Greatest League in the World 2024 [new thread available]

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119026098#Comment_119026098

Very surprised by that result, especially after last week. Monday night will be interesting. Hopefully our lads will be out to prove a point. (Speaking of which, I’d take one now.).

SteM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119026236#Comment_119026236

I contacted some SD councillors about this when the plans were announced at the time. Basically said the same thing, could the money not be better spent elsewhere and is the extra ground capacity actually needed for Rovers games.

I got replies back from two of them basically saying the same thing - it is not being done for Rovers at a domestic level but for football at an international level. It was a few years ago, must see if I can find the replies.

SteM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119026349#Comment_119026349

I always thought those seats were covered to help stop young lads running on the pitch, but it didn't work last night.

overshoot

Edit-reply to Ferris bueller, doesn't seem to have linked in his post

All of your subs last night would have walked into our starting team... We're really down to the minimum right now with injuries. Timlin was the only one on our bench with any meaningful senior experience, Rudden starting to get 20-30 mins a game this year. Not sure the rest would have a had full match between them. (Actually Mulreaney the keeper played a game when McGinley was suspended)

Happy enough taking the 3-1 result anyway when we were 3 down after half an hour

joeysoap

Great post sugarman 👏🏽

trashcan

Indeed. I can’t believe that anyone is opposed to the league finally getting its first proper four sided ground. It will be a super stadium when finished, and as pointed out will be of benefit to more than Rovers.

dfx-

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119027906#Comment_119027906

Boyle in central midfield was an interesting choice. I think Ollie changed around personnel at 3-0 which seemed to improve things in the first half.

topmanamillion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119025405#Comment_119025405

Yup. Its a certainty we'll crash out of Europe to another crowd of unpronounceables and that'll be Buckley done. Just too nice of a guy and not nearly ruthless enough. The first 6 or 7 games proved we're as good as anyone in the league. That Shams game where we were 2-0 up at half time and were lucky to hold on for a draw shows what Buckley is about. The crowds will drop in the next few weeks and we'll get knocked out of europe and that'll be curtains for him. Im grateful for what he's done for us and have mixed feelings about the next English lower league reject we'll undoubtedly pick but that's been our story for donkeys years.

overshoot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119031364#Comment_119031364

With Connolly and nzeyi out from central midfield... Along with Webster and Carillo from central defence (so Alken needed there), I don't think there was a choice unfortunately 😅

topmanamillion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119033368#Comment_119033368

We were playing cracking stuff the first couple of weeks of the season. I never believed the hype among our own fans of challenging but with a budget of 1.8 million and the likes of McGinty in the squad we should be a dead cert for 3rd behind Shams and Derry. Pats, Bohs and Dundalk are middling and no more than that. Shels should not be beating us.

Buckley should be around long enough now to draw out of the Ollie playbook and shut teams out with sh1thousery. Simple as that. He wants to be pretty regardless and be everyone's friend. That cost him his job at Pats and it will do the same with us in the next few weeks

Liberta Per Gli Ultra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119029248#Comment_119029248

And from the past, you have a stolen stadium and a neglected one:

Note: none of the above are or were soulless grounds with identical stands all round (some people's definition of "proper").

Liberta Per Gli Ultra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119026349#Comment_119026349

It's more than some seats in the first few rows, it's a few hundred seats uniformly across the front of the stand and it's fùcking absurd.

There are plenty of fluorescent jobsworths around the South Stand this season, but apparently not willing or able or trusted to guard a wall. A modest plexiglass screen on top of that wall, with gates retained, would resolve it but we don't own the stadium.

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119036695#Comment_119036695

Hands up, I genuinely forgot about Turners Cross, though I’d argue that one side of it isn’t great. It’s basically the old terrace with seats bolted on. Tallaght will be streets ahead of it when it’s finished. My definition of “proper” by the way is simply something with four decent stands in it. We seem to have a problem with four sided stadia in this country. Even Croke Park and the Aviva suffer from the syndrome.

NIMAN

Well Rovers have finally caught us. I knew it was only a matter of time and it was nice whilst it lasted, but I said at the start of the season I'd be delighted with 2nd spot.

Totally dominated Pats tonight, but we often struggle to break down teams who defend deep. Our subs aren't game changers except for likes of McEleney, but he went off injured after 10mjns of coming on tonight, so looks like he'll be out for a while.

If rovers beat us on Friday night, that will be a 10pt turn around in a few weeks.

joeysoap

it was unfortunate that you ‘Lost’ Duffy so early but unfortunately will never get a full season out of Pat. Dundalk never did. He missed the last the last part of last season after an injury (ironically suffered against Derry).

NIMAN

Yeah Fats is a brittle player.

And I'm sure playing and training on AstroTurf for his last 2 teams is not helping.

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119038984#Comment_119038984

We certainly set out not to lose last night. Probably understandable given the spanking we got in Inchicore. At least we defended a bit better, and young Sam Curtis was exceptional at right back, incredible to think he’s only 16. Having said that, Derry could have won by a couple if they had been more clinical in front of goal. We only had a bit of a go in the last 15-20 minutes after Darragh Burns came on, and then actually could have stolen it with a great chance for Forrestor. What a smash and grab that would have been.

NIMAN

Yeah I was fearful of losing the point in the last 15 or so.

You were growing into the game and I feared the worst.

chopperbyrne

Looks like Rovers v Derry is heading for a sellout. Last update was South Stand "sold out" and less than 200 tickets left for the Main Stand.

Anyone from Derry know if there'll be a large away turnout?

Gareth Keenan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119048602#Comment_119048602

There are 3 Derry busses booked into the (very restricted) carpark.

CSF

Dalymount project appears to be off now. Renovations of Tolka, Richmond and Dalymount instead.

Shels and Pats big winners. Opinion will probably be split among Bohs fans on it.

Gareth Keenan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119050518#Comment_119050518

yeah I must say I thought it was all pie in the sky from the beginning. The main relief that Bohs will have is that they didn't move out to Tolka before it all went pear shaped.

DCC will need to get their finger out now. They have a giant dilapidated property on their hands. I know that they are worried about the work involved in demolishing the old terraces, but IMO it can't happen soon enough. Then build on what's there. Use the Tallaght model, one stand at a time.

chopperbyrne

Dalymount was never going to happen because the shopping centre owned some of the land. Plans just kept consistently getting downgraded while estimated costs kept rising. Spending the money on renovating three stadia is a far better use of the money.

adaminho

https://twitter.com/newschambers/status/1524754193495506945?t=DDXh39GVwFuuzm800yF0ig&s=19

Still going ahead.

Pawwed Rig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119051409#Comment_119051409

Not according to RTE

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2022/0512/1297639-dublin-city-council-deny-change-of-plan-for-dalymount/

Gareth Keenan

that statement from DCC does nothing to disabuse me from my opinion that the plan as it stands today will not go ahead. As I said, lucky that Bohs haven't moved to Tolka yet.

irishmanmick

To be fair, you won't find too many Bohs fans against the idea of keeping the Jodi & getting new stands in the Des Kelly & Connaught St. Especially if the capacity of this could be closer to 8,500 as per the reports.

But the big worry is the DCC actually delivering any of this at all. LOI Podcast said they think too many big names have backed refurbished Dalymount for it not to happen now but I think we're still a long way away from any certainty it will happen.

CSF

That Bohs statement seems to start very bullish and then gradually makes it sound very much like the reports that were out there this morning. Ie. Bohs are still getting some funding and don’t want to f*ck that up by complaining that it’s not the funding/project they previously expected.

adaminho

https://www.the42.ie/freddy-hall-tribute-5756504-May2022/

A lovely tribute to Freddy Hall.

topmanamillion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119025419#Comment_119025419

Called it.

Although the best bet even when DCC bought Dalymount 7 years ago was always to redevelop the Jodi stand and incrementally improve the other parts as funds allowed.

Surprised to hear it could be 8,500 seats but i suspect that's a bit of a sweetener seeing as everything else has been scaled back so dramatically.

The Bohs statement makes out like work has been ongoing but apart from taking the roof off the Des Kelly stand and planning to knock the Connaught Street Stand by the end of the year no building progress has happened when plans are still up in the air.

A redeveloped main stand in 2 out of the 3 (Richmond, Dalymount and Tolka) by 2030 would be about as good as could be expected.

tastyt

Depressing really isn’t it . Do ye think by 2050 we might have a couple of stadiums comparable to a league 1 side now ?

deisedude

Why the feck is it taking so long to get work done on dilapidated stadiums? Dalymount has been talked about for years at this stage and nothing seems to be happening. Not trying to be smart here, genuinely curious at what all the red tape is about

Drumpot

Best thing about the game at Tolka in first half was the sun at the start. Absolutely beautiful before kick off, but neither team looks like it will score if they played all night. Don’t think there’s actually been a shot on goal. Maybe both teams are more focused on not losing.

PGE1970

Awful from Drogheda tonight.

Our only chance is if Harps and UCD are worse than us.

CSF

We weren’t good but we didn’t have to be, because Drogheda were atrocious.

PGE1970

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119058960#Comment_119058960

You were slightly less rubbish than us.

It was a poor game but you made the one piece of quality play count. Lovely ball from Griffin and a good finish.

We'd be there until next week and still wouldn't score. Brendan Clarke could have done the crossword this evening.

Ferris_Bueller

Huge win for Rovers tonight. Really didn't think we were going to make the breakthrough and Derry were a very tough test, game could have gone either way really. Advatange Rovers but I definitely think Derry will make a title race out of it.

Pawwed Rig

Shels only a point behind Bohs in the table. Shels are really winning ugly though. I wouldn't fancy them against anyone but they are getting the points on the board.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119059041#Comment_119059041

I hope you're right.

I would be delighted with 2nd, said that at start of season. Rovers have too good a squad to compete with them. Their subs changed the game tonight. Our bench simply aren't good enough. Aren't game changers, just fresh legs. We had couple of decent chances tonight, and had we scored it might have been a different game.

Might have been different had we a fit Duffy every game this season, but hopefully we might get him back when we need him later in the season.

Drumpot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119059153#Comment_119059153

Second half was much improved but they still have a tendency to sit deeper when a goal up and they nearly always give the ball away at some stage in a really dangerous position. Drogheda nearly got an equaliser from yet another error when playing out.

kksaints

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119059202#Comment_119059202

How do you think that ye will do in Europe this season? The way ye play could be well suited to it.

NIMAN

Really looking forward to the Euro games. I suppose it depends a lot on who we get, but have hopes of getting through 1 round anyway.

Hopefully no injuries coming into those games.

CSF

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119059153#Comment_119059153

I thought we were very good against Sligo last week. We’re probably one of the teams Witt the most scope to improve as the season goes on too given that we started the season with a whole new coaching staff and also only really Brendan Clarke, JR Wilson, Luke Byrne and Shane Farrell as frequent first team members that were with us last year.

That was always going to mean we’d take time to find ourselves as a team.

Ferris_Bueller

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119059202#Comment_119059202

I would have thought you have a decent squad, considering both Duffy and McEleney weren't involved last night and they are two of the leagues better players. Is Harkin still there? I thought he was a decent young player a year or two ago. Was good to see Brandon Kavanagh last night too, really liked him at Rovers just unfortunately had too much competition for a place in the team.

Hammer Archer

At least our win yesterday keeps things mildly interesting near the bottom for a bit longer.

dfx-

Derry did dominate but the problem for them is playing three games in a week against a counter attack or a containing side and only scored one goal, a dodgy penalty. McEleney might have made a difference but the game turned with the subs, including Brandon Kavanagh going off.

Problem for UCD is they need to be ahead of Finn Harps ahead of the supposed Summer exodus, not catching up.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119059895#Comment_119059895

Our first team would be a match for any team, but our subs now are the likes of Akintunde, Evan McLaughlin, Joe Thomson (although he started last night). Simply got good enough when you compare them to what Rovers brought on.

The rest of our bench last night was all young players from the youth system, with the exception of Ciaran Coll.

In these games you don't get many chances to score, and we really needed to take that one which McGonigle hit straight at Mannus. But good save to be fair to him.

dreamers75

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2022/0518/1299687-arrests-made-in-league-of-ireland-match-fixing-probe/

lol

Beagslife

Which fans? 😎

hardybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119079618#Comment_119079618

Which players and officials...