LOI: League of Ireland Fixtures (Week 1), Feb 16-17

dfx-

Premier Division

Friday, February 16th, 2018

Bohemians v Shamrock Rovers - Dalymount Park

St. Patrick's Ath. v Cork City - Richmond Park

Dundalk v Bray Wanderers - Oriel Park

Waterford FC v Derry City - RSC

Saturday, February 17th, 2018

Sligo Rovers v Limerick - Showgrounds

General info

https://www.rte.ie/sport/league-of-ireland/

http://www.sseairtricityleague.ie

http://www.extratime.ie

Soccer Republic - Highlights show on RTE Two on Monday nights, 7pm.

Try out a game near you. Click a fixture link for stadium details.

See club sites for ticket info:

Shamrock Rovers FC
Cork City
Dundalk FC
Derry City
St Patrick's Athletic
Bray Wanderers
Sligo Rovers
Limerick FC
Waterford FC
Bohemians

Mushy

This is going to be painful I imagine. Unless the unthinkable happens and the owners don't mess up, then it could be fun! Won't hold my breath

Gavin "shels"

Mushy wrote: »

This is going to be painful I imagine. Unless the unthinkable happens and the owners don't mess up, then it could be fun! Won't hold my breath

I was close with my prediction last year for Brays demise... I'm going to go with the End of April this time around! :pac:

dfx-

Bohs and Rovers are lined up to the archetypal, awful, LOI 0-0 under the spotlight game after the build up and hype..

kksaints

Tough match to start with but I'm rather hopefully we can get something from the match on Friday. Certainly our midfield is much stronger than the start of last season. Cork seem to have gone for squad depth rather than quality with some of their signings but they still have an impressive squad with McNamee and Sadlier in particular big threats.

NIMAN

I have a feeling we might be happy with a point in Waterford, tough enough game to start on.

Plus we haven't been pulling up any trees on pre-season.

Lyle Lanley

We need to be beating Limerick or were not in for a good year.

GLaDOS

Can't wait for tomorrow night, going to be bedlam in Dalymount.

As dfx says however, a dull 0-0 wouldn't surprise me. Both managers will be desperate not to lose.

CHealy

Opening days are always a bit of a mess, we have a better team than Pats on paper and especially with them having so many new players I would expect a City win, but all in all I would be happy with a draw and get the first one out of the way with.

major bill

dfx- wrote: »

Bohs and Rovers are lined up to the archetypal, awful, LOI 0-0 under the spotlight game after the build up and hype..

100% although I went with the 1-0 Bohs I can see it being an awful game!

Oat23

Lyle Lanley wrote: »

We need to be beating Limerick or were not in for a good year.

We are desperately short in defense and I am not confident with Schlings in goal either, though that keeper from Chelsea might still join on loan.

Hopefully I'm surprised but right now I'm low on confidence. There's some potential in the attack at least.

Mint Sauce

Oat23 wrote: »

We are desperately short in defense and I am not confident with Schlings in goal either, though that keeper from Chelsea might still join on loan.

Hopefully I'm surprised but right now I'm low on confidence. There's some potential in the attack at least.

Sligo 3000th game this weekend as well. Hoping for a big crowd, with local and social media promotion for it.

overshoot

Oat23 wrote: »

We are desperately short in defense and I am not confident with Schlings in goal either, though that keeper from Chelsea might still join on loan.

Hopefully I'm surprised but right now I'm low on confidence. There's some potential in the attack at least.

I think ye have a much better first XI than this time last year. Maybe not great depth but im guessing the budget was trimmed to cater for the loss last year?
McAleer could be a big player for you this year and should do really well on the showgrounds pitch. Seems to be where he left off last year, chipping in with a few goals pre-season.

Oat23

overshoot wrote: »

I think ye have a much better first XI than this time last year. Maybe not great depth but im guessing the budget was trimmed to cater for the loss last year?
McAleer could be a big player for you this year and should do really well on the showgrounds pitch. Seems to be where he left off last year, chipping in with a few goals pre-season.

Our budget was actually increased despite making a loss last year and no obvious extra income streams for the coming season (apart from 2 extra home games).

The MC are playing a dangerous game and were rightly called out on it at the AGM on Monday. They expect the town to dig into their pockets again with another fundraiser later this year if things don't work out on the pitch no doubt.

Mint Sauce

Oat23 wrote: »

Our budget was actually increased despite making a loss last year and no obvious extra income streams for the coming season (apart from 2 extra home games).

The MC are playing a dangerous game and were rightly called out on it at the AGM on Monday. They expect the town to dig into their pockets again with another fundraiser later this year if things don't work out on the pitch no doubt.

Re arranged fixtures as well, due to work at the Brandywell, means we will have another extended period of no homegames. Less money in the coffers during that period again.

doncarlos

Dundalk down to the bare bones but hopefully should have enough to get passed Bray. I wouldn't be adding Dundalk into any accumulators.... Just in case

overshoot

Oat23 wrote: »

Our budget was actually increased despite making a loss last year and no obvious extra income streams for the coming season (apart from 2 extra home games).

The MC are playing a dangerous game and were rightly called out on it at the AGM on Monday. They expect the town to dig into their pockets again with another fundraiser later this year if things don't work out on the pitch no doubt.

didnt realise that... never got details of the agm, just 93k loss, 1.2million spent. Put it down to Lyttle basically getting a new squad mid season.
Sligo fans are already excellent fundraisers... to cover last years shortfall and then some is a big ask indeed. Dont expect ye to be in a relegation fight but unless Derry have really regressed, cant see you chasing Europe either.

Lyle Lanley

overshoot wrote: »

didnt realise that... never got details of the agm, just 93k loss, 1.2million spent. Put it down to Lyttle basically getting a new squad mid season.
Sligo fans are already excellent fundraisers... to cover last years shortfall and then some is a big ask indeed. Dont expect ye to be in a relegation fight but unless Derry have really regressed, cant see you chasing Europe either.

Very hard to predict this year. We've possibly got the league's most talented player in Morgan, but he's not done anything since leaving Liverpool. If he hits some form he could be sensational, but if that happens he'll likely be gone in July.

Eduardo is a complete unknown but we need him to be excellent. Certainly brings experience to a very young squad.

Hanging on to Rhys Mcabe was great business, he'd walk in to any team in the league. Honestly don't know why he's playing for us.

But as said we are very short in depth. Any injury to a defender leaves us stuck. Would have liked to see Patton back too, he was better than Schlingerman last year. For some reason Robertson was allowed hand out long term contracts though so we've got Schlingerman signed on for a while.

Not too worried about finances yet, if we start well we'll have good crowds which would go a long way to covering the debt.