Greatest League in the World 2024 [new thread available]

A very comfortable night for Shamrock Rovers. Nil all at FT and 3 nil on aggregate. Likely to face Ludogorets of Bulgaria in the next qualifying round, they lead 2 nil on aggregate at HT in the second leg v Montenegro's Sutjeska.

topmanamillion

St. James' Gate folded today. 120 years of history. 2 League of Ireland titles and they were the first ever Irish double winners.

https://twitter.com/StJamesGate1902/status/1546833834712367106?t=3GDftuMt3rGVX_kXjoEmbA&s=19

joeysoap

120 years is a lot more than most clubs. And the very first winners of our league. Sad.

topmanamillion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119329768#Comment_119329768

A strange one too. There doesn't seem to have been any sort of a rallying of supporters to bring in funds. Even a go fund me page would surely have brought in a decent few quid. It seems like they were struggling for a long time and were operating in the 2nd tier of the LSL. Would like to hear from anyone on here that might know a bit more about why it happened. Even the end of the message on Twitter ends bizarrely "120 years, not bad innings". A club around that long should be looking forward to the next century not shutting up shop at lunchtime on Tuesday. Its a bad sign for the health of the game if a club with that history can't survive in Dublin because of overheads and lack of support.

pancake_tuesday

Is there a stream available for the Derry game? I see 1xbet is not available in Ireland anymore

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119338088#Comment_119338088

I thought loitv were covering it.

1 down at half time. Shame as we sounded like the better team. We missed a great chance at nil nil. Might have changed things.

NIMAN

Disappointing to lose 4 nil on aggregate. Lost it in the 1st leg, we simply didn't turn up but that's been our form of late.

Played better away.

Hammer Archer

Sligo taken to extra time. This would be a shocking result for Sligo if they were to be knocked out here. 1 shot on target at home to a Welsh side in preseason is dreadful.

timothydec77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119338614#Comment_119338614

Dreadful for sure. Sligo and the region backs the club big time.

The League of Wales has a fanbase of Max 500 per club.

Whats the excuse now?

topmanamillion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119338614#Comment_119338614

Gone to penalties now. We've been dreadful all night. Not only are they a crowd of part timers in preseason, most of their first team are over 35!

timothydec77

Sligo just about snuck through.

Dr. Bre

Sligo survive scare . That was a shocker

Oat23

We should stop qualifying for Europe and embarrassing ourselves. Very rare you'd leave a game after a penalty shootout win and feel aggrieved for the away side more than happiness about your own side's victory. We were shocking all night and those players (bar McGinty who is undeniably the best keeper in the league) don't deserve another game in the competition. I'm relieved we went through purely for financial reasons.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119338756#Comment_119338756

What does this mean? When has anyone ever made excuses for a sh*te Sligo Rovers performance.

topmanamillion

Absolutely dreadful stuff tonight. That Bala side are very poor and we looked worse than them. Motherwell will put us through the mince machine next week unless something dramatic changes.

Oat23

How did they not score here.

NIMAN

Crazy stuff.

That miss cost them possibly how much? 150k?

shanec1928

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119339890#Comment_119339890

they missed a 1 v 1 also. we rode our luck big time.

dfx-

It's certainly better than a moral victory. The likes of Drogheda in Kyiv..

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119340120#Comment_119340120

There’s certainly something to be said for that. Would I take a jammy win against an opponent you should be beating over a brave effort against a superior outfit ? Yeah, probably. Still embarrassing for Sligo though, albeit I say that having not seen the match, just reading the reports. Hopefully they can up their game against Motherwell, who must be feeling very good about the tie now.

Jarhead_Tendler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119329643#Comment_119329643

Sad. I remember them coming to Abbeycarton to play Longford town in what would be the late 80s early 90s id imagine.

Charliebull

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119339922#Comment_119339922

we could have had no complaints if we had lost that game 3-0

brutal stuff

Oat23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119339890#Comment_119339890

€200k I think. Some are saying €300k but I think that includes the €100k solidarity payment you get either way.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119341460#Comment_119341460

His parents are from Donegal. Born in Motherwell but grew up in Glasgow and he played in the Celtic youth teams I think. One of our youth coaches from Donegal was the link to Rovers and he moved across to join our academy when he was 16 or 17.

BonnieSituation

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119340120#Comment_119340120

That game still hurts my soul. And I remember Limerick equalising in the 95min stopping our own automatic promotion.

PGE1970

Disappointing in United Park tonight.

Cracking game but a draw would have been a fair result. A fluke goal, Burt slipped, and a mistake from our keeper was the difference.

It could have been 4-4.

ShamoBuc

Playing 10 mem for most of the game, we should have been winning that.

City stay top by a point, with a game in hand. That'll do.

kksaints

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119340120#Comment_119340120

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119343397#Comment_119343397

Same here. Horrible flashbacks to that shot from Robinson that ruled across the line.

On tonight's match it was an exciting one in Inchicore. We could have won but we gave Dundalk a ugly equaliser and Cherrie in fairness to him made some good saves. Ref was horrendous, didn't seem to recognise that it's a foul too if the Dundalk defender pushes the player.

ben.schlomo

Happy with a point down in Cork after playing almost an hour with 10. We had chances to win it, great save or two from Corks keeper. Super fight shown by our lads.

topmanamillion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119341993#Comment_119341993

You get 100k for every round + an exit bonus depending on which round you exit.

If we had went out last night we'd have pocketed €250k (€100k round appearance money +150k exit bonus).

If we go out in QR2 its €200k in round appearance money + €350k exit bonus.

So McGinty won us 300k last night.

This article explains it well, albeit from a Nordie perspective. Larne pocketed €850k from getting to QR3 last year.

https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/irish-league/european-prize-money-how-much-did-the-irish-league-sides-win-fromuefa-qualifying-campaigns-40746222.html

Oat23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119343591#Comment_119343591

Wasn't aware it was a round appearance fee. I thought it was just a €100k solidarity payment every team knocked out in the qualifiers gets.

Can't have any complaints about losing him for free after last night. Single-handedly earned us that money. Need to get McNicholas signed up for next year though.

Oat23

I was thinking back to the last time the LOI and a Scottish side met in Europe. The Derry fans might like these highlights.

I forgot how good Deery's goals were. Both were scored within 2 minutes of each other too.

https://youtu.be/txY_aekmPLI

That was a great night. Pretty much everyone except us LOI fans had Derry as the underdogs which was ridiculous. The bookies were rinsed.

Anyone here who was on Foot back then? Remember Supergretna? 😄

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119343635#Comment_119343635

Thanks for bringing back amazing memories of that night. In fact that trip.

It was easily one of the best games I have been at, and I have been to CL finals and Clasicos. 3500 derry fans sang for 2hrs. And the way they slagged us off before the game, took the lead only for us to destroy them.

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119343635#Comment_119343635

Who could forget him ? That thread was great entertainment.

on the Pats game tonight, frustrating that for the third time this season I felt we deserved more than we got against Dundalk. Almost felt like a defeat coming out of the ground.

BonnieSituation

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119343635#Comment_119343635

They were great times!

"It's only Derry City ffs"

😂😂😂

PGE1970

Supergretna was great craic!

Was the Gretna owner a multi-millionaire who sacked Roidy from Carlisle?

Foot.ie was decent then.

I was on Johnny Ward's EL board before that. Must be nearly 20 years ago!

joeysoap

A good point for dundalk, In that it keeps Pats 6 points behind us. Dundalk’s away form very poor. Shamrock Rovers the big winners (without playing). Dundalk with an incredible 9 draws now.

Oat23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119343877#Comment_119343877

Roddy and the Gretna fella were good friends at the time of the match anyway. I don't think he had anything to do with him being sacked.

I remember Roddy getting some stick because he helped Gretna before that game by doing up a scout report on Derry and tipped Gretna to beat them or something like that.

The Gretna owner wanted to buy Shams at one point and Roddy was supposed to be involved in that. That would've been fun.

NIMAN

That time of the Gretna game was long before I ever used Soccer Forum here.

What was the general gist of it all?

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119346416#Comment_119346416

Are you asking about the foot.ie thread at the time ? Some guy called Supergretna came on to foot.ie and slagged Derry off, and stated with complete confidence that Gretna would destroy them easily. He got fairly well laughed out of the place, and if I remember rightly, went missing after the first leg. Can’t fathom why 😀

dfx-

Athlone beat Longford..Athlone actually beat Longford..

Jarhead_Tendler

One of our worst results in some time. Hang your heads in shame lads.

ben.schlomo

Athlone are an odd one. We (GUFC) have struggled against them every time we have played them over the last year. The last time we played them in Athlone they played some lovely football and just ran out of legs which allowed us to get the win. They have some tidy young players but lack leadership, experience and a proper structure.

dfx-

The last time Athlone beat Longford, it was 2013. Pats were about to win the league, a lot of the young stars today were in junior infants, Dundalk had won nothing and Rovers were neck deep in Crolyball.

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119348214#Comment_119348214

Good times 😀😀

Jarhead_Tendler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119348214#Comment_119348214

Longford play nice enough football this year. Its such a surprising result for me. It is not just that we lost but the manner of the defeat. We were bossed all over the field and it could have been even more like 6-1

joeysoap

Dundalk only beat Longford 3-2 and drew 0-0 in one those years. In fact the 2 of hardest games Dundalk had one of those years was Longford and wexford.

PGE1970

Watching Harps Derry.

Derry are very flat.

The commentators make it a hard listen. The main guy is hard to understand. And "But again" Joe, the co-commentator, does go on a bit!

Oat23

Starting to have concerns over John Russell. We have some areas of the team in need of quality additions for sure but nothing else has changed post-Bucko. It has been tough to watch apart from his first game against what was a struggling Derry side.

UCD are without Kerrigan and Whelan but they still beat us comfortably. Awful week overall with the shootout victory papering over the cracks.

Ed McGinty is also leaving for Oxford. Doubt he'll play against Motherwell.

Hammer Archer

Lots of gamblers worldwide not very happy with Sligo tonight going by their Twitter.

topmanamillion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119350702#Comment_119350702

Russell was a mistake. He was part of the management team under Bucko so we can hardly be surprised it's more of the same. We needed an experienced hand to steady the ship and pull performances out of under performing players and Russell didn't tick any of the boxes. There's no-one particularly frightening in this league. O'Donnell at Dundalk has a fairly limited squad but they're well organised and for the most part he's getting the maximum from them. With Pats and Derry underperforming we should be comfortably inside the top 4 but we're not and I've no confidence we will be at the end of the season which would be a missed opportunity.

John Coleman and Micky Adams were recruited at times we were in worse shape than now. Its hard to believe there isn't someone like that in Britain that couldn't be tempted over. Its disappointing we've learnt nothing from the Heary kind of appointments of the past.

All we can really say about McGinty is thanks and good luck. He owes us nothing after his performances this year. Fortunately, McNicholas is a ready made decent replacement. Not often we loose a player like McGinty and have an Ireland U21 International to replace him.

Ferris_Bueller

So that would be Devoy, Burns, Mandriou, McGinty gone to League 1 with rumours of Omochere and Lyons to follow them, and window is not closed for another 6 weeks.

I don't mind losing players but the collective fees for them are embarrassing. We really are not going to go anywhere as a league if we are losing our best players for such small amounts. It's always a case of one step forward and two steps back in the LOI.