Rep of Ireland v Russia - 8th/Oct/2010

Hoki

I dont get why people are saying they wish we lost 3 or 4 nil , the 2 late goals still have us top of the table with a positive goal difference as opposed to a negative one which would have had us in 3rd.

Who knows - those 2 late goals may have given the lads a bit of belief that they can compete with these bigger teams & that may show on Tuesday night . A 3 or 4 goal hiding would do absolutely nothing positive for this team and Tuesday nights task would have been a hell of a lot harder.

KungPao

Prufrock wrote: »

Championship style baby

On a more serious note he could have easily seen red. Some shocking tackles.

Still can't believe Saint Legend didn't walk for THAT challenge. Sympathy from the man in black for our predicament methinks.

Doyler was a wee bit lucky too.

titan18

I'd love to see this team line up some time

Given

Foley
Dunne
St.Ledger
O'Shea

Duff
McCarthy
Wilson
Fahey

Keane
Dunne

Bench:Westwood,Coleman,Ward,O'Hara,Gibson,Stokes,Long.

Sure there are others I'm forgetting too.The likes of McGeady,Whelan/Andrews,Clark,Keogh,Sheridan,A Reid could easily be added in there, and that's with leaving out the Ireland crap and Steven Reid having retired.

IRISHSPORTSGUY

It's not all doom and gloom, we have some good young central midfielders coming through. In a few months times, I'm confident we'll never hear the name Paul Green ever again. I don't want to be disrespectful, but I've never seen an Irish player so out of his depth.

McCarthy (19)
Meyler (21)
Gibson (22)
Wilson (23)

And there's a lad called Connor Clifford (19) at Chelsea who is regarded as a very special talent. Ancelotti wanted him to stay until after Christmas and then he's going on loan in the next window.

KungPao

Hoki wrote: »

I dont get why people are saying they wish we lost 3 or 4 nil , the 2 late goals still have us top of the table with a positive goal difference as opposed to a negative one which would have had us in 3rd.

Who knows - those 2 late goals may have given the lads a bit of belief that they can compete with these bigger teams & that may show on Tuesday night . A 3 or 4 goal hiding would do absolutely nothing positive for this team and Tuesday nights task would have been a hell of a lot harder.

I hear ya but the problem is that the position covers up the real problems in our system and approach.

To think that we are top of the group, we're doin okay, just sets us up for the inevitable heartbreak further down the road.

If we got a good goin' over tonight, the manager may have seen that there are inherent problems in our team that need to be addressed....but alas, now things probably won't change....and said heartbreak will most likely happen.

Hope I am wrong by the way!

Joyce Country

can't believe people on here are giving out about mcgeady again.

he was our best player going forward by a mile and at the centre of everything positive we did. or maybe i was watching a different match to some of ye's.....

Mr. Guappa

I'd like to see some personnel changes for the next game but at the end of the day it all comes down to the attitude they are sent out with. I can't see our style of play changing under Trap - we've been very much a stand off 'em team until we are put in a situation where we have to go for it. At the very least a second place in this group is very much there for the taking but I don't think this manager has the b*lls to go out and grab it.

starbelgrade

Crosáidí wrote: »

Don't you get Champers

It's probably just sparkling water, knowing RTE.

KungPao

starbelgrade wrote: »

It's probably just sparkling water, knowing RTE.

Or sodastreamed tap water.

starbelgrade

KungPao wrote: »

Yep. Credit to Russia, away from home let's not forget.

But yeah it was depressing the way we let them just slice through us....sometimes it was like watching Chelsea V Blackpool....luckily they weren't so clinical in front of goal.

But as I said before, maybe, in the long run, it would have been better for them to get the cigars out*

*Old school Pro Evo reference!

Meh. More like Blackpool against Liverpool in fairness.

abouttobebanned

Way too harsh on Keane. I thought he played very well tonight. Lot of people on this forum are very poor readers of the game.

dartbhoy

Joyce Country wrote: »

can't believe people on here are giving out about mcgeady again.

he was our best player going forward by a mile and at the centre of everything positive we did. or maybe i was watching a different match to some of ye's.....

I've been critical of McGeady more than once but as you said he was trying his heart out tonight when others were marked absent. Robbie Keane was the worst player on the field tonight,he looked like he had no interest in been there and been the captain he showed absoloutley no leadership outside there tonight,totally overrated player!

starbelgrade

abouttobebanned wrote: »

Way too harsh on Keane. I thought he played very well tonight. Lot of people on this forum are very poor readers of the game.

Probably too busy reading Boards to be watching the game.

Mr.Nice Guy

IRISHSPORTSGUY wrote: »

It's not all doom and gloom, we have some good young central midfielders coming through. In a few months times, I'm confident we'll never hear the name Paul Green ever again. I don't want to be disrespectful, but I've never seen an Irish player so out of his depth.

McCarthy (19)
Meyler (21)
Gibson (22)
Wilson (23)

And there's a lad called Connor Clifford (19) at Chelsea who is regarded as a very special talent. Ancelotti wanted him to stay until after Christmas and then he's going on loan in the next window.

Yeah he looks very promising and can certainly hit the ball well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOahS8Dg9KM

Another plus is that Stephen Hunt is meant to be close to returning to fitness and he will be another option for the wings. Would love more central options though.

Hoki

KungPao wrote: »

If we got a good goin' over tonight, the manager may have seen that there are inherent problems in our team that need to be addressed....but alas, now things probably won't change....and said heartbreak will most likely happen.

Hope I am wrong by the way!

Yes, but surely the manager would have seen that when we were 3 nil down , the fact we got 2 goals back is a good thing . For all we know this group could go down to goal difference. If Trap doesnt realise that things are wrong when we were 20 mins away from our worst home competitive defeat in donkeys years then i just dunno...

KungPao

starbelgrade wrote: »

Meh. More like Blackpool against Liverpool in fairness.

I was going to say it was like watching the behemoth of Chelsea playing the low-on-confidence-and-not-very-good Liverpool....but I didn't want to offend anybody!

Het-Field

In the future, when people look up the word "flattering" in the dictionary, they may well come across the following definition "Republic of Ireland 2-3 Russia (8th October 2010)". Words cannot describe how poor Ireland's performance was. Once the first goal went in it became clear that Trappatoni was not going to change his system, and persisted with it. This gave rise to the concession of a further goal. The third was a crazy deflected shot, which arsoe by virtue of slack Irish defending. Russia outflanked, outwitted and outdid Ireland in almost every area of the pitch tonight, and deserved the three points. I have no qualms or complaints that Ireland got nothing from tonight, as Ireland deserved nothing.

It's hard not to expect anything less of this Irish team. Four of tonights starting eleven ply their trade in the Championship (where Kilbane sits on the bench at Hull). three are not getting regular football at their clubs (Given, Keane and Whelan), while another plys his trade in a a league which is incomparable to other top European Leagues given it's structure and system (McGeady). In fact, Dunne, O Shea, and Doyle are the only players which are suited to the International Game.



My Ratings

S.Given 5 Flapped at the ball which gave rise to the first goal. He is startlingly short of match practice, and is not the assured custodian he once was
S.St Ledger 4 Never got to grips with his attacking opponants. Found out when he was faced with a runner
K.Kilbane 4 Woefully beaten for the second goal. His tenacity doesnt make up for his all round lack of guile and absence of pace.
R.Dunne 6 Remained fairly solid in the face of abject failure.
J.O'Shea 4 Dominated for most of the night. Caught out off position far too often.
L.Lawrence 4 Given no service, and was unable to eak anything out of the game. One of his most ineffective in an Irish shirt
P.Green 3 This guy really takes the biscuit. Kernaghan, Kilbane, Breen, Delaney etc, nothing compares to how inadequate this guy is. Two poor performances in September and tonight should see this guy get his P45. He has no passing skills, and spends most of his time missing tackles
G.Whelan 3 No better then Green. Couldnt stamp any authority on the game, and it totally passed him by. When Ireland are on the back foot, he shouldnt be near the team.
A.McGeady 2 Lots of running masks the absence of any tangible threat. This guy is truly frustrating. He lost the ball so many times I lost count. He didnt swing in ONE decent ball, and is less likely to score on the left wing then Kilbane.
K.Doyle 5 A poor night for the reliable Doyle. He really never imposed himself, and was shackled by Russia's men at the back
R.Keane 4 Another goal for Keano, but he was poor on the night. I never saw him as likely to take a winning goal.

Subs
S.Long 7 Ireland's motm. Caused plenty of problems for Russia and chipped in with a nice goal.
K.Fahey 5 Looks a nuisance.
D.Gibson 5 Didnt see too much of him, but he was tracking back, and looked as though he was there by right.

d22ontour

KungPao wrote: »

Yep. Credit to Russia, away from home let's not forget.

But yeah it was depressing the way we let them just slice through us....sometimes it was like watching Chelsea V Blackpool....luckily they weren't so clinical in front of goal.

But as I said before, maybe, in the long run, it would have been better for them to get the cigars out*

*Old school Pro Evo reference!

You realise how many chances Blackpool created in that game ? 11 attempts against the mighty fookin Chelsea.If you watched the game you would have seen quite a decent game.I would say many Chelsea fans were embarrassed by the 2nd half.
I dread United playing them tbh...

Het-Field

Joyce Country wrote: »

can't believe people on here are giving out about mcgeady again.

he was our best player going forward by a mile and at the centre of everything positive we did. or maybe i was watching a different match to some of ye's.....

I honestly dont believe that McGeady was a positive force tonight.A I have said his pace and his ability to skin players (which was not overly evident tonight) masks a lack of ability in terms of crossing and assisting.

KungPao

Hoki wrote: »

Yes, but surely the manager would have seen that when we were 3 nil down , the fact we got 2 goals back is a good thing . For all we know this group could go down to goal difference. If Trap doesnt realise that things are wrong when we were 20 mins away from our worst home competitive defeat in donkeys years then i just dunno...

It certainly could go down to goal difference, absolutely....3 teams in the running, none of which are truly outstanding.

But knowing Trap (I don't actually know him!) he'll think we were unfortunate or weren't at the races and things will be fine on Tuesday.

And that just makes things more risky than they should be...IMO. We have some options.

When Gibson, Fahey and Long were on the pitch near the end (ok we still had long hopeful balls) we were a LOT more dangerous.

He needs to work out a balance between long ball hope-for-the-best type stuff with ball winners in MF and passers in MF and all-out attack.

If he can do that, then we're looking good.

But at the moment the table is misleading IMO.

fox007

I feel the mid field is where we are lacking we need a new Roy keane there! But to have gibision on the bench when he is doing a lot for utd is crazy! I know he is not playing every game but either is robbie. Defense we are ok kilbane? I feel we need someone with fresh legs,strikers can score goals if they get the service from the midfield but at the minute who is is doing that? That's where are troubles are! Mid field

titan18

IRISHSPORTSGUY wrote: »

It's not all doom and gloom, we have some good young central midfielders coming through. In a few months times, I'm confident we'll never hear the name Paul Green ever again. I don't want to be disrespectful, but I've never seen an Irish player so out of his depth.

McCarthy (19)
Meyler (21)
Gibson (22)
Wilson (23)

And there's a lad called Connor Clifford (19) at Chelsea who is regarded as a very special talent. Ancelotti wanted him to stay until after Christmas and then he's going on loan in the next window.

There's also Robert Brady at United and Conor Henderson at Arsenal

orourkeda

A thorough whopping.

KungPao

Het-Field wrote: »

....Kernaghan...

I had treatment to help me forget that man..years of acupuncture and electric shocks.

I was just starting to lead a normal, adjusted, and serene existence and then (in the words of Liam Brady) BANG!


Thanks a lot man :mad:

Jayob10

titan18 wrote: »

There's also Robert Brady at United and Conor Henderson at Arsenal

to say these lads are ready for the first team is laughable. it really is.

Cop yourself on

OPENROAD

fox007 wrote: »

I feel the mid field is where we are lacking we need a new Roy keane there! But to have gibision on the bench when he is doing a lot for utd is crazy! I know he is not playing every game but either is robbie. Defense we are ok kilbane? I feel we need someone with fresh legs,strikers can score goals if they get the service from the midfield but at the minute who is is doing that? That's where are troubles are! Mid field

Gibson

titan18

Jayob10 wrote: »

to say these lads are ready for the first team is laughable. it really is.

Cop yourself on

I think you missed the point of the post.No one is saying Clifford is ready either but he's promising as are Brady and Henderson imo.

You can go back a few pages to see what I'd like to be the team so why don't you cop yourself on

Het-Field

Het-Field wrote: »

In the future, when people look up the word "flattering" in the dictionary, they may well come across the following definition "Republic of Ireland 2-3 Russia (8th October 2010)". Words cannot describe how poor Ireland's performance was. Once the first goal went in it became clear that Trappatoni was not going to change his system, and persisted with it. This gave rise to the concession of a further goal. The third was a crazy deflected shot, which arsoe by virtue of slack Irish defending. Russia outflanked, outwitted and outdid Ireland in almost every area of the pitch tonight, and deserved the three points. I have no qualms or complaints that Ireland got nothing from tonight, as Ireland deserved nothing.

It's hard not to expect anything less of this Irish team. Four of tonights starting eleven ply their trade in the Championship (where Kilbane sits on the bench at Hull). three are not getting regular football at their clubs (Given, Keane and Whelan), while another plys his trade in a a league which is incomparable to other top European Leagues given it's structure and system (McGeady). In fact, Dunne, O Shea, and Doyle are the only players which are suited to the International Game.



My Ratings

S.Given 5 Flapped at the ball which gave rise to the first goal. He is startlingly short of match practice, and is not the assured custodian he once was
S.St Ledger 4 Never got to grips with his attacking opponants. Found out when he was faced with a runner
K.Kilbane 4 Woefully beaten for the second goal. His tenacity doesnt make up for his all round lack of guile and absence of pace.
R.Dunne 6 Remained fairly solid in the face of abject failure.
J.O'Shea 4 Dominated for most of the night. Caught out off position far too often.
L.Lawrence 4 Given no service, and was unable to eak anything out of the game. One of his most ineffective in an Irish shirt
P.Green 3 This guy really takes the biscuit. Kernaghan, Kilbane, Breen, Delaney etc, nothing compares to how inadequate this guy is. Two poor performances in September and tonight should see this guy get his P45. He has no passing skills, and spends most of his time missing tackles
G.Whelan 3 No better then Green. Couldnt stamp any authority on the game, and it totally passed him by. When Ireland are on the back foot, he shouldnt be near the team.
A.McGeady 2 Lots of running masks the absence of any tangible threat. This guy is truly frustrating. He lost the ball so many times I lost count. He didnt swing in ONE decent ball, and is less likely to score on the left wing then Kilbane.
K.Doyle 5 A poor night for the reliable Doyle. He really never imposed himself, and was shackled by Russia's men at the back
R.Keane 4 Another goal for Keano, but he was poor on the night. I never saw him as likely to take a winning goal.

Subs
S.Long 7 Ireland's motm. Caused plenty of problems for Russia and chipped in with a nice goal.
K.Fahey 5 Looks a nuisance.
D.Gibson 5 Didnt see too much of him, but he was tracking back, and looked as though he was there by right.

Hard to read this cr*p, fair play Ireland, we were outplayed with our championship midfield, with no control in midfield it sickens me that we blame mcgeady (who was clearly man marked) and keane (who gave 100% effort and hardly recieved any service) when they don't recieve the ball only in long kicks like 1990 Jack Charlton stuff. So don't give gripe to the players when they clearly only follow orders from trap. In fact a draw would have been a great result and we nearly manged to snatch it in the end undeservadly.

NufcNavan

fox007 wrote: »

I feel the mid field is where we are lacking we need a new Roy keane there! But to have gibision on the bench when he is doing a lot for utd is crazy! I know he is not playing every game but either is robbie. Defense we are ok kilbane? I feel we need someone with fresh legs,strikers can score goals if they get the service from the midfield but at the minute who is is doing that? That's where are troubles are! Mid field

I hope this isn't the opinion of your typical boards.ie user when it comes to Irish International football...

^^^
2 for Mcgeady? He was poor but was definately not the worst player on the pitch.

starbelgrade

KungPao wrote: »

I was going to say it was like watching the behemoth of Chelsea playing the low-on-confidence-and-not-very-good Liverpool....but I didn't want to offend anybody!

Yes but you offended all the Blackpool supporter.

Dolph Starbeam

Het-Field wrote: »

A.McGeady 2 Lots of running masks the absence of any tangible threat. This guy is truly frustrating. He lost the ball so many times I lost count. He didnt swing in ONE decent ball, and is less likely to score on the left wing then Kilbane.

I'd have to give your ratings a rating of 1/10

Please get a grip, i seriously think people just blame McGeady to get a rise out of people on here sometimes. 3 good shots on goal and 3 good crosses i can think of off the top of my head. He has improved already from his time in Russia where he is encouraged to cut inside and have more shots on goal, it was clear tonight. Don't get me wrong, i am not saying McGeady was brilliant but he was easlily our best player tonight, EASILY!

Anyways at the moment Mceady is the least of the worries for the Irish team, get our centre midfield sorted first, then go from there.

DOC09UNAM

NufcNavan wrote: »

I hope this isn't the opinion of your typical boards.ie user when it comes to Irish International football...

^^^
2 for Mcgeady? He was poor but was definately not the worst player on the pitch.

Just wondering, which part of his opinion do you disagree with?

We need a great midfielder like Roy Keane?

Gibson would be better off on the pitch than the likes of green or whelan?

Strikers can score goals with a decent midfield creating oppurtunities?

And Irelands weakspot is midfield?

What part of that would you disagree with?

Jayob10

titan18 wrote: »

I think you missed the point of the post.No one is saying Clifford is ready either but he's promising as are Brady and Henderson imo.

You can go back a few pages to see what I'd like to be the team so why don't you cop yourself on

from the above post you made, you added Robbie Brady, a young winger at Man Utd to a list of players seen as alternatives to Paul Green.

1) Meyler is injured
2) Clifford is adjusting to U-21 football and is far too green for senior football.
3) Henderson is not even certain to play for ireland.

Its all well and good bringing up such names when we are obviously lacking in midfield but these boys are too young. meyler will feature when he returns to fitness.

IRISHSPORTSGUY

Jayob10 wrote: »

Meyler is injured

He'll be long fit by the time Macedonia come to town in March, our next competitive fixture after Slovakia.

Mr.Nice Guy

Is it fair to say Shane Long is our best prospect of all the young strikers we have? There was Sean Scannell but he seems off the radar now. Sheridan, well the jury is out on him. I'm not aware of too many other options. Doyle is 27 so we will hopefully have him fit and healthy for a good few years but I don't know who is going to succeed Robbie Keane. We might be still relying on him in 5 years at this rate.

NufcNavan

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

Just wondering, which part of his opinion do you disagree with?

We need a great midfielder like Roy Keane?

Gibson would be better off on the pitch than the likes of green or whelan?

Strikers can score goals with a decent midfield creating oppurtunities?

And Irelands weakspot is midfield?

What part of that would you disagree with?

We need a player like Pele too? It's a silly statement.

Gibson is extremely average and is only slightly better than Green.

Really? Such insightful analysis...

11 players were weakspots tonight.

Dolph Starbeam

IRISHSPORTSGUY wrote: »

He'll be long fit by the time Macedonia come to town in March, our next competitive fixture after Slovakia.

He really does look good but hasn't had much time to really tell how he will do and hopefully can force his way into the team for next March.

Right now i really cannot understand why James McCarthy is being left out, if anyone has seen him play this season he has been top class, he is so calm on the ball and makes great runs from deep, very similar to Stephen I******. McCarthy was also up for the MOTM award in Wigans 6-0 defeat to Chelsea, he also showed he has balls in that game with a nice sholder on JT

I do feel all this talk is rather pointless as Trap seems very stuborn and always does his own thing. When is his contract up? 2012?

Ferris_Bueller

Didn't actually get to watch the match tonight, but the amount of people getting on Traps case is amazing. We're 3rd seeds, through most non tinted glasses we are the third best team in this group. Fair enough if we were outclassed tonight, that probably shouldn't happen at home anyway, but Russia have a much superior team than we do, so a 3-2 defeat is hardly a disaster is it?

Although some people are completely against the excuse "we don't have the players", I think that is what it comes down to in the end. I know we have 1 or 2 players who should be starting ahead of the likes of Green, Kilbane and Whelan or whoever, but ffs lads they're hardly world beaters we have. James McCarthy isn't exactly a key player for a poor Wigan team (he has potential though), Fahey isn't a regular for Birmingham, Coleman another non regular for Everton. It's the same as what people were like with Steven Reid, going on about him as if he would miraculously win us every game we play, but hate to break it to yas lads, Ireland have no world class players and very few above average players.

What can we expect? Trap has done a grand job IMO, and while a defeat tonight is a major let down, we can hardly be expected to win. That's just my 2 cents, although it could be different if I had of watched the match.

starbelgrade

MOG7 wrote: »

I do feel all this talk is rather pointless as Trap seems very stuborn and always does his own thing. When is his contract up? 2012?

All managers are stubborn. The best ones even more so. I seriously cannot believe that anyone would ask when his contract is up when he's lost just one game in this campaign.

You can't win 'em all in football & I guarantee that he & the team will learn a lot of lessons from this game.

Dolph Starbeam

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Is it fair to say Shane Long is our best prospect of all the young strikers we have? There was Sean Scannell but he seems off the radar now. Sheridan, well the jury is out on him. I'm not aware of too many other options. Doyle is 27 so we will hopefully have him fit and healthy for a good few years but I don't know who is going to succeed Robbie Keane. We might be still relying on him in 5 years at this rate.

Trap has said he reckons McGeady would be good playing as a 2nd striker so maybe thats his thinking. Other than that i can't think of a whole lot. Stokes maybe, still a lot younger than people think, very strong and has an eye for goal, I'm not saying he's great but its the best we have.

Johner

d22ontour wrote: »

You realise how many chances Blackpool created in that game ? 11 attempts against the mighty fookin Chelsea.If you watched the game you would have seen quite a decent game.I would say many Chelsea fans were embarrassed by the 2nd half.
I dread United playing them tbh...

Haha great, it was 4-0 at half time. :rolleyes: Decent game is right.

Dolph Starbeam

starbelgrade wrote: »

All managers are stubborn. The best ones even more so. I seriously cannot believe that anyone would ask when his contract is up when he's lost just one game in this campaign.

You can't win 'em all in football & I guarantee that he & the team will learn a lot of lessons from this game.

I didn't mean it like that, it was just a simple question as to when his contract is up. I presume its until after the Euros.

DOC09UNAM

NufcNavan wrote: »

We need a player like Pele too? It's a silly statement.

Gibson is extremely average and is only slightly better than Green.

Really? Such insightful analysis...

11 players were weakspots tonight.

Good one mate.

dan1895

Just in from the game. Worst home display in a long time. Lost all faith in that team and will be giving up my ticket soon as its not worth the money. The goals we scored we didn't deserve (obvious dive for the peno). Not one player performed to their potential. Another hockeying on tuesday if we play like that again.
PS that was probably the worst team to ever beat us in lansdowne as they were ****e, we were just much worse! End rant, goodnight!

FatherTed

Where's Joey Lapira when you need him?

Xavi6

Joyce Country wrote: »

can't believe people on here are giving out about mcgeady again.

he was our best player going forward by a mile and at the centre of everything positive we did. or maybe i was watching a different match to some of ye's.....

He was quite good in an attacking sense but when it comes to putting in a shift to help his full back he is a disgrace.

It was his full back that put in the cross for the second goal. You can actually see McGeady ball watching on the replay then eventually turn and try get back in position.

The Pogrebnyak miss in the last minute came directly as a result of him just letting Zhirkov go. The two were side by side on the touchline but when Zhirkov went on the overlap McGeady just stood there.

He has some fine assets but if he keeps playing as a winger he is more of a liability than he is worth and we need Stephen Hunt back.

Boskowski

Last night wasn't a good performance but the best teams in the world have kack days too. Ireland are punching above their weight for quite a while now considering the player material available. Throw in the fact that some of the guys you'd expect to show leadership are seriously off form or aren't getting first team football and a game like this was waiting to happen. No surprise it was coming against a good passing side either. When you're stretched in terms of quality you can't afford players to have off days but they do have em, everybody does.
What made you think that 6 points from Andorra (seriously) and Armenia enables you to 'walk the group' in the first place?
It's going to be a battle and it always was.

Dempsey

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Is it fair to say Shane Long is our best prospect of all the young strikers we have? There was Sean Scannell but he seems off the radar now. Sheridan, well the jury is out on him. I'm not aware of too many other options. Doyle is 27 so we will hopefully have him fit and healthy for a good few years but I don't know who is going to succeed Robbie Keane. We might be still relying on him in 5 years at this rate.

Stokes is doing well at Celtic, been a right livewire in the SPL for Hibs last season too

tinofapples

I know the 2 boys in the middle have been getting stick for awhile now but wasn't it sooo obvious last night that Whelan in particular was strolling around and really so far off the pace he should have sat on his arse ?? Now I know he was carrying some sort of a knock but why the hell was he left on for so long ? Jesus Christ centre of midfield is probably the most vital position on the pitch.

Trap really needs to open up the selection cause I was screaming for Gibson to be brought on and he wasn't much of an improvement on a clearly injured Whelan.

Terribly disappointed with the performance and result. Wouldn't this look much nicer today :

Ireland 9pts
Slovakia 6pts
Russia 3pts

mike65

1200 replies, quite something.