***MatchThread*** 22nd Jul 21:00 COLM Ballalley

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collie said he could play if we needed him.

Keith / Des give him a text.

homerjay2005 wrote: »

this is the biggest game we have played in many seasons, last year we had a big points cushion for most of the season, so no game was that important (we won them all anyway).

this one however, is a league decider. lets do this.

Looks like we have a good squad. It's our preferred pitch. No excuses.

Congrats Kieth!
Tonight it's all in lads! run until you cant anymore! tackle hard! and dont give them a second!

helimachoptor wrote: »

Cheers lads, absolutely enormous game tonight, 3 points is a must

So why the **** are you not coming, she's had the baby get her to start doing her job and you can do yours on the pitch.

it actually looks like Ballalley, Cork and BNY all have no scores entered for the start of the season against the full Irish so either the scores were not entered or the games were cancelled for some reason.

anybody know what happened with that?

in theory, the Full irish if they have 6 games to play, can still actually win the league but its weird that they appear to have 3 games not played.

Mousewar wrote: »

The big worry is that the Full Irish won't bother to make arrangements to play them as they'll have nothing to play for and the other teams will get walkovers.

full irish in theory, can win the league by winning all 6 games, its unlikely of course, but they defo can finish 2nd or 3rd also.

mrDerek wrote: »

lol defo not this in the last 3 or 4 games iv been increasingly isolated up top theres just no support coming up anymore its like we are sitting deeper or something, either way booting the ball upto me from kickouts isnt a viable option

possession of the ball dictates how games go.

my point is about how we have dropped 11 points in games this year from winning positions, 2 or 3 of those games should have been closed out and last night was one of them.

we need to know/find out how to win games ugly also, ie games when we are up against strong defensive teams and a goal will decide it.

I agree I think we need to recognise when the game needs to be slowed down and pass it about looking for easy passes in defence and midfield because sometime we look to keep attacking when it would be better to pass back take a breather and kill a bit of time while knowing the other team is getting frustrated looking to score.
Yesterday we went long ball when they had two men off which didn't help us when we could have been spreading the play making them chase us. Just things we should recognise at the time when we have the numbers advantage or goal advantage .
Agree with Helimacopters post too and Dereks about being isolated! I think we pushed further forward early season but wev dropped back a little recently! Weve better attack then most teams, we will concede but we should still out score whoever we play!

3 Games 3 WINS!! Lets not let ballalley win without serious pressure from behind.....lol

Good chance Cork will do something against Ballalley alright.
They stuffed Brown Bag 9 nil last night. :eek:

homerjay2005 wrote: »

Last week had nothing to do with isolation or sitting back or what ever else bulls*it excuse we want to make, it was down plain and simple to the fact that the opposition had 70% plus of the ball.

And yet we got a 1-1 draw against dominant opposition. That's not a bad result. And in the Ewetuppers game, yes we should have won but we were short on players that night and had two guys who played the whole game who were seriously unwell and were struggling just to keep running.

We've played everyone this season and I haven't seen a team that play better ball than us when we show up and perform like we can.

if ye think that closing out a game or doing whats necessary to win it = sitting back then i am wasting my time trying to reason with ye.

its no wonder we are conceding late goals when people are not doing their jobs and have this fantasy idea that we dont need to defend in tight games.

When was the last time we won a game 1-0 or 2-1? end of last season, when we actually won alot of tight games and it was us scoring the late winners.

5 times this year we have been leading going into the last 10 mins and ended up not winning the game, that didnt happen last year and i think its down to an obsession on some people to just play an attacking game without realising the game is still in the balance.

We have played against the other top 4 teams on 6 occasions this season and we have won once. thats not down to sitting back, its down to not being able to close out tight games as we dont know how to do it.

thats 6 points from 18, where as Ballalley have picked up 11 points, winning 3 games by 1 goal.

Mousewar wrote: »

We've played everyone this season and I haven't seen a team that play better ball than us when we show up and perform like we can.

we have been playing well against the **** teams. Cork beat one of them 9-0 last night, i wouldnt be reading too much into 4 or 5-0 wins against teams who we are much better than.

as ive just said above, we have one win in 6 games against the teams around us and we led in 5 of them.

mrDerek wrote: »

lol defo not this in the last 3 or 4 games iv been increasingly isolated up top theres just no support coming up anymore its like we are sitting deeper or something, either way booting the ball upto me from kickouts isnt a viable option

Derek, there are games where you've scored 5 goals, in the bigger games where the teams are evenly matched you can't expect to have it all your own way. There is no support because the balls going into you are typically long balls which means the gap to you and the closet player is too great, if balls were given to the midfielders to give to your feet the gap would be significantly smaller. Something we need to improve on.

helimachoptor wrote: »

the goal last week resulted in someone :P saying everyone get back and defend so instead of pressing them in their own half which is what we should have done, we collapsed onto the edge of the box which allowed them push their full 10 players up and ultimately get a throw in which they got the penalty from

The opposition had more ball because we're retreating into our half with 2 of our CMs dropping into CH territory to try and pick the ball up, then we're lumping it up to Derek who's out numbered 3 or 4 to 1, we lose possession and are under pressure straight away because of midfield instead of being in their half are 10 yards from our own box. We are doing this more and more, what happened to the "trust the defence" mantra we have 4 quality players and a quality GK, let them get on with the job. We are worrying too much about what the opposition are doing rather than concentrating on our own game plan and its a self fulfilling prophecy.

Sit back, defend to close out a game and then watch the opposition camp their team in our half and get a goal.

We should be forcing our game plan onto other teams, press them in their own half, force them to make mistakes and get goals, that is what is happening to us

That is absolute head in the clouds stuff Keith, we scored a goal with 3 minutes to go against a team who probably had 75% of the game and absolutely battered us, we didn't have one sub on the side and you're saying the correct thing to do would have been to continue attacking when everyone was out on their feet. Irregardless of conceding the penalty the correct thing to do was to get men behind the ball and shut them out.

Also, you continually mention midfield trusting our defenders that's all good and well but why is it the I can name about 3-4 instances in most games where I'm the last one back shepherding out a ball or covering for someone. I will track back my man in the middle it's what I do, when you have 2 people in the middle and 4 on front of them the support shouldn't be from the 2 in the middle, there job is to get the ball and control it, link up play and help out defence all of which we did and have done all season.

This mentality we have of, we will score more than you etc etc, where has it gotten us ? 2nd place 5 points behind and a significantly better off goal difference. I'd rather be in Ballalley's position of fewer goals scored and winning tight games 1-0 2-1 knowing when to defend and when to attack. You can push on and batter teams but when it comes to the big games doing that against teams who can actually break and pass the ball will mean you'll get seriously punished.

dfx- wrote: »

I'd only judge the Colmcille's results as I think the Benildus pitch is unsuited for the style of this team and the players. It's a leveller as seen this week. Ballalley dominated the first game on a wide pitch where you can isolate a defender and get in behind, Boards dominated on a tighter, compact pitch where their long balls went nowhere.

This is something I mentioned in the first couple of weeks. 4-0 up with minutes to go, the game was over, that's the perfect opportunity to try control the game, keep the ball, halfway line/midfield. Instead a fifth and a sixth and a seventh were looked for even on the final whistle. You can't just switch it on under pressure 1-0 up like last week or 2-1 this week. Edit: was against Brown Bag in game two or three.


Whilst I would agree that goals are flying in, the successful teams are the ones that are keeping them out the most regularly. The side last week have conceded six against Boards alright, but only something like 10 in total. That's what has them up there.

Couldn't agree more, we should be practicing being comfortable on the ball and controlling games when we're 4-0 up so that it becomes second nature when we are in battles at 1-0 and 2-1.

We need to get out of this head space that EVERY team we're going to play is going to be a 4-0 walkover because that's not the case at the top of the league and the amount of points we've taken off the bigger teams shows this consistently.

As well Iv noticed our set pieces are wasted alot these days, corners mostly, and bit of time spent on them knowing where people should be and whos attacking what area could help too, when the deliveries are good, which is more then often to be fair, I think a plan there could help.

sReq | uTeK wrote: »

Derek, there are games where you've scored 5 goals, in the bigger games where the teams are evenly matched you can't expect to have it all your own way. There is no support because the balls going into you are typically long balls which means the gap to you and the closet player is too great, if balls were given to the midfielders to give to your feet the gap would be significantly smaller. Something we need to improve on.

ehhh not sure if your agreeing with me or not because youv more or less reiterated what i said

45 posts and I've just realised no one mentioned Dave's goal. What a belter that was. Class player - good to have him back more regularly now.