They still havnât located the sniper whoâs taking down the Andorans.
Awful ball by Kelly.
Bloody awful.
And againâŚ
They were pathetic crosses alright.
I was training for most of it, was the rest of it as boring and poor as the last 15?
Pretty underwhelming that. Thought we did alright in the first half but just got sloppy in the second half. The standard of some of our players was shown up a bit as well.
Ratings:
Given 6 - Nothing to do but appeared to struggle a bit with a shot in the first half and conceded a corner.
OâShea 7 - Solid. A completely different player under Trap. Having him in the relatively non influential position of right back seems a bit of a waste but we need him in one of those full back positions.
Dunne 6 - Didnt have much to do and some of his distribution could have been better.
St Ledger 5 - Thought he could have been more awake for the goal. Did ok apart from that.
Kilbane 7 - Got a good goal, combined well with McGeady and was reasonably solid.
Lawrence 7 - one of our best footballers and looked good on the ball. Did well for Doyles goal.
Whelan 6 - didnât contribute much
Green 5 - contibuted less than Whelan
McGeady 7 - excellent in the first half but tired then.
Doyle 8 - you always get a decent shift from Doyle and he scored a peach of a goal. MOTM.
Keane 7 - took his goal very well but decided to turn into challenges a little too much.
Vital to get Andrews back into it for the Russia match. He has a decent parthership with Whelan and had a huge match in Paris. Would be good to get Duff back to replace for McGeady, who could be introduced.
didnt see any of it myself but would have thought all of it would have been fairly boring - brady is well worth listening too for his analysis
think doyle should only have got 4- he has no technical ability
Itâs [size=â4â]NOT[/size] a penalty you fuckin clowns.
Doyle clearly pulled the man on top of himself.
Yeah wouldnât really disagree with any of that except for maybe the St Ledger one. Iâd have wanted Whelan to get closer to the dropping ball as opposed to St Ledger. I know Ronnie mentioned that St Ledger could have anticipated it but itâs a shit centre half who watches his partner compete for a header and doesnât make some effort to watch for a ball dropping in behind. He appealed for the offside alright, but he had to be goalside of Dunne and he simply didnât have time to get back out and deal with the header.
Iâd blame Dunne more, for not winning the header cleanly and Lawrence for giving them the ball back by blasting over from way out. Neither of them played badly in general play so no issues with their rating really.
Full house or what�
They announced 40,000 or so but George Hamilton questioned even the validity of that as he said there were a lot of empty seats
The evening started with the disapoointment of learning that Andorraâs national anthem isnât just âAndorraâ repeated ad nauseum to the tune of the old Kia-Ora advert and didnât really pick up from there. No real point trying to read too much into games like this I always think. Just get the three points in the bag and move on.
[quote=âbraz83, post: 513304â]
The evening started with the disapoointment of learning that Andorraâs national anthem isnât just âAndorraâ repeated ad nauseum to the tune of the old Kia-Ora advert and didnât really pick up from there. No real point trying to read too much into games like this I always think. Just get the three points in the bag and move on.
[/quote]Exactly,the next two games will decide our final standings in the group,4 pts would be very very good.
Bandage isnât back from the game yet and Iâm getting a little concerned.
he is probably deflating his shamrock & hammer before he gets inside
+1
Not as concerned as you obviously but still quite concerned.
Good result average enough sort of performnace.
Given - 5 looked little sluggish. Delayed things a bit too much at times though perhaps under instruction to do so
OâShea - 5.5 Poor enough I thought. Not great in possession. Didnât have much to do
Dunne - 4 Well below average. Needs to lose a few kilos. Looked a bit laboured too and picked up a booking. Hopefully arrives in October with bit of form though doubt it a bit
St Ledger - 5 Not good in possession. Didnât have much to do
Kilbane - 7 Took his goal very well. Good performnace
Lawrence - 6 Worked hard but didnât deliver much from creative point. Doesnât have the trickery of McGeady or Duff but links play well and mixes up his passing well
Whelan - 5.5 Did ok. Could move the ball quicker
Green - 5 Little better than Friday. Not as imposing as Iâd like if that is his strenght
McGeady - 7 Our most creative player. Tired in second half but did very well to win corner for our first goal and lovely pass for Keaneâs goal too. Gave ball away way too often in second half but he looked out on his feet a bit
Doyle - 8.5 Excellent goal. Very good performance
Keane - 7 Lovely finish and decent performance
Gibson - 4.5 Was hoping heâd provide good range of passing when he came on and quicken up our play. He gave the ball away the majority of times he got it though and offered precious little
Kelly - 5 I actually thought he got forward well but prepared to accept judgement of others on his crossing
Keogh - 5 Had a good chance to get a strike in goal in box but his tourch let him down
In singing section again tonight. Superb atmosphere there. Great to see such big Ulster numbers there too.
Was a bit disappointed in Gibson too. He seemed to want to pass the ball forwards a bit more, maybe to show off his creative side, but he ended up playing Lawrence into trouble a couple of times and didnât really use the ball well at all.
Still donât think weâve solved the midfield problem at all. Whelan remains the first choice with Andrews in second, helped by the performance of others. Green did well in a couple of friendlies but didnât convince these games and Gibson is yet to really offer anything at this level.