Limerick take the lead with a 25 yard screamer.
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Harps look dangerous but we are the better side.
Had one cleared off the line and hit the bar too, apart from the goal. One or two other close shaves. Still wouldnāt fancy us to keep a clean sheet.
Massive crowd. Huge half ahead.
@TreatyStones about twenty seats away to my left in the main stand. Gave a wave there but he couldnāt be bothered to wave back.
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Not to worry, he does his own thing so he does.
We need a 2 goal lead going into the second leg.
So many chances for Limerick FC !
Happy enough to have a lead. First clean sheet in ages.
Could have been two or three up at the break. Second half the game descended into a turgid affair.
Not lost away since July. Would fancy us to score up there. Tie is still in the balance - Harps are limited but organised. If Jason Lee had scored that easy late chance weād be facing an uphill battle up there. As it is Iām still reasonably confident.
Got a bit of luck tonight, Kelly could have been sent off and we could have also conceded a penalty.
Think Iāll go to Ballybofey. Come this far may as well see it through.
I thought the players looked bollixed for the last 15 minutes, faherty and Duggan in particular. Just watching Monday night football there and the pitch in Harps looks to be in pretty bad shape, canāt see it suiting us. Despite Harps parking the bus tonight they still caused a few problems when they attacked. The defenders seem to have very little confidence in each other. All in all I think weāll struggle up there and Iām not sure a 1-0 lead is enough.
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The pitch up there looks like a complete bog. We arse around with the ball so much at the back a bad bobble will eventually cost us.
Both sets of players looked wrecked by the end. Two games in 72 hours is tough.
Hope the lack of a second goal wonāt come back to haunt us. 
Itāll go down to the wire up there.
I donāt know if Iāll ever see a crowd like that watching Limerick again unless we are title contenders or in Europe (friendlies against foreign clubs doesnāt count).
Absolutely massive crowd, good atmosphere, some contingent down from Donegal too- couldnāt understand a word they were chanting but fair play to them, some trek. Donāt think Iāll be going up to Ballybofey, although I would love to.
As for the match itself, had loads of chances but didnāt take them. Kellyās strike was an absolute beauty. They looked vulnerable from set-pieces, there were enough balls whipped in to score. Faherty was off again, Clarke got two of their players booked just from pure pace, Lynch did well when he came on.
Mad substitution again from Russell, taking off Clarke, who had them in all sorts of bother. Lynch needed to come on but it had to be for Russell, or else move Clarke centrally and take off Faherty. After that they just pushed up, made things very compact and kicked the shit out of us and we didnāt have the option of the ball in behind anymore.
They had two great chances to score, including the one where the sub striker rounded Hall, who should never have come out. Was a disaster all-round- Duggan lost the ball, then didnāt react quick enough, Williams backed off then stepped up way too late, Hall should never have come off his line. Yer man had so much time, could probably have ran straight into the net he was so much quicker but he shot off-balance. He was fair shit tbh, brainless.
They were dirty fuckers too, flying into challenges. Kelly got caught badly with one, which I thought could have been red and then Kelly replicated with one of his own a few minutes later. Lucky to stay on, I think. Lynch got kicked basically off the ball too, it was so late.
But Iāve been going to Limerick matches for a good while now, and Iāve never seen a buzz like this around the team. I know the relegation battle is a big part of it but both Jerry OāDeaās and the Horse & Hound were full before the game. It was a nice evening, there was a buzz around the place. The Marketās Field is a nice groundā¦ could do with touching up to make the actual viewing experience better, but letās hope it continues. Can start by not fucking up in Ballybofey. Iām not confident but we should be beating them reallyā¦ I thought we needed at least a 2-goal lead and TreatyStonesā concerns about the pitch are valid imo.
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Finn harps will not hold us scoreless.
Probably not, but we wonāt hold them scoreless again either.
We are better away from home. Iām cautiously optimistic. The away leg is in Donegal, not Kiev.
Won at Cork, Galway and Sligo who are all better than Harps. Believe.
The players were tired and it showed second half. Harps came with a plan and but for a great strike pulled it off pretty well. However, Clarke and Tracey caused them all kinds of problems first half and when they start chasing the game above youd imagine we have the pace to exploit them. The game was calling out for a central midfielder to take control of the things second halfā¦ Thereās a goal in Limerick but thereās also a disaster waiting to happen at the backā¦
JP Dillon is some fucking mong.
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The coca cola bikes are the job ā¦giddy with beer flying through the mean streets of Limerick to watch footballā¦ Just as well the Harps ultras arrived late, there could have been slaps thrownā¦
When is the return leg, Friday night?
Yip
Great night last night, serious buzz around the place. As myself and @TreatyStones were saying before the match if theyād finished mid table this year they would never have caught the support. Serious opportunity for the club to kick on next year, but they have to stay up.
Never gave an attendence did they? Comfortably 4,000 there if it was 2,500 at Derry.
A few random points,
Got great joy down the wings. Turner is a lovely player though inclined to be yellow and lazy at times without the ball.
Offered nothing through the middle, rarely demanded possession and when they did take it they put it straight back to where it came from. Very few incidences where they took it and actually turned to see what was available, which is a pity since where we really exposed them a few times was through balls in behind the defence either in the air or on the ground. They were seriously stretched at the back anytime we ran at them as well, would have liked to see more of that coming from the middle and not just the wingers.
While we got great joy down the wings we werenāt going to get any joy from crosses into the box. First of all a lot of them were poor balls, secondly Harps played a holding midfielder very deep and effectively had 4 centre halves for a lot of the second half and thirdly our centre mid lads werenāt getting anywhere near the end of them meaning it was two on 5 at best. Fast ball over the top was key and we saw very little of it and almost none in the second half.
Another thing that fed into allowing harps funnel back was the absolute pedestrian pace we switched from defence into attack, particularly in the second half. Iāll get onto Kanyuka in a minute, but he wasnāt the only one. Short frees inside their half when we had showed absolutely no signs of playing through them were just wasteful.
Set pieces were poor as well regularly failing to beat the first man.
In mitigation of a lot of what Iāve said, the lads were shattered in the second half. Short turn around obviously and an emotional rollercoaster for the last few weeks, but I thought the manager could have got a few more lads on, if for no other reason than they have to go again Friday. Doesnāt say much about his belief in the bench.
Freddy Hall was poxed lucky he didnāt let in a very soft goal at the end. Poor when dealing with a nothing ball that got caught between him and the defenders at one stage as well where he should have come and claimed.
If they are playing an offside trap theyād want to talk to each other, hands went up for offside a few times and lads were literally ten feet behind them. Didnāt seem much leadership or talking between GK & back 4.
Finally I donāt know where they found that Kanyuka lad but fucking hell he is the most out of his depth player Iāve seen in a long time. He can do absolutely nothing with the ball at his feet, his positioning is woeful and everyone around him is terrified of giving him the ball (rightly so). If I was playing Limerick Iād run everything at him. Iām not sure how many premier teams in Limerick city but if thereās ten then thereās at least twenty centre halves better than him around the place if there isnāt one on the bench. The crowd was noticeably tense every time he had the ball. At one stage there was a lax pass to him across the back and he waited for it to roll over to him, a harps lad just missed it, when a slight jog over towards the ball would have negated all risk.
While all of the above may seem fairly negative I think we were well better than Harps who are a very average if well organised side. 1-0 isnāt enough though which is a pity as we could have been out of sight tonight with a little more guile.
@dodgy_keeper has alluded to the fact that we are better away from home and Iād say that is due to the fact that really we are setup to counter attack, long ball over the top for Faherty etc. to chase down.
Still be hopeful, but an opportunity to make it a lot easier missed tonight.
Going forward there is a lot to build on if they can stay up. Need at least one centre half, a centre mid and maybe a goalie.
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4 centre halves, and a holding midfielder.