Andrews. He was comfortable in possession and when defending he got into good positions and wasn't shy about tackling. He did commit some silly fouls but I imagine, in future, Trapattoni will be able to get him making the right decisions. Whelan was woegous and that's a worry. He really didn't look good enough. He seemed to give the ball away any time he tried a forward pass. S. Reid and Andrews would be great but if we need to play Whelan, that's dodgy.

The wide men did well. Duff looks to be getting back some form. McGeady is frustrating with his crap crossing but still, he scares defenders when he runs with the ball.

Doyle was class again. He threw himself about the place and showed some class on the ball too. His ability in the air is crazy for his size.

Robbie didn't look like he was enjoying himself, with the ball flying at him at head height as often as on the ground. I'd like him to work a bit more and complain a bit less. But to be fair to him maybe he's feeling the effects of the difficult season he has had.

Georgia really asked some questions and we were able to step up and do the business. We got over the sucker punch of an early goal and earned a result.

Sure there will be sterner tests to come but the team is learning with every game. And picking up the results on the way.

Daysha

Believe it or not I was in the upper Hogan close to the Davin stand and the atmosphere up there was great. Plenty of people willing to stand up and get a few songs going.