Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

1-1. Another howler from Brosnan. Seem to recall she messed up in one of her previous starts. I'd rather have Moloney in goal.

Good play by Payne. Nearly went 2-1 up.

Scratch that. 2-1 up!

That was so jammy but we'll take it.

Damn. Would have been nice to go in leading at half-time. Some mad goals in this game.

3-2 Ireland. Nice header by Louise Quinn.

Poor pen, still does well to keep it out with his legs. Omobamidele has been decent for Norwich, Idah not so much. Has been brushed off the ball a few times now as if he's a child and his tame effort on goal after Gomez just took the ball off him.

Kelleher has been decent at sweeping up balls in behind.

Yea, Kelleher definitely the pick of the Irish so far, showing uncanny anticipation so far picking up the pieces of poor Liverpool defending. Omobamidele has done no wrong so far, I can only remember him misplacing one pass so far, which is good considering the high press he's up against. Idah has been pretty disappointing, lots of huff and puff, but he never looks threatening. Hopefully that changes for him in the second.

Ireland beat Australia 3-2. Great result that will hopefully bring a bit of confidence for the qualifier with Sweden next month. The two Quinns played well, Payne impressed up top, McCabe good as usual with some dangerous deliveries, Finn strong in midfield. Only concern for me would be the goalkeeper spot as you never knew what would happen whenever the ball went near Brosnan. Fans did their part too and I'd say there will be a strong turnout for the qualifier on the back of this. Positive stuff all round.

Irish lads doing well with Preston at least.

Rafferty scores after a Cunningham assist.

Maguire scores after a Rafferty assist.

One thing I will say to back Idah up is Liverpool probably have the best CBs in the league. Konate would start for all teams in the league but has his injury issues, and Gomez is a top class CB too, and will be England's best CB over the next number of years if he stays injury free. The lads always gonna struggle against two top class CBs when he hardly plays and Norwich are poor.

Yeah that last chance was frustrating. In the first half he tamely hit it at Kelleher when he should have put his laces through it. Ok maybe he couldn't get it out of his feet to really strike it, but that second half shot he just tried to put his laces through it and hit it straight at the keeper when he should have tried placing it in one of the corners. Again that probably comes with a lack of playing experience but still frustrating as hell.

Kenny is gonna find it hard to justify starting him if all our strikers are fit next month. Don't think Idah being the better with his back to goal is gonna cut it as a good enough reason to start him. Norwich only have two games before the break and he'll probably feature in none after last night.

But he needs to get out playing regularly. Farke can keep saying he's not ready for regular senior football but he'll never be ready if he's picking splinters from his hole. Dropping to league one in January would be beneficial for him at this stage over sitting on the bench.

Like Obafemi I think Idah needs to leave and look elsewhere. Norwich are a yo-yo club and once Pukki leaves they'll need to bring in someone else to replace him big time if they want to remain a yo-yo club. 55 goals in 84 games and 14 assists in two championship seasons. That's an unbelievable return for a striker who wasn't up to much for most his career before moving to Norwich.

Tzolis is really a winger so I'd say he's third choice, but they spent 10m on Sargent so they'll definitely want to see a return from him given they bring guys in and try sell them on for a bigger profit at times. But they'll definitely be looking at another striker next year or definitely the year after that when Pukkis contract is up.

Trent Kone Doherty is the young lad that had the shoot which Okosun tapped in for the third. Plays for Derry's U15s.

Think the U15s have a second game against Montenegro.

Hoping Connolly and Obafemi both start tonight and Kenny is there to watch. I know doesn't fancy Obafemi that much from the U21s but he's now playing in a club formation that we also play.

Don't think this was mentioned but Pym could be out the door come January. Supposedly he threw a boot at Ferguson in the dressing after the match, or its probably a story that grew legs given Fergie kicking a boot and hitting Beckham. But Ferguson says Pym overstepped the mark and will rather sign a free agent if the new number one gets injured rather than give Pym a game.

Nearly makes it 3-0. He'll get his hat trick before the nights out, or possibly more.

Going off twitter reports unfortunately.

Pretty big deflection on the first but an excellent finish for the second. Hopefully he can push on a little and get some more first team minutes now.

McCarthy just played a peach of a pass there to assist Celtic to go 1-0 up

That was promising, and hopefully it dispels any notions that the only reason he's there is because of his Irish/Shamrock Rovers connections.

He didn't look at all out of place in his 30 minute cameo. He was eager to get on the ball, happy to play in a very advanced position on the left hand side, was comfortable with the ball at feet, but still possessed the athleticism to get up and down the wing when required to cover for a few minor mistakes he made. I know it's only Raith Rovers, and it's early days, but I am fairly confident that Scales is going to get starts for Celtic this season. Also, it does sound like Ange sees something in him as he's made all the matchday squads, but feels that he just needs time to build up fitness to be able to compete in the SPL.

With both McClean and Stevens are getting on, hopefully this is the start of something for Scales to lay his claim to the left back position in the Ireland team.

Is there any truth to the rumour that Conor Bradley, the young Liverpool defender, is thinking of switching to us from the north?

Just took a look - the new rule is a bit different than that, hadn't actually noticed this change myself! So, it seems a tournament appearance instantly locks you into the country. Competitive internationals (qualifiers or nations league) do still lock you in - but only after 3 appearances instead of just the 1, if you're under 21.

Would be a brave man to switch after playing in a WC Qualifier though... I'm still angry at Rice for switching after he'd played senior friendlies!

<edit>

actually, it seems the rules are as I initially thought - the above is true, but they are still largely locked in by their nation. To switch, they have to go without playing internationally for 3 years - so Bradley couldn’t play for us for 3 years as his competitive cap was recent. So it’s a real exceptional process rather than a simple switch over.