Limerick FC 2017 season.

AlanOB

You can listen back to Limerick Soccer Live's coverage of last night's game here, if you are so inclined!

http://mixlr.com/limerick-soccer-live/showreel/limerick-fc-1-1-galway-united-apr-21-pd/

Follow me on Twitter at @alanob2112 too, to avoid missing out on future broadcasts

AlanOB

This week's tactical piece:

Limerick 1-1 Galway United: Second-half change of shape earns point for winless Tribesmen

osarusan

Derry 1-1 Limerick

(Duggan)

Had my ear glued to BBC Foyle for this match, rearranged after the floodlight failure early in the season.

Limerick started well, and were the better team for most of the first half. We took the lead after 12 minutes when Duggan beat a player and fired a shot in from about 20 yards out. The Derry commentators felt we were comfortable in the first half and Derry never really troubled us.

It was a different story in the second half, by the sounds of it. Derry upped the tempo and were putting us under pressure for most of the half. The equalised from a freekick on the hour, and continued to press. We had to make some last ditch tackles to keep goals out, but also had some chances of our own on the break, with two good chances within a minute, by the sounds of it.

We were holding on by the end, but did hold on for a very good away point, and keep Derry below is in the table, as we stay in 4th place. It also means no defeats in 4 games since Russell left.

Next game: away to Shamrock Rovers, Friday 28th April, 8pm.

washman3

Fine result and a valuable point gained.
5 points out of a possible 9 since the Cork 'debacle' and could easily have been 7.
The Galway game was an opportunity lost, however things are looking up.

civis_liberalis

osarusan

washman3 wrote: »

Fine result and a valuable point gained.
5 points out of a possible 9 since the Cork 'debacle' and could easily have been 7.
The Galway game was an opportunity lost, however things are looking up.

8 out of 12 - wins against Pats and Drogheda, draws with Galway and Derry.

PhuckHugh

osarusan wrote: »

Derry 1-1 Limerick

(Duggan)

Had my ear glued to BBC Foyle for this match, rearranged after the floodlight failure early in the season.

Limerick started well, and were the better team for most of the first half. We took the lead after 12 minutes when Duggan beat a player and fired a shot in from about 20 yards out. The Derry commentators felt we were comfortable in the first half and Derry never really troubled us.

It was a different story in the second half, by the sounds of it. Derry upped the tempo and were putting us under pressure for most of the half. The equalised from a freekick on the hour, and continued to press. We had to make some last ditch tackles to keep goals out, but also had some chances of our own on the break, with two good chances within a minute, by the sounds of it.

We were holding on by the end, but did hold on for a very good away point, and keep Derry below is in the table, as we stay in 4th place. It also means no defeats in 4 games since Russell left.

Next game: away to Shamrock Rovers, Friday 28th April, 8pm.

Was listening also ... Expected pressure second half but sounded like we defended reasonably well and dug it out at times. Great to hear considering how jittery we were defensively at the start of the season...

washman3

osarusan wrote: »

8 out of 12 - wins against Pats and Drogheda, draws with Galway and Derry.

Ya, forgot about the Drogheda win.:o
Makes it an even more impressive tally.

osarusan

Highlights of the 1-1 draw at Derry here:

https://www.facebook.com/derrycityfc/videos/10155988979733906/

Lovely goals from both teams. Mulhall had a great chance after a terrible backpass too.

AlanOB

Back on air this evening, from 19.50-ish, at http://mixlr.com/limerick-soccer-live/, for the clash of Shamrock Rovers and Limerick.

Check it out if you can't make it!

osarusan

Shamrock Rovers 1-1 Limerick

(Tosi)

Rodrigo Tosi grabbed a late equaliser in Tallaght tonight to leave Limerick unbeaten in 5 games.

It was an even opening 20 minutes, but Rovers went ahead with a glancing near post header from an inswinging corner. Limerick struggled to respond and didn't fashion any chances at all until a fairly tame Hery shot right on halftime.

It was much the same in the second half, with Limerick slow and fairly rudderless at times, even against a limited Rovers team. A Tosi header and a couple of long range shots was all we had to show for our efforts, and when a Tosi shot in front of goal was blocked down, it looked like our chance had gone.

But late late on, Ogbene got free down the right and finally put a ball into the box. O'Flynn couldn't get on the end of the low cross, but Tosi did, poking the ball high into the net.

We finish the first series of games in an impressive 4th position.

Next game: away to Sligo, Saturday May 6th.

AlanOB

You can listen back to my solo effort in Tallaght last night.

Apologies again for the internet failure (out of my hands) between 1.35.00 and 1.40.00, but thankfully coverage returned for John O'Flynn's introduction and the subsequent mayhem it caused!

AlanOB

You can also read my analysis of the Rovers/Limerick game here.

Mutant z

It looks like it will be a good season ahead for the boys in blue, a top half finish is on the cards.

Insect Overlord

How many points did we finish on the season we were relegated? Somewhere around 25?

A_Sober_Paddy

29 points

PhuckHugh

While a succession of draws aren't great the team is developing a bit of grit at least... Need a couple of wins to put a bit of distance between us and the bottom half .. .. 6 teams will be involved in the relegation battle and we don't want to be near it when the real scrapping happens.

Jofspring

The point coming so late will hopefully give the team confidence going into the Sligo game on Saturday. If we had lost the game to Rovers it would have been worrying but the way we got the draw gave the team a bit of a buzz.

johnnyryan89

Mutant z wrote: »

It looks like it will be a good season ahead for the boys in blue, a top half finish is on the cards.

I don't know about that, I think we'd have to wait and see how the next six games go before thinking about a top half finish. While we are five points off third we're also only six points off tenth. Willie has done well to steady the ship with two wins and two clean sheets in his first two games but dropped valuable points against Galway and possibly Derry but these run of games also included three games in a week.

It's also hard to say how we will do in the second round of games as we might have a new manager come the summer break but luckily we have Dundalk, Derry and Bray at home before the summer break but tricky trips to Dalymount and Finn Park.

What I'm really impressed with so far is that we have the second lowest goals conceded so far with 10 goals but with that we've scored 15 but a third of them came in one game against a piss poor Sligo.

osarusan

Mutant z wrote: »

It looks like it will be a good season ahead for the boys in blue, a top half finish is on the cards.

Apart from Cork, and to a lesser extent Dundalk, everybody else is very much hit and miss.

Bray were woeful when we played them, yet look where they are. Drogheda were appalling, but have had some decent results.

We are equally capable of losing or winning 4 or 5 in a row. For an hour against a limited Rovers team, we were a shambles.

We'll need to improve or hope that the rest stay just as shaky as us.

osarusan

Highlights or our 1-1 draw away to Rovers here:
http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/soccer-republic-30002764/10720648/?ap=1

Footage starts at 38.30.

AlanOB

AlanOB wrote: »

Back on air this evening, from 19.50-ish, at http://mixlr.com/limerick-soccer-live/, for the clash of Shamrock Rovers and Limerick.

Check it out if you can't make it!

On the road again, for the Sligo game tomorrow; with live coverage available at the link above.

osarusan

Sligo 3-0 Limerick

A very poor performance from Limerick tonight as our unbeaten run ended.

We started terribly, and were behind after just 2 minutes. A cross to the far post was headed back across goal and as Limerick players left it to each other, a Sligo player had time to smash it into the top corner.

It got even worse when another ball into the box caused havoc. Clarke came to collect, Williams left it for him, but a Sligo player got in between to hook it away from them, and it fell kindly for a Sligo player to sidefoot into the empty net.

After that awful start we got into the game a bit but didn't create much all all apart from a few crosses and harmless shots.

We hoped that the second half would be different, but we conceded soon after the restart. From a low cross, a touch from Paul O’Conor forced Clarke to make a save, but a Sligo player was quickest to react and sid2efoot in from a yard out.

We huffed and puffed but never created anything really, and it was over long before the referee blew the final whistle.

Next game: home to Derry, Friday May 12th, 7.45pm.

AlanOB

Belated analysis of Limerick's heavy loss at Sligo Rovers; newly-rebalanced at the hands of Ger Lyttle: http://bit.ly/2pTQEKo

diusmr8a504cvk

This is just a thought but if Galway get relegated what are the chances we'd sign Gary Shanahan?

AlanOB

Lilyana Uneven Dishcloth wrote: »

This is just a thought but if Galway get relegated what are the chances we'd sign Gary Shanahan?

Decent, but Limerick already have two right-wingers that aren't getting a look in!

johnnyryan89

AlanOB wrote: »

Decent, but Limerick already have two right-wingers that aren't getting a look in!

And come next season they'll be back playing first division football. Only for Russell re-signed Turner he'd more than likely be playing with Cobh.

osarusan

Turner might get another premier division team.

Kenny isn't any good even at first division level. Signing him was a sign of just how desperate we had become.

osarusan

Soccer Republic highlights of our 3-0 loss in sligo here, starting at 33.38.

http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/soccer-republic-30002764/10723660/?ap=1

My word, we were woeful.

Jofspring

osarusan wrote: »

Soccer Republic highlights of our 3-0 loss in sligo here, starting at 33.38.

http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/soccer-republic-30002764/10723660/?ap=1

My word, we were woeful.

I can't even bring myself to watch it.