Italy v. Ireland | 7th June | KO: 19:45 in Liege | SS2

Raskolnikov

You would have to also say that Anthony Stokes has probably pushed himself out of the reckoning for the Irish team bar some sort of miracle season at Celtic next year. Mark Wilson too hasn't done himself any favours.

Dublin_Gunner

Seriously. I cannot believe our recent results.

Is that 6 wins out of the last 7 without conceding?

bonerm

steelcityblues wrote: »

Problem is, we have got a lot of wins against traditional powerhouses in friendlies, then blown it in the competitive matches.

Just hope history does not repeat itself.

Ironically, I think problem is we have to play some of our games at home.

Under Trap we're still undefeated away in all games whereas we've lost several times at home already. In this regard I'm starting to be more worried about Slovakia (H) than Russia (A).

Dean820

Raskolnikov wrote: »

You would have to also say that Anthony Stokes has probably pushed himself out of the reckoning for the Irish team bar some sort of miracle

And rightly so.

Cypher_sounds

Raskolnikov wrote: »

You would have to also say that Anthony Stokes has probably pushed himself out of the reckoning for the Irish team bar some sort of miracle season at Celtic next year. Mark Wilson too hasn't done himself any favours.

I hope i never see Stokes play for Ireland again even if he scores 50 goals for Celtic next season after his pathetic excuse of being tired when called up this time.

Aoibheann

Here's some info on how the ranking points are calculated, it explains what value is on each factor (difficulty of opposition, what type of match, win/draw/loss, etc), just in case anyone hasn't seen it.

TheRedDevil10

Geordie Shore

population

When I heard McShane was capt I decided not to watch this as a protest. Then I heard a groan from the neighbours and though that we must have scored. So being a fairweather fan I turned on to watch as we managed to have no possesion and still look convincing in our 2 nil win

Anyway the Italian commentators are ranting about Coleman and Hunt and Trap is about to give a very self satisfied interview on RAI. Let ya'll know if he says anything interesting:)

Dempsey

Raskolnikov wrote: »

You would have to also say that Anthony Stokes has probably pushed himself out of the reckoning for the Irish team bar some sort of miracle season at Celtic next year. Mark Wilson too hasn't done himself any favours.

Stokes is doing his best to ruin his Celtic career too

steelcityblues

bonerm wrote: »

Ironically, I think problem is we have to play some of our games at home.

Under Trap we're still undefeated away in all games whereas we've lost several times at home already. In this regard I'm starting to be more worried about Slovakia (H) than Russia (A).

Russia look the better of the two teams though!

flahavaj

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Seriously. I cannot believe our recent results.

Is that 6 wins out of the last 7 without conceding?

Could it be that when Trap gets his players for an extended period of time like he has lately he proves what some of us have always known - that he's a very competent manager who's bery good at organising his teams and making them hard to beat?

Cypher_sounds

population wrote: »

When I heard McShane was capt I decided not to watch this as a protest. Then I heard a groan from the neighbours and though that we must have scored. So being a fairweather fan I turned on to watch as we managed to have no possesion and still look convincing in our 2 nil win

Anyway the Italian commentators are ranting about Coleman and Hunt and Trap is about to give a very self satisfied interview on RAI. Let ya'll know if he says anything interesting:)

I just think Traps tactics suit the kinda players he has at his disposable perfectly.

Raskolnikov

Dempsey wrote: »

Stokes is doing his best to ruin his Celtic career too

How so?

TheRedDevil10

Result: Faroe Islands 2-0 Estonia

uberwolf

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Downloaded an image of Bart with the blackboard. Bit of photoshop and added text in layer above using Buxton sketch font.

2 minutes work.

15 seconds work

Stevecw

What a win, no idea how we did it...as we never seemed to have the ball!
Ledger & O'Dea were very solid, Andrews did well, and Hunt as always ran around like a madman but did well. Was also very impressed by Forde, he is unlucky that Given and Westwood are top class, but he is def a great 3rd choice. We are spoiled for choice with keepers.

orourkeda

bonerm wrote: »

Ironically, I think problem is we have to play some of our games at home.

Under Trap we're still undefeated away in all games whereas we've lost several times at home already. In this regard I'm starting to be more worried about Slovakia (H) than Russia (A).

I don;t think we have too much to fear. While, we cant be certain of victory i believe neither fixture isi anything to be afraid of.

stiffler123

steelcityblues wrote: »

Russia look the better of the two teams though!

They have only really looked convincing against us though. I think we have a great chance.

Dempsey

Raskolnikov wrote: »

How so?

He has been fined several times by the club this season, what exactly happened in these cases isnt clear but he's getting alot of 'tough love' from Lennon, plus you have his father talking ****e in the media which isnt helping and he's not happy at being on the bench for big matches.

Brain Stroking

Brilliant performance and we looked very compact. With a lot of second string players too. Trapatoni has got this bunch of players playing well. Tonight was impressive

steelcityblues

stiffler123 wrote: »

They have only really looked convincing against us though. I think we have a great chance.

Pavlyuchenko scoring a hat trick the other night?

I'm not going to be too optimistic, irrespective of the Slovakia result.

noodler

I am terrified of going to Moscow to be honest.

Slovakia at home doesn't put the fear of god into me but the last time we beat a rival for top spot in pur qualification groups is still 2001.

I just hope we have the means to break them down.

Mr. Guappa

Great result to round off a very pleasing couple of weeks.

People may question the value of players like McShane and Keogh but Trap obviously trusts them to fill a role. Neither are likely to feature in a competitive game unless we have a major injury crisis.

Trap has built up a large pool of players who buy into what he is preaching. The teamwork and knowledge of their role in the system demonstrated by a 2nd/3rd string line-up tonight bodes very well for the future.

Hoki

Great win , didnt have a lot of the ball but the second goal was an excellent counter attack. Iv usually shyed away from hopping on the bandwagon when it comes to ripping on McShane but my God i just have to after watching him tonight , how he has made it as a footballer is beyond me - he is absolutely attrocious. Iv never seen as many misplaced passes from a single player in a game in my life, i just hope Trap noticed this as well as he shouldnt be within an asses roar of this team for friendly or competitive games.

RGDATA!

Stevecw wrote: »

We are spoiled for choice with keepers.

we always have been really. was looking up Gerry Peyton, didn't realise he's now the Arsenal goalkeeping coach. Always remember him as an excellent 2nd/3rd choice who never let us down. Only played 33 times in 15 years

Full replay of the game on TG4 now (10.30pm) for anyone who missed it!

Pro. F

I only got to see the last 20 minutes of this and that was on a choppy stream. So I can't comment much on the performance other than to say it looked like the lads were working like Trojans which is always good to see.

A good result which most importantly will be great for confidence going forward.

Dublin_Gunner

uberwolf wrote: »

15 seconds work

= my way is better :P

tolosenc

In terms of the Elo world rankings, we are now 10th in Europe, 20th in the World. This ranking gives a fairer reflection, I feel, of the team's actual strength. In terms of FIFA Rank, we may be inside the top 30, but we'll almost certainly be in Pot 3 for the World Cup draw at the end of July.

steelcityblues

tolosenc wrote: »

In terms of the Elo world rankings, we are now 10th in Europe, 20th in the World. This ranking gives a fairer reflection, I feel, of the team's actual strength. In terms of FIFA Rank, we may be inside the top 30, but we'll almost certainly be in Pot 3 for the World Cup draw at the end of July.

How did Norway get in pot 1 though, when they have a longer absence from big tournaments? More FIFA nonsense.

Stevecw

RGDATA! wrote: »

we always have been really. was looking up Gerry Peyton, didn't realise he's now the Arsenal goalkeeping coach. Always remember him as an excellent 2nd/3rd choice who never let us down. Only played 33 times in 15 years

Full replay of the game on TG4 now (10.30pm) for anyone who missed it!

I am too young to remember Gerry playing , but from reading stuff about the early Charlton days it seems he filled in for a couple of big qualifiers. After that we had bonner/Kelly, then Kelly/Given, then Given/Kiely/Kenny, now Given/Westwood/Forde.

Always lucky with keepers.