Ireland are playing in the Nations League tonight.
A 2-leg play off to preserve our League B status.
First leg away from home in Plovdiv, return game in Dublin on Sunday night.
First squad call ups for Abankwah & Vata. A few injuries but @Watchyourtoes will provide the expected lineup shortly.
Presume the likes of Jake O’Brien might feature on the back of strong club form.
Presume GavBaz has to start
Gary Spain has not travelled.
Bulgaria in turmoil. Manager tried to resign but can’t. Barely anyone expected to attend.
Id take a draw
Plovdiv is the home of Trakia Plovdiv (pronounced Trachea) one of the great “crack” teams of Ye Olde Eastern European football along with Widzew Lodz, Slask Wroclaw, Wisla Krakow, Spartak Moscow, Torpedo Moscow, Lokomotiv Leipzig, Dukla Prague, Dynamo Zagreb, Partizan Belgrade, Velez Mostar, Hajduk Split, Honved, Videoton, Banik Ostrava, Slovan Bratislava, CSKA Sofia, Dynamo Minsk, Dynamo Tblisi, Dynamo Keev and of course Stoya Bucharest.
These names carried real menace, like the secret police.
They evoked darkness, snow, rain, and grainy telephone lines. They evoked fear, and you could be swept away by these fearsome “cracks”, like Liverpool were several times.
It’ll be nice to feel letdown by an association soccer team again. Us grassroots supporters are having it all too good at present.
A few selections questions for The Dentist
O’Brien or The Doc
Ferguson to start
Who provides the guile
3 at the back
Why
He was accused of bias. He manages a club side too
Id expext to see something along the lines of
Kelleher
O’ Brien
Collins
O’Shea
Doherty
Cullen
Knight
Brady
Azaz
Parrott
Ferguson/Idah
We are still crocked in the middle and our 2 oldest players are out wide but this is where we are.
What material difference does winning or losing this play off make? In terms of world cup qualification primarily
Pomp and circumstance
good preview of Bulgaria
I’m thinking it’s a back four. Maybe 4-2-3-1 with Doherty & Manning as full backs, Johnston & Brady out wide & Azaz playing behind Parrott.
Dan McDonnell, the countries leading football writer, thinks could be a 4-4-1-1
O’Brien should be ahead of Doc ffs
I’m sickened to see that cunt Matt Doherty restored to the starting team. He did media the other day & was publicly criticising the manager for leaving him out late last year. He should have been left out for good.
It’s a fuckin joke tbh, our best player on current form he is doing himself no favours with that selection.
Bulgaria is an utterly grim country other than the Rhodope mountains down at the Greek border.
I landed into Plovdiv and the airport was about as depressing a post Communist place as you could expect.
All of the above are dissuading me from tuning in tonight
