Wales have a history of being undone by penalties in key World Cup qualifiers, especially against Celtic nations.
I predict there will be a penalty tonight.
Hopefully our former Celtic manager doesnât die after the match.
Incidentally that âwhooshâ after the final whistle in the 1993 Wales-Romania match was a firework being thrown in the stand which killed a person.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foXf3n1Mv0I
Banterific
Nothing quite like the dulcet tones of Archie MacPherson on commentary. Wales should never have played that 1977 match at Anfield.
Nothing for it but an all provo strike force of Slab and Jimmy McClean upfront.
the drama of october and november 93 may never be repeated
in one night we had
Ireland V Eire
Romania - wales
spain denmark
san marino scoring v england
France Bulagria
the Barry Davies commentary for the Dumitrescu to Radicoiu play for Romaniaâs second was terrificâŚtheater
I remember watching the highlights of that Wales Romania match at the time.
I have never heard Barry Davies as excitable.
And poor Paul Bodin from Swindon Town missed the penalty!
Iâll be very surprised if Wales beat us tonight. I think the most likely thing that will happen is we take the lead in the first half, after that weâll retreat into ourselves trying to hold it and I think its most likely we get sucker punched. Will there be time left for us to win it will be the question? Its hard to see us going 0-2 up so its going to be nervy stuff if we do take the lead. Itâll probably end 1-1 but there is a maybe 33% chance we hang on for the 0-1. Ireland to score first at 8/5 is good bet I think.
Every chance it in the wee hours of Wednesday morning with four final matches in South America all affecting each other.
World Cup qualifiers are often a lot more tense than finals games. That night in Belfast was utter hell to watch and I was literally in a cold sweat watching it. Tonight will be tense but I canât see it remotely troubling the tension levels of that night.
One thing I notice quite often when I see old clips of matches is how wrong commentators got it in asserting that the referee was correct to award certain decisions.
I loved both Archie Macphersonâs (Macpherson) and Barry Daviesâs commentaries, but in the clips of the old Wales qualifiers I posted earlier, both made howlers in asserting that the referee was right to give a penalty - Macpherson in the 1977 game against Scotland at Anfield when Joe Jordan quite clearly punched the ball, and Davies in the 1993 Wales-Romania game, when Gary Speed took a dive and conned the referee.
At least part of that game was definitely carried live on BBC in Ireland. I think it might have been a later kick-off and they went over to it after our game had finished because Iâm sure I watched Raducioiuâs winner live. The England game was definitely an earlier kick-off (7pm maybe) because I saw San Marinoâs goal live.
My father completely lost his marbles listening to this game on the radio. A few kitchen cupboard doors took a battering. I donât know why, but the kitchen was where we always listened to cross-channel matches on BBC radio.
I missed the San Marino goal after a couple of seconds as I was serving Mass - our parish had Mass at 7pm on Wednesdays in November back then.
It was only a short Mass so I made it back well in time for the Ireland match.
The sort of night that there would have been no altar wine left after.
Not with the priest we had at the time anyway.
Iâd always be suspicious of a priest who didnât drink.
Strumpet City drew a lovely juxtaposition between the harmless old alcoholic priest portrayed by Cyril Cusack and the cuntish, teetotalling younger priest.
Indeed. I think Iâm correct in saying that notwithstanding last night drama in the Ireland v Eire game at Windsor Park, the late John Sheridan consolation goal in the 1-3 defeat to Spain in the penultimate game was the difference between Eire qualifying and not qualifying.
George Hamilton, who is usually quick to tell us that goals have changed nothing, immediately and correctly anticipated the significance of that goal.
But we were still relying on Ireland to keep the score down against Denmark in Copenhagen that night, which they did. In fact Ireland were robbed in that game when Jimmy Quinnâs salmon leap of a header which would have put Ireland in front half-way through the second half was inexplicably ruled out.
That was a very average England side in 1993. Quiz question - who was the only European Cup winner to play in that 1-7 England win over San Marino.
waddle?
