LOI Playoff: UCD v Galway. October 27th & 31st

Hammer Archer

Thought I may as well start a thread for these two games. Obviously won't be a hell of a lot of interest, but why not?

1st Leg: UCD Bowl, October 27th, 7.45pm
2nd Leg: Éamonn Deacy Park, October 31st, 7.45pm

UCD and Galway go head to head over two legs this evening in Belfield and on Friday evening in Galway for the right to play in the Premier League next season.
Galway beat Shelbourne 4-1 over two legs to get this far after finishing third in Division 1 while UCD won their last two games of the season 1-0 to somehow stay ahead of Athlone in the automatic relegation place.

Galway are 2/5 favourites to win over two legs which seems about right. UCD have conceded more goals (71) and scored the fewest (27) in the entire league. To make matters worse, Player of the Year Robbie Benson is suspended for the first leg as is Robbie Creevey. Dean Clarke and Ayman Ben Mohamed are still out but Hugh Douglas and Chris Mulhall are back from suspension.
Galway people can probably help me out with their team news.

The two teams met in the FAI cup earlier in the year in Belfield and Galway won more easily than the 3-1 scoreline suggested.

I had been resigned to relegation just a couple of weeks back but two encouraging results have given me a bit of hope. Though Creevey and especially Benson being out tonight has dented that a bit.
Expect tonight's result to be a 1-2 win for Galway with them seeing it through in the return leg on Friday.

hjkl

Hopefully Galway come up. They have a decent sized fan base and a nice stadium. It would be great to have 5 premier teams outside Leinster next year aswell.

GLaDOS

Either of these on the telly? The play off final is usually a entertaining affair.

hjkl

ScienceNerd wrote: »

Either of these on the telly? The play off final is usually a entertaining affair.

It's usually on Setanta. Doesn't seem to be this year though.

tastyt

frimpong wrote: »

It's usually on Setanta. Doesn't seem to be this year though.

Think all tv stations shy away from a ucd game unfortunately because of fan base. Have a soft spot for ucd and they have produced more players than anybody but can see the argument for a Galway side in the top flr being better for the league as a ' product '

kksaints

Have nothing against either team but it would probably be better for the league as a whole if Galway get promoted. Hopefully they will be good games and its a shame that they arent on TV. There has been some memorable playoff matches over the years.

CSF

kksaints wrote: »

Have nothing against either team but it would probably be better for the league as a whole if Galway get promoted. Hopefully they will be good games and its a shame that they arent on TV. There has been some memorable playoff matches over the years.

Would it? How many negative headlines have UCD brought the league in your time? How many have the rest of us? We've all been guilty of this over the years, almost with the exception of UCD, Galway in particular here considering they couldn't even be a club for 2 years over it.

losthorizon

Any club who had Father Ted as a supporter are OK by me!

deisedude

Is the first leg on the radio?

Here now. Good atmosphere building up

CrowdedHouse

Supposed to be on Galway Bay FM

http://galwaybayfm.ie/listen/

Bridge93

Been quite impressed with the UCD goalkeeper Conor O Donnell this year. if it wasn't for him they would have conceded a heap more than they have!

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

UCD winning 1-0 thanks to a Timmy Molloy goal then in the 89th and 91st minute Galway go 2-1 up..

GLaDOS

Galway run out 2-1 winners having been 1-0 down until the 89th minute. There's always drama in these games!

Hammer Archer

That f*cking hurt.

That was an absolute kick in the nads.

You could argue that Galway deserved it, but still...

We were basically camped in our half in the 2nd half

Do away goals count should it be an aggerate draw after Fridays game?

Open to correction but don't think so

gugsy

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Expect tonight's result to be a 1-2 win for Galway with them seeing it through in the return leg on Friday.

Hammer Archer wrote: »

That f*cking hurt.

You did call it tho

Hammer Archer

As stunner dunner said, Galway deserved it but to concede 2 in 3 minutes is sickening (and it would have been 3 if it wasn't for O'Donnell).
Would be interesting to see the second half possession stats. Wouldn't be surprised if Galway had 80%+ that's how bad we were. Benson and Creevey back for Friday so all is not lost.

Pinturicchio

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Would be interesting to see the second half possession stats. Wouldn't be surprised if Galway had 80%+ that's how bad we were.

The corner count was 13-0 to Galway.

_Puma_

We were very nervy in the first half against Shels up in Tolka in the second leg of the 1st Div playoff. Hopefully its not the same on Friday in Terryland. Could see UCD getting a goal if we played like that again then all bets are off.

Hopefully a big crowd will fill out the two stands and break the top gate mark from our first game. ~2100 if I remember correctly.

civis_liberalis

I was on PP there and I saw the odds for the second leg of this. They hugely favour Galway. One goal from UCD and the tie is all square...

Match Betting
8/15 Galway
11/4 - Draw
5/1 - UCD

To Advance
1/25 - Galway
17/2 - UCD

CSF

civis_liberalis wrote: »

I was on PP there and I saw the odds for the second leg of this. They hugely favour Galway. One goal from UCD and the tie is all square...

Match Betting
Galway| Draw | UCD
8/15|11/4 |5/1

To Advance
Galway|UCD
1/25|7/2

Yeah but in all likelihood Galway will probably stretch the gap further, Paddy Power's margin there on the 'to advance' market is absolutely hilarious though.

Hammer Archer

Our problem on Monday in the second half was that we simply couldn't get any sort of possession mainly because we had the likes of Kavanagh, Crowe and Burke in midfield. We resorted to hoofing the ball straight back to Galway. We'll have Benson and Creevey back on Friday so that should improve things immeasurably. Galway obviously are favourites but I don't think we'll roll over. Gutted I can't make it.

dundalkfc10

civis_liberalis wrote: »

I was on PP there and I saw the odds for the second leg of this. They hugely favour Galway. One goal from UCD and the tie is all square...

Match Betting
8/15 Galway
11/4 - Draw
5/1 - UCD

To Advance
1/25 - Galway
7/2 - UCD

UCD have to win the match betting to have a chance of advancing yet are 7/2 to advance and 5/1 win the match

Someone in PP was drunk doing them. Some drunk punters will prob back the 7/2 to advance though

Rushden

dundalkfc10 wrote: »

UCD have to win the match betting to have a chance of advancing yet are 7/2 to advance and 5/1 win the match

Someone in PP was drunk doing them. Some drunk punters will prob back the 7/2 to advance though

They're 17/2 to advance not 7/2

UnleashTheBeast

Huge game tomorrow for both clubs.

Creevy and Benson are back for UCD, Byrne is back for Galway. Both teams should essentially be at full strength.

Over the course of the 90 minutes I felt we were the better side in Belfield.

I'm definitely feeling a bit anxious but we're unbeaten in 10 League games and we've scored in the last 12 games straight. If we score the first goal then I feel that's that.

Looking forward to a big crowd at Terryland Park.

Mars Bar

Picked up my ticket today. The number on it is 3,100+. Hopefully that's how many tickets they've sold so far coz that would be a fantastic attendance!

ben.schlomo

Mars Bar wrote: »

Picked up my ticket today. The number on it is 3,100+. Hopefully that's how many tickets they've sold so far coz that would be a fantastic attendance!

Getting mine in the morning, big crowd would be great, harking back to the first game under floodlights against Cork all those years ago.

monkey9

Will there be any radio commentary for this?

deisedude

monkey9 wrote: »

Will there be any radio commentary for this?

Should be on Galway Bay fm

Fitz*

Was looking to get tickets on the gate, it will hardly be sold out before then would it?

_Puma_

4500 is the capacity for the night. They have predicted ~3000 have been sold/given to sellers already. Cant see it been sold out but I'm getting less and less sure of that as it get closer. Have only missed one or two games in Terryland this year so to be sure I might just head up a half an hour before kick off. There has been a major push on Local clubs to turn up and support so I would expect a lot of U12's(Who get in for free) so that might put some pressure on Capacity.

UnleashTheBeast

FitzShane wrote: »

Was looking to get tickets on the gate, it will hardly be sold out before then would it?

You won't get turned away, don't worry.

The only thing that might be an annoyance for you is large queues at the ground for tickets.

Gavin "shels"

Can't see UCD turning it around tbh.

Tried thinking up some gag about UCD being the Premier side and Galway being the 1st Division side but I couldn't think up one, disappointed in myself...

CHealy

All credit to UCD for consistently producing teams that manage to stay up but from a pure selfish point of view, I really hope Galway finish the job tonight.

_Puma_

We need a big games from Ryan Connoly and the two boys in centre half, Walsh and Barret. Cannot afford to concede from another set piece like we did against Shels. I'd expect us to to play 5 in Midfield to try and shut down any possession UCD are bound to have with their lads returning from Injury.

Do those two things right and I can see us scoring when we have the ball. Prediction. 2-0 Galway, 4-1 agg

All is not lost.

There is precedent for college pulling out unlikely results!

ben.schlomo

Deleted User wrote: »

All is not lost.

There is precedent for college pulling out unlikely results!

Ah yeah anyone going up thinking its over is deluding themselves but we are favourites for a reason, an early UCD goal changes everything whereas an early one for us and we could do the students all night on the counter-attack.

ben.schlomo

ben.schlomo wrote: »

Ah yeah anyone going up thinking its over is deluding themselves but we are favourites for a reason, an early UCD goal changes everything whereas an early one for us and we could do the students all night on the counter-attack.

Oh I agree, I think you are overwhelming favourites but I feel a lot more positive about it than I did at 9.30 on Monday!

Mars Bar

Decent crowd showing up already. Car park filling up much quicker than against shels.

gugsy

1 -0 galway Shanahan G. 45min 3 - 1 agg

gugsy

2 - 0 Ryan Manning 72 min 4-1 agg All over now

Omackeral

2-0 Galway.

That 4-1 on Agg. Can't see a way back for UCD.

dundalkfc10

Cant wait for Galway away next year (hope we get them twice away)

gugsy

3-0

Omackeral

Any reports of attendance from Deasy park? Or atmosphere?

I hope it works out for Galway this time around. Was over there last year and they had a decent presence on Shop Street with advertising and a raffle ticket kiosk (from which I bought a few). The lads running it were sound, especially when I told them I was on my way to Limerick to watch Bohs in the Cup the next day.

gugsy

Omackeral wrote: »

Any reports of attendance from Deasy park? Or atmosphere?

Was listening on the radio sounded like a great crowd they never gave the attendance tho.

GLaDOS

ET have the attendance as 2890

legendary.xix

Congrats to Galway FC!