Glentoran -v- Shelbourne Champions League 1st Qualifying Round

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Wednesday 13th July.

The two Champions of the island go head to head in the first leg of the first qualifying round of the Champions League.

Given Shels recent form, I'd be happy to come away with a score draw from The Oval, and would be absolutely delighted with a win. Delerious with a win of more than one goal, and loss of none.

We have been suffering recently because of some poor tactical decisions and a long injury list. The injuries seem to be abating somewhat, and our "Big Game Player :rolleyes: " Alan Moore played well off the bench last night. Hopefully another centre half will be recovered in Jamie Harris, and we can have something resembling a back four for this game.

The Goalkeeper situation is interesting. I wonder will Fenlon go for the experienced Steve Williams or the young pretender Dean Delaney. In recent weeks it has been Delaney, and he has kept us in games with brilliant displays. Williams seemed to be suffering from a drop in confidence, and if I was manager I'd stick with Deano.

Crowe and Jason Byrne should start up front.

Wes Hoolahan simply must start, he is a great talent. The midfield I see Fenlon going for is Joseph Ndo and Stuart Byrne in the middle with Weso and Alan Moore on the flanks.

It should be a good game, and one which everyone should make the effort to watch, never mind the Welsh champions taking on England's fifth placers

gimmick

Is this on the television? Should make for an interesting Derby!

I think Shels will coast this tie, probably win 2-0 in both legs, which throws my prediction last November outt he window, but times change.

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It's on RTÉ2 at 7 on Wednesday

Töpher

Personally, I hope we play with Deano 'tween the posts. He's been fantastic since he forced his way into the starting eleven!!

Glens are missing 2 'important' players, so thats another plus in Shelbournes favour. If we could win both legs it would be good for our co-efficient, cancelling some of the damage from losing Bohs froma few years back. If Cork and Longford can win 3 of the 4 legs they'll play between them we'll be doing fantastic!

Ndo has to play, he'll tear a relatively unfit team to shreads!! Crowe and Byrne have really begun to gel lately, and for once I can say that I see no need to tinker with the front two. That said, with Moore fit again, Nutsy may drop Crowe and play Moore just behind him - but he never plays well there IMO.

What I'd like to see...

Delaney
Heary Hawkins Rogers/Harris(if fit) Crawley
Ndo Stuey Weso Moore
Byrne Crowe

Weso can play alright in centre midfield, and Ndo plays well on the wings. Tbh, I'll be happy with pretty much anything except some 4-5-1 lark.

arbeitsscheuer

Given Shels' recent form, and taking into account havin Harris only just back from injury, I'd be happy with a score draw at The Oval.

Should be a cracker though...

Big Ears

Im going to go with 1-2 to Shels , being the fitter team and when on form the better team .

thejollyrodger

im not in the country at the moment and im going to miss the game i really hope shels can get a draw or even a win. Its about time things have started to come together but its not going to be anyway easy...

is there anywhere on the internet where I can view it ?

KdjaCL

Anyone with a PVR card could be nice and use Winamp to "host" it for you.


Oh like me


Pm me tues evening i set it up before i go to work weds morning you can watch Rte2 all day , you will need DSL to view it properly.


kdjac

Slash/ED

seansouth wrote:

Wes Hoolahan simply must start, he is a great talent. The midfield I see Fenlon going for is Joseph Ndo and Stuart Byrne in the middle with Weso and Alan Moore on the flanks.

You think Fenlon will drop Baker? I can only hope, but I think out of the 4 mid fielders who played on friday the most likely to be dropped are Ndo and Hoolahan. Fenlon seems to have a problem with skill this season.

You're spot on about Hoolahan, how is it even a debate? He is simply absolutley sublime. Last year he was a talented player but he seems to have spent all winter in the gym so now physically he is on another level. He can't be outmuscled by anyone anymore and seems to be a bit faster too, so his incredible talent is going to even better use. An absolutley superb player, easily our POTY so far.

Please god Harris will be back, him and Hawkins in the middle have barely played together but would work so well.

thejollyrodger

thanks KdjaC, that would be great if you could get it working !!
Shels really can win both games but I think Glentorian are going to make it scrappy. Nutsy better get the selection right !! 4-4-2 as well

KdjaCL

thejollyrodger wrote:

thanks KdjaC, that would be great if you could get it working !!
Shels really can win both games but I think Glentorian are going to make it scrappy. Nutsy better get the selection right !! 4-4-2 as well

Having some BSod issues


Should be sort later , you being in vietnam means i stream it with a 5 minute buffer so it be live and fluid assuming you have decent connection. And the no sound thing i trying to recreate the Tolka Park experiecne , just get people to drive by and ring phones and it be like the home end


kdjac

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Well, Amigos, I'm just about to leave for Tolka Park, a few pre-journey drinks then the convoy northward for the game.

I'm really looking forward to this game.

FORZA SHELS

StickyMcGinty

c'mon the shels!!

and briogaid dearg 2 nil result for the reds tonight!! come on!!!

arbeitsscheuer

FORZA REDS!!!

Big Ears

Kick off in about an hour . Best of luck to Shels .

treefingers

i think shels fitness will come through for them in the last 25/30 mins here after a very tough encounter up to this point.

2 fairly late goals for shels. 2-0/2-1 shels is my prediction.

comfortably progress past this tie. hopefully anyway...

KdjaCL

Shels playing some nice football , Glens seem to be more intent on trying to knock the **** out of shels than outplay them.

Glens to score from a hump into the box with a striker leading with the elbow (seem to like that)

Shels will have someone stretchered off soon.


kdjac

KdjaCL

LOL Hawkins down, elbow to the head Glens lad should have been straight off.


Shels all over them.


kdjac

Makaveli

Shels pressuring well, if they can score soon they can probably get a handful.
That's if they haven't been kicked to bits.

Draupnir

This is possibly the best I've ever seen an Irish club play, EVER. Great football. Fair dues to Shels. All over Glens, pissing on them in fact, this should be 5-0.

Glens should have had a scumbag defender off then for an elbow btw, scumbag.

Draupnir

Christ, the tackles going in are unreal, this is like Park football from Glentoran. Crazy.

KdjaCL

Shels have to score Glens dont lose many away and seem to be playing for that.


kdjac

Draupnir

1-0 good goal, good game this!

KdjaCL

1-0 Byrne


Crowe completes 1st pass of the night!


/bugger


kdjac

therecklessone

Theres the goal mate!

'Mon the Shels!!!

KdjaCL

Peno to shels , game over.

kdjac

therecklessone

Peno!

Jayo Byrne...

Goal!

2-0.

KdjaCL

2-0 Byrne



kdjac

KdjaCL

2-1 good goal.



Shels look tired

Shels doing their best to try **** this up Shelbourne style , cant belive a team 2-0 up dominating the game from start to finish can implode in spectactular style, they look ab out as good Pats now and a 2nd Glens goals looks likey....

Jaysus Shels are awful.


kdjac

KdjaCL

Over 2-1 cracking game.


Enjoyable 90 minutes Shels played very weell but very nearly undone everything good with some moments of madness at the back.


Looking forward to the 2nd leg.


Come on the Glens


kdjac

Slash/ED

Didn't make the game in the end.

We did our best to throw it away but absolutley dominated the match, so much more dominant than 2-1 would suggest. We should win the second leg too which is good for the co-efficent unless we play very poorly, certinaly can't see us not progressing at the very least. With Ndo back in the team we'd destroy them, we missed him today.

Roddy23

Fairplay 2 Shels, good game. Good advertisement for football in Ireland

eirebhoy

0.333 points for the country coefficient. Good start.

BTW - Did I hear the one of the commentators correctly saying Shels are now using Prozone? If so I assume its not as advanced as what the top British and European clubs use. Fenlon has the players working their arses off off the ball.

Big Ears

Cracking game . We saw the good and bad side of Shels tonight , they were top notch for 75 mins (after the first 5 until the 80th) but its that 15 minute bad spell that could cost them dearly should they progress and play Steau .

I thought Pat Dolan was a little harsh on Glentoran and Shels in a way . Yes they should haver been back in training earlier but they have had 4 games already and they are only semi-pro after all . Its was a hard (but successful) season last year and they were involved in the Setanta Cup and players need sufficient rest from one season to another and considering these guys aren't fully pro they shouldn't be playing 11 months of the year . Although having two players on holiday was rediculous .

The bit about being harsh on Shels was when he said 'Glentoran are the same as Shelbourne' . Shelbourne are proffesionals they have some current and former international players aswell as U 21 international players . They also progressed well in Europe last season and the Irish League simply isn't as strong as the League of Ireland .

I know he means that if they got themselves organised then maybe they could have similar success but im not sure they have the foundation to do that .

Anyway onto the second leg where I think Wes Houlihan will make bits of the Glens defensive .

thejollyrodger

just seen the score ! great news seems like Shels did play well a lot of the game but Glentoran were all physical. Much to be expected. Shame Shels let it slip near the end. Still, it looks like another win on the cards at Tolka for Shels. Great for our co-efficent.

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Great trip, great game, great result.But the size of the guns the PSNI had was scary!!

In fairness, the PSNI said we were the best away fans they ever had at the Oval, so nice one.

I'm really tired after the trip, and being in work this early is not nice, but the fact we won away in Europe is making me feel a whole lot better.

We should progress now.

Big Ears wrote:

<some snippage to make a point>I thought PAt Dolan was a little hardsh...Shels in a way...
...The bit about being harsh on Shels was when he said 'Glentoran are the same as Shelbourne'

:rolleyes:
When is that man going to get over Shels?

NEVER has a good word to say about us.

SteM

What time did the busses get back into Dublin at last night?

StickyMcGinty

fair play to ye sean, you had a crakin atmosphere goin for a good part of the game!

good game, silly late goal let in though, lets hope that doesnt come back to haunt us!

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SteM wrote:

What time did the busses get back into Dublin at last night?

Mine arrived back just before 12.

But there was no feckin food available in The Oval and the last food I had was lunchtime yesterday, so between getting a taxi home from Tolka then ordering a Chinese it was well after one before I got to bed, then in work at 8!!

VinnyL wrote:

fair play to ye sean, you had a crakin atmosphere goin for a good part of the game!

You hear that Shels Haters?

A CRACKING ATMOSPHERE form us!!!

eirebhoy

The "You're supposed to be at home" chant was a bit ironic. They have to back it up in Tolka now or they could be eating their words.

LizardKing

Good game and result , should progress now looking forward to Tolka next week ... Hopefully have some more players back off the injured list by them too

Roar

great win, pity about the glens goal but i'm sure it wont bother shels too much in tolka.. city kicking off in ten minutes, hopefully we can do the biz in lithuania..

thejollyrodger

Two wins for Cork and Longford !! GREAT . Im not sure but i think this is a better season for the co-efficent already

MooShop

Fair play to Shels, Cork and Longford. they are doing the business in Europe, helping our co-efficient and helping to improve our League. I think everybody should get behind the teams and support them, hopefully they can all get a decent run together, its good to see the Irish teams progressing in Europe. Our League is improving but alot of effort needs to be put in by the League officials to make sure this trend continues and put good youth structures in place for everybody's benefit

cournioni

Fair play to Shels, Cork and Longford. They've done us proud in the last few days... Now more of the same please!!

Jonny Arson

Oh wow was Wednesday a night to remember or what!

Before I talk about the match itself I would like to say what an absolutely tremendous job the PSNI did for our security. There was not an ounce of trouble and they took no chances. You are a bunch of stars, thank you so much.

Well I wasn't worried at all about travelling up to Blefast at all. I was disapointed that only around 400 fans made the trip but did our fans amke noise or what! What an enjoyable day despite my bus breaking down at the border! :mad:

That definitely was Shelbourne's best perfomance of the season. The urgency that has been lacking all season was there eventually and if we had more luck we could have scored 4 or 5 but Glen's keeper was superb. For 70 minutes we were heads and shoulders above Glentoran but again we sat back and failed to kill the game off which did cost us with their goal. Nutsy made a big error subbing both Jayo and Glen which leaves a question mark in my mind. Great performances by the entire team esp. J. Byrne, Crowe, Hoolahan and Baker. Despite the great result and 2 away goals I'm still not completely confidnet yet. Glentoran will be alot better in the second leg.

Congrats for Cork City and Longford Town. Hopefully they will kill their ties off in theri respective second legs and lead along with Shels an Irish invasion of Europe this summer.

[Jackass]

Really good game, but only a decent result considering the performance. We should have taken home at least a 2 goal advantage. But i deffenatly would have taken that before the game.

Next week should be another cracker of a game, great advertisement for Irish football both north and south of the border. The best performance of the Crowe/Byrne partnership i've seen to date, and shows what they are capable of...produce that week in week out in EL and we'd be flying.

Not meaning to jump the gun here, but should Shels progress, how would you rate the chances against Steaua Bucharest in the next round? I didn't like the comment of them saying whoever wins this tie is irrelivant, because Steaua are certain of a 3rd round QL place thanks to the draw :mad: We'll wait and see...but it'll be a really tough one i reckon...wouldn't fancy our chances unfortunatly, but you never know with shels

Well done to Cork and Longford also...it's great to see the Irish sides doing so well in Europe.

Slash/ED

Hajduk Split made similarly arrogant comments last year

It would be very very difficult, you'd expect they're a better side than Split, but not impossible. It's not like when we were playing in the winter and drew teams like Rosenborg, we'd be underdogs but it wouldn't be a foregone conclusion.