[quote=“KIB man, post: 634122”]
Because I checked how many games he had played this season
Didn’t say what position
Happy?[/quote]
Never
Ireland v Italy Cat 1 tickets on sale on the Uefa Ticket portal now
thanks for that. i got 4 there. went through a lot quicker than last time
No worries - I’m sorted for Croatia and Italy now.
Tickets for Spanish game seem alot harder to come by.
No sign of Coleman but Given, Dunne, Clark, Ireland, Gibson and Duffy all start. Keane on bench.
Good to see two Derry men in the line up, outside of Dublin, Derry is the heartland of associaition football in Ireland.
Gibson has had a very good start. Villa holding on at the moment. Given with a great save earlier from a Warnock og effort.
To be fair he died out of it after the first half hour. Replaced with bout 10 mins to go and looked totally jacked then. To be expected I suppose. Decent first showing there.
Hardly noticed Duffy. Will need to fill out a bit though.
Clark was limited on the ball in the first half but was decent after half time. Wins a lot of ball but needs someone comfortable on the ball next to him. Got moved to left back when Keane came on. Dont like him playing there. Given made a few saves that he would expect to make. Dunne was Villa’s best defender. Best Irish player was the former international player from Cobh. Very tidy on the ball and provided the assist for Bent. Tends to only play in patches though. Robbie came on for last 10 mins. Got on the ball a bit but Villa had given up the ghost at that stage.
Both sides could well be drawn into the relegation battle on the evidence of that game.
One player I forgot to mention yesterday in terms of ‘wild cards’ for the Euros squad was Hoolahan. Another great win for Norwich today - Pilkington also started. Cox started for West Brom with Long on the bench. A load more Irish players were in action around the EPL today too, aside from those already mentioned in that Villa-Everton game. Duff was back in the Fulham starting lineup and scored, and Kelly also played. Foley and Ward started for Wolves with Doyle and Hunt on the bench. Wilson, Delap, Whelan and Walters started for Stoke. O’Shea and McClean started for Sunderland at Chelsea in the game Trap attended. Westwood was back on the bench along with Meyler. There was a period 18 months ago or so where a lot of our players weren’t featuring too regularly with their clubs - O’Shea, Whelan, Keane for example - but most seem to be getting plenty of game time these days.
it seems the best Irish players these days are ex LOI or from west of the bann
epl runt & partiosionist kib will be seething
Good post. Gametime for our players can only help. I know Cox has played very well for us in the past when not featuring regularly at club level but he strikes me as a player who will benefit greatly from a string of games. Hoolahan is a good shout but I don’t really see where he would fit into our setup. Perhaps as backup to a Keane to play behind front man. We have loads of options out wide so unlikely to feature there I’d have thought.
Our opening match against Croatia match will be live on Independent Television 1 so Roy Keane could be on duties for that one. Odds are as follows:
Croatia 5/4
Draw 9/4
Ireand 13/5
Independent Television have the rights to our secong game too against Spain. Odds as follows:
Spain 4/11
Draw 15/4
Ireland 10/1
Aunty are showing our final match against Italy
Italy 10/11
Draw 13/5
Ireland 17/4
We are 20/1 to top the group and 5/1 to qualify.
Just after we qualified Trap said that he would definitely be taking 8 defenders in the squad. So it will leave him with the choice of going with 4 wide men and 4 strikers or 3 wide men and 5 strikers. He may opt for the latter and use Fahey as an option out wide as well. Think I did up a list of potential squad members and the main spots up for grads were the 4th centre midfield spot behind Whelan, Andrews and Fahey, the 4th choice centre back behind Dunne, St Ledger and O’Dea (O’Shea to be considered a right back), second choice left back behind Ward and who will get that 5th striker/4th wideman spot. The rest is set in stone I would say barring injuries
Tierney is a player who could make breakthrough imo as we are lack bit of depth there. I think he is injured at the moment and perhaps gone off the boil but at start of season he looked a good player. Clark is possibilty to fill in there but he had a shocker there against Wales so not sure he will feature there again prior to Euros.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Greg Cunningham being involved in the Czech game, he has been under the radar but is playing well in a Forest side that is struggling and was a regular in the setup for the 6 months or so before he broke his leg and seems to be rated by management.
Good call chewy.
John Giles on the radio has just said, “Pele broke into the Brazil team at 17 and he was ouststanding. And I think Coleman is outstanding and McClean is outstanding.”
strange he never touted them when they were playing loi
Strange alright :rolleyes:
Ah he came across like an awful fool on McClean. Basically saying he came from nowhere and has only played a handful of senior games but he’s worth a gamble and should be playing our next friendly. I’d say he had no idea that he had a wealth of experience at Derry and Gilroy didn’t seem to be aware of it either. They went on to say that it would be a tough thing to say to McGeady that he wouldn’t be starting but there’s no room for sentiment in football. It was comical actually.