There really isn’t much to be added about Friday night. Every watching Rovers fan will be in agreement that it was another famous night for the Hoops, and a return to the sort of interest, passion and intensity that made last year’s side title challengers, and will make this side one too. Unlike Bohs previous two trips to Tallaght, Shamrock Rovers were not fortunate winners, we fully deserved three points having comfortably outplayed the northsiders and league favourites.

Yet again Rovers at Tallaght proved to be the best thing going for the league. Having re-watched the game on the RTÉ Player, the atmosphere is electric, and the whole thing, thanks to a much better effort from RTÉ with their coverage, had the feeling of being a major sporting event that people will want to attend. Compare that to the Louth derby played out at the dilapidated Oriel Park and covered by RTÉ last month.

The players and management have deservedly come in for stick this season, but all deserve a big pat on the back for Friday night’s effort. With 7 players missing, and losing 3 more mid-game it was a fantastic effort from all concerned. Hugely impressive was just how disciplined and well-drilled the side was throughout, keeping their shape fantastically and never allowing Bohs create a real opportunity throughout. Losing Ricer, Flynn and Cahill caused some major mid-game rejigging, but Rovers work-rate ensured that Bohs couldn’t capitalise on even that.

In defence Dan Murray produced by far his best performance thus far for his new club. This was the sort of battle Murray seems to excel at, and Bohemians incredulously played right to his strengths. The test of Murray as captain of this team will now come in upcoming games against Drogheda, Bray and UCD where the same commitment and concentration will be required in less-fierce circumstances. Beside him was my MotM, renaissance man Aidan Price who produced a fantastic display to completely nullify Bohs, including what will have to be tackle-of-the-season, and an assist thrown in for good measure.

The five man midfield was restored to keep Bohs quiet and it worked superbly, the Gypos not knowing how to deal with Rice, Chambers and Turner. When Rice was forced off Bayly slotted in superbly and managed to keep his infamous temper in check. If the team is to be title challengers it may well be Chambers and Turner who will push the team on to that, they were both superb in the midfield battle, Turner providing the perfect combination of attrition and creativity.

Billy Dennehy deserves special praise too. He’s had a mixed start to his Hoops career, offering much potential but not really delivering thus far. His lack of defensive ability also left defenders exposed in previous games, but on Friday his work-rate was phenomenal. In the 91^st minute he was able to chase down a ball and put it out for a throw-in instead of a goal-kick for Bohs, that drive epitomising the team’s spirit and desire on the night.

And that’s all before mentioning Gary Twigg’s return and the joy with which he winds up Bohs fans, Alan Kelly producing a great refereeing display or Hooperman’s unmasking at the hands of Billy Dennehy. Richie Sadlier made the point before the game taht if Bohs scored first the crowd would turn on Rovers and sink our chances. He was right, the boo-boys would have been out big time had we lost a goal, but instead as Sadlier pointed out after the game it was the fans who roared Rovers to victory in the end. This performance was reinvigorating for the club on and off the pitch, the passion and tenacity shown on the field and in the stands needs to be recreated in less-illustrious games, there’s no excuse now for the timid performance by the players against UCD, or the way the fans gave up and turner on the side against Pats and Dundalk.

Rovers are now right back in the mix, with the prospect of having two very winnable games coming up and the return of numerous players in the next few weeks. What of Bohemians though, the huge favourites for the title? Like the other times I’ve seen Bohs this season I was extremely unimpressed by them. The players they lost in the winter were huge absences for them on Friday. Chris O’Connor in goal’s footwork was atrocious for Dennehy’s goal, whilst no-one in their midfield had the danger Ndo provides. In the middle they lacked Deegan hugely, Turner was allowed to dominate in the way Deegan has previously. Fenlon’s tactics too were way off. As gdtww predicted, their game plan was to try to release Cretaro behind Price and Murray. Again, it failed with Murray lapping up all those attempted balls over the top. When that failed they had no-one to direct proceedings from the middle, Quigley producing one of the most laughably inept performances on the wing you’ll see all season. Fenlon ended the game by throwing four strikers on the pitch and hoping for the best with aimless punts up field in to space.

Bohs are yet to win impressively in the league this season, and if teams use the Rovers blueprint they won’t find such wins easy to muster. Wherever they go teams will put five in the middle, where the lack of creativity from the central two will mean they resort to punts up field to Byrne and Cretaro/Madden. They’ve had huge luck thus far, and will still be too good for most teams in the league thanks to the goalscoring instinct of Byrne and set-pieces from the likes of Brennan. But if they think that will allow them dominate the league as they might have done two years ago they’re way off.

All this makes the decision by Fenlon not to force through his move to Dundee United even stranger. For once he’ll be operating without a squad that he’d desire and so far the results are unconvincing. Whilst the miniscule manager spent the weekend whining constantly at (the surprisingly excellent) Alan Kelly (even at decisions he wasn’t looking at at the time) he could have been qualifying Dundee Utd for the Scottish Cup Final and 3^rd in the SPL. As career choices go, the early results are that he made a hilariously awful one.

If France can have Le Crunch, I can’t see why Dublin can’t have “De Crunch”. Tomorrow night is the big one, as Rovers try to get their season up and running against the Champions. The crash barriers are being put up around the stadium already, RTÉ are knocking up a commentary studio by the Square end and the tickets are flying off the shelves as a crowd of 6,000 is again expected.

The big question is can we win it. Yes, we can, but it’ll require a huge effort and a lot of luck. If Rovers were at full strength and playing well this would still be an uphill task against the two times league winners. Rovers have certainly not been playing well, and are a million miles away from being at full strength.

Rovers absentee-list is staggering. Gary Twigg (calf), Dessie Baker (broken arm), Pat Sullivan (knee), Stephen Bradley (wrist), Paddy Kavanagh (hamstring), Pat Flynn (hip), Craig Sives (calf) and Sean O’Connor (knee) may all miss out tomorrow. With that sort of injury crisis we shouldn’t have a chance. In particular missing both of our first choice strikers, missing all three right backs will lead to a lot of re-jigging to the whole team.

It’s not easy to guess what sort of side we’ll put out, there are too many variables. Chambers may be re-deployed from support striker on Monday to right back on Friday. Expect Tommie Stewart to make way for Graham Barrett up front if we go with one up top as we did on Monday, with the injury crisis we may need the extra body in the middle for protection that 4-5-1 offers.

Last year Gary Twigg was very much the hero in this fixture, but what are the chances of him playing Friday? There’s no chance of him starting the game, he’s been out too long and only resumed kicking a ball this week. MON has suggested in the press that he wont be named on the bench either, but I fully expect to see him in the match-day squad. Even if only 70% fit, naming Twigg amongst the subs will give the whole crowd a huge lift on Friday night, Bohs will worry about facing him again, and the players will feed off the confidence of the Hoops and fear of the Gypsy’s. He’s unlikely to offer us much on the field due to his fitness, but psychologically he could give a huge boost to a struggling side.

If MON’s M.O. in the press should be to play down the chances of Twigg playing, I’d also like to see him highlight the behaviour of human Rat, Pat Fenlon. Right from the first day of the season Liam Buckley pointed out the unsporting  behaviour from Fenlon in constantly interfering with the referee and linesman. It was no surprise they got a ridiculous penalty that night. Against Drogheda they played against 9 men. Against Sligo they played against 10. Against Linfield another opposition player was sent off. Against Pats on Tuesday Bohs were handed no such advantage, presumably what Fenlon was complaining about in the picture above at half-time.

Fenlon can’t be allowed to influence Alan Kelly tomorrow night the way he has put pressure on officials in other games. Bohs’ (other) Murphy is the best diver in the League and will be out to win a few penalties or dangerous free-kicks for Killian Brennan around our area. By highlighting it before the game MON, or the Rovers players can ensure Kelly doesn’t rush in to making a big decision. Just look at how Mike Dean was influenced by paper talk before the recent Man Utd – Chelsea game. Dean was highlighted as being penalty-happy, so much so that during the game he turned down 3 clear spot-kicks.

We can expect Bohs tactics to be much as they were when they came to Tallaght last October. It won’t make for a great game. They’ll try to dominate midfield by flooding it with bodies, and preventing us from getting the ball wide. Their main source of attack that night was constantly trying to release Paddy Madden with balls over the top to take advantage of the youngster’s pace. In the intervening few months Bohs have added another quick striker, super-ego Raf Cretaro and we’ve added Dan Murray who isn’t exactly the most nimble centre half. Bohs will try to take advantage big time, and Rovers are going to be forced to defend further back because of it. This is where we could be caught out badly, without three right backs we may be left to field Murphy out of position on the right and the dodgy looking Enda Stevens at left-back. Bohs weren’t able to capitalise last year against Sives, Price, Bermingham and Sullivan. They’ll like their chances of releasing Madden/Cretaro a lot more against Murray, Price, out-of-position Murphy and Enda Stevens.

Hopefully at least some of the above players can pass late fitness tests and help flesh out the bare bones that is our squad. There’s still the faint possibility that Twigg could come off the bench after 80 minutes to score yet another famous Hoops goal, to give us 3 points which would put us right back in the title hunt. A draw would be no disaster though and allow us to tread water until reinforcements arrive in a few weeks as the injuries ease off.

Eitehr way, it’s going to be very, very nervy.

KOH

The two games over the Easter weekend won’t live long in the memory of any Hoops fan, a tally of two points against the two newly promoted teams doesn’t scream title-challenge, though the Fingal game offered much more hope of a recovery than a tepid game with UCD.

First to the game at Tallaght against the Students. Rovers were thoroughly outplayed for much of the game, the Belfield side played some fantastic football it must be said, thanks largely to the superb Bolger pulling the strings in central midfield. MON has a knack of signing players who perform against Rovers, I don’t think there’d be any complaints if Bolger became a Hoop at some stage in the future. He was superb, but the whole UCD side showed so much more spirit and vigour than a listless Hoops.

Again for Rovers there was nothing offered creatively. After a promising start Billy Dennehy has just about disappeared. Early in the UCD game Dennehy skint his fullback for sheer pace, knocking the ball past him and comfortably out running him. Not once for the rest of the game did he try to repeat the trick. Defensively too Dennehy was extremely poor, allowing UCD to play the ball down his wing time and time again, barely putting a foot in against the opposing full-back and winger. Having Enda Stevens behind him didn’t help either, the ex-Pats man had a nightmare, looking completely bereft of confidence, hiding from the ball at every opportunity. When substituted it was interesting to note he raced off the pitch, he simply didn’t want to be out there in front of the extremely negative Rovers fans.

The Good Friday clashed was also the debut for new signing Tommy Stewart, and saw a return to 4-4-2. It wasn’t much of a debut for the ex-Derry City and Linfield man, who missed a glorious opportunity from a Sean O’Connor cross and showed a distinct lack of match practice. Let’s hope it was just a lack of match practice anyway.

On the plus side Mannus again made a crucial stop at the death to save a point. The jury had been out on Mannus, but for me the debate is closed, the guy is a good LoI goalkeeper. I make that 5 big saves already this season, and though he should have done better for the first goal against Pats, he’s certainly saved us more points than he’s cost us. Barry Murphy’s lost his place at Bohs already, and I’m very confident that we’ll have the better number one when going  up against Bohemians and Chris O’Connor next Friday night.

The final whistle against UCD was greeted with boos, and Rovers never ever looked like winning that game, they never had the appetite to win it. It was interesting to note MON’s comments afterwards about how players have had the opportunity to stake their claim to a place in the side, but were failing. Luckily that changed against Fingal, when a much improved Hoops side were desperately unlucky not to win.

The side reverted to 4-5-1 and MON made a number of changes, partly due to missing a massive 6 first teamers. That shouldn’t be forgotten, Fingal are a very good side who outplayed a full strength Bohs side earlier in the  season, to have so many absentees and still dominate the game shows clear signs of progress, even if we’re not where at where we hoped we’d be.

For me Man of the Match was Aidan Price, who was restored to the team with Craig Sives at right back. Aido was superb in extremely difficult conditions. The first half was, like the Pats game, virtually unplayable due to the wind. Price coped fantastically in very tough conditions any time the ball was awkwardly played towards him, and he was confident and domineering enough to come well out of his set position to deal with awkward balls to cut them out before they could pose a threat. Price’s form has been a revelation in recent months, he is genuinely now one of the better centre halves in the league, a fantastic turn around a sign that he’s worked extremely hard to improve his game. My only gripe with that is that it made the signing of Dan Murray pointless, Sives and Price proved a fine combination last year and could have continued that and offered continuity. A third-choice back-up centre back would have been a better option to replace Darragh Maguire. Murray again struggled more than Price, though he wasn’t bad, he still is turned incredibly easy.

Other stand out performers were Danny Murphy at left back who’s tenacious tackling and good distribution in very difficult conditions was superb. We have to stop chopping and changing, Murphy should be the starting left-back and Enda Stevens should focus on improving his game with the “A-Team”. In front of him Ollie Cahill was also great, the Tipp man’s form has been very good so far this season, he was perhaps Rovers most dangerous midfield option, whilst also producing one of the tackles of the season in the second half. Chris Turner had a promising debut considering his lack of football, whilst Chambers played very well as the ‘support-striker’ behind Tommy Stewart, also hitting a fine free-kick and of course the crucial penalty.

For me Robert Bayly has not done enough to show why he was signed, and I’m very worried by the signing of both him and Stewart. Both to me seem panic-buys, Stewart’s first touch was awful against Fingal and his work rate nowhere near the shift put in by Barrett. Bayly overcomplicates most things he does, always looking for a flashy touch or trick for little reason. Rice, Chambers, Turner, Bradley mean we’ve more than enough cover in that position. Besides, Bayly’s temper and attitude mean he’d be a complete liability in a game such as the Bohs derby. Hopefully Stewart and Bayly are both on short-term contracts and can be moved on once we get our full compliment back, if either were considered good long-term options why weren’t they picked up on a free transfer in pre-season?

Unlike the Pats game though Rovers coped extremely well with the difficult conditions, we moved the ball better and smarter, there was an added bite back in the team. Although we should have won the game, one of the most encouraging moments came right at the death when the Fingal keeper was doing some ridiculous time-wasting. Instead of looking meek and beaten as they had done at all previous games this season, Dan Murray and Stephen Rice were apoplectic, screaming at Buttimer to get the game moving again (which he responded with a pathetic shrug of his shoulders). At full time James Chambers belted the ball down the pitch when Buttimer wanted it back.

Finally, a bit of life from those who should be roaring this team to greater heights, Murray and Rice. And considering who’s coming up on Friday, it might be perfect timing to see a bit of ferocity return.

KOH

The silence coming from the club about Pat Sullivan’s injury is deafening – it seems as if the news is as bad as first feared, Sullivan is unlikely to play again until 2011. It seems his cruciate ligament has gone, which means he’ll be looking at 9 months out minimum, worst case scenario it could jeopardise his career. It’s a cruel blow for Sullivan who’s Rovers career thus far has been plagued by injury and suspensions meaning he’s never established himself as we had hoped he would. An undoubtedly talented player though, how will Rovers go about replacing him…

MON has had a very, very difficult start to the season, something that’s been overlooked in the criticism that’s been thrown at him early on. We’re not four games in and here’s our second Life Without…. conundrum to solve. Twigg and Baker picking up injuries keeping them out for a couple of months, certain players unable to join until the last minute due to taking a futile stand against Tom Coughlan in Cork and suspensions to Murphy, Sives, Price, Stevens, Sullivan Chambers and others have meant we’ve not been able to name anything close to our full strength team, and even worse when trying to settle new players in to a team – we’ve been unable to name a consistent back four to give some sort of familiarity and stability. On top of all that we now have Sullivan’s injury, meaning yet another re-working must be done just when MON needed it least.

The only small silver lining is that right back is one of the positions we at least have options to work with. None are as good as Sullivan, and the impact of his injury will be major, but there are several players available to O’Neill to try to rejig things.

The most obvious change to make would be to install Pat Flynn as the new first choice right back. Flynner may be a much more limited option than Sullivan, but last season proved his reliability defensively, even if he offers little going forward. This season hasn’t started as well for the tough-tackler, responsible for some potentially big mistakes against Sligo on opening day, and he seems to be a little away from recapturing his solidity of last season. Perhaps a spell in the first team will allow him to build some confidence and familiarity with his role and new teammates.

Another option would be to switch Enda Stevens to right back, and let Danny Murphy continue on the left, using Flynn as a replacement on the right and Ollie Cahill as the back-up left back. This may well end up being the option MON and Croly plump for, particularly in the next couple of weeks. With the lack of attacking options available to us, creativity is hard to find (we haven’t scored a goal from open play in 4 games) and Stevens (or Murphy) on the right though being played out of position will offer more of a threat then Flynn. Until we get a few strikers back, every source of creativity might be vital. Stevens though hasn’t set the world alight thus far in the Hoops, and he is still a young player, who may take some time to grow in to the team. He still looks young and lightweight, while his decision making hasn’t always been spot on so far. It’s hard to see him being the main man in a defence challenging at the top and in Europe.

There is a final option available, and perhaps it’s the most interesting of all (and don’t expect to see Sives deputise at RB as he was forced to do in Galway). Usually it is thought best to make as little changes as possible to a team when injury strikes – sometimes though it pays to be bold. With the glut of central midfield options available to us, we are in the relatively luxurious position of being able to remove quality players like Stephen Rice or James Chambers from there and not weaken the team hugely.

Ricer’s form has dipped hugely in the last 6 months, failing to impose himself in central midfield the way he once did for us. Perhaps that’s a sign of our recent success. When the team was stuck in mid-table under Scully and early on in MON’s reign, we were often chasing games, being outplayed by sides better than us. Ricer’s role in such games would be to chase, harry, fly in to tackles and generally disrupt play. Since we’ve become a dominant team once again games seem to pass Ricer by more, as he has less need to constantly break up teams in the way he did, and he’s failed to really assert himself on the ball when we’ve had far more possession. Maybe it’s a mere dip in form, but it may be that Rice has a bigger impact when we are under the kosh, something which has happened less in the last 6 months.

Rice came to Rovers as a right-back as employed by Sean Connor at Bohs, and a stint back in defence may allow him a chance to return to form, whilst the team can benefit from his fantastic engine which can be utilised in getting up and down the line all day long. He certainly has all the tenacity in the tackle that Sullivan has. James Chambers too has been used at right-back before, playing there for Drogheda United in numerous games last season. But for me Chambers offers a bigger threat than Rice in the final third, and so it would be a shame to neutralise this by playing him in defence. The plus side of Chambers over Rice would be his better delivery than Rice from a dead ball and wide positions, when he does get forward he could be more dangerous with balls in to the box than Rice would be.

All will become clear over the next few weeks as we see the full extent of Sullivan’s injury, and how MON and Croly adapt. I’d expect the safe option to be utilised over Easter against UCD and Fingal – Flynn in as a straight swap for Sullivan. Longer term though and after being given plenty of time to work with Rice on the training ground, the vice captain may be an interesting option in defence. Another crucial element in that could be the arrival of Chris Turner, a great option in central midfield which will again lessen the bad effect of removing Rice from the middle. With Chambers, Turner, Bradley and Bayly all available, a switch to right-back in the future might be best for Rice’s chances of playing every week too.

What do you reckon? Too risky to move Rice in to defence? Is Stevens up for a starting spot every week? Does Flynn offer enough going forward to be a long-term starter? Leave a comment below….

That was a little more like it. After two disastrous performances Rovers rebounded to dig out their first win of the season, showing glimpses of improvement and a road back to last year’s form. The win was marred by a potentially serious injury to goalscorer Pat Sullivan as the injuries continue to add up for the Hoops.

After the terrible performances in the previous two games it was important to grind out a win tonight, in whatever fashion we could. Coming from such a low point before the game Rovers were never going to come out and thrash a decent Galway side, instead it was always going to be about restoring confidence and slowly working towards improving on the awfulness of the Pats and Dundalk games.

[b]Also, sorry for the lack of updates in the last couple of weeks, normal service will now resume…click below to read the full report from Galway[/b[

The catalyst to the improvement was certainly Sean O’Connor who sparked Rovers to life, and for the first time this season injected a bit of creativity in to Rovers causing problems for the opposition. SOC’s set-piece delivery tonight was first class, providing a wonderful assist for Sullivan’s goal after setting up Dennehy from a similar chance moments earlier. SOC was the clear MotM, also producing a wonderful free-kick in the second half well saved by Barry Ryan and testing the keeper again at another opportunity. Finally a bit of creativity, SOC has earned his place in the team for next week against UCD.

Apart from him though the other forward players again didn’t penetrate as we might have hoped. Dennehy has seen a lot of possession in the opening 4 games, and undoubtedly works hard but in all that time hasn’t really skinned a full back, set up a good opportunity for a teammate or finished off a chance. Graham Barrett produced another tireless display up front, but for all his harrying and annoying defenders he lacked another option up front with him to take full advantage. If Barrett can keep up this form Gary Twigg will surely reap the benefits of his hard work on his return (which Tony O’Donoghue suggested could be sooner than we thought on last week’s LoI Podcast). Barrett still hasn’t had a goalscoring opportunity laid off for him in 4 games, but that’s not his fault or through lack of effort. Still, he gets stick from his own fans who fail to see his role in the team, with a lot of people preferring someone who does pretty much nothing for 90 minutes but will score a tap in once every 5 games. Barrett is so much more of a handful than Amond and is a far better team option, even though Amond will score more goals than Graham due to their respective roles.

Elsewhere Stephen Rice was a little more involved, though again not up to last year’s form. Hopefully he’s on the road back there though. Beside him Bayly produced another solid performance, with a lovely first half effort well stopped by Barry Ryan. Although he looks a decent player, Bayly’s temperament is a serious problem and makes him far less of an asset than he might otherwise be. Another bad tackle last night after he should have been sent off last week against Dundalk. Someone needs to have a word with him before the Bohs derby. If he plays in that he’s liable to get himself sent off after 15 minutes and leave his teammates up against it.

At the back Sullivan was stretchered off with a bad looking leg injury which could see him out for some time. Another injury headache for MON to deal with, any chances of getting a settled back 4 after the turbulent off-season has been thrown out the window due to injuries and suspensions so it’s not surprising the slow start we’ve made. Not helping either is the form of Dan Murray. Murray looked better today than in previous games, and delivered one fantastic cross field ball from the centre half position, but a moment of madness should have cost us dearly as he attempted a ridiculous back header that he missed completely. What he was thinking I’ve no idea, had he touched it it would have had the exact same result and left the Galway man through on goal.  In goal Alan Mannus continued his decent start to the season, looking commanding, catching all thrown at him, and making one fantastic stop in the second half. Like Barrett he’s come under fire from his own fans at home, but he’s had little chance with any goal we’ve conceded this season (he was wrongly blamed for the second against Galway, though it took a deflection taking the ball right in to the corner of the net). Enda Stevens also put in a decent shift but doesn’t seem to offer much going forward and seems a little lightweight. The jury is definitely still out on the ex-Pats man.

So a first three points of the season and a better starting point to begin putting things right. With Bohs dropping points against Sligo (a fourth poorish performance from four for them, we’re not the only ones struggling) we’re only six points off the top with the whole season to play. The doom and gloom merchants love a good crisis to turn on the management/team but with players returning from injury, suspension and the potential addition of Thomas Stewart and Chris Turner next week there doesn’t seem reason to panic just yet.

Rovers produced their worst display of the Michael O’Neill reign as they crashed to a pitifully tame defeat at home to a well drilled but uninspiring Pat’s team. It was without doubt the worst night at Tallaght Stadium so far when the wind again destroyed any chance of a football game, and leaves an awful lot of questions to be asked about this Rovers team. To cap things off the mentalist above managed to get on to the pitch, push Pat’s keeper and try to punch another player while security and Gardaí looked on from afar. Where do you begin wrapping up a night like that….

I’ll start with the off the field stuff first. The moron above by most accounts spent 5 minutes abusing Pats’ substitutes, issuing death threats to them, before running on the field to confront Gary Rodgers over nothing in particular. It was one of the strangest moments at Tallaght yet, there seemed to be no reason for him having a go at the keeper but have a go he did nonetheless. Nothing can be done to stop a headcase like that getting on the pitch, but once on a steward or Garda could be expected to at least shuffle towards him. Instead Damian Lynch, Pats’ captain, had to intervene and almost got digged for his troubles. It wasn’t the only case of rubbish security on the night – the usual gang had to stand in front of the East stand blocking the wheelchair section, and refused to move despite a message over the PA. No steward that I could see was arsed shifting them. A new division was put in place between the two stands, y’know like in real stadiums, but at half time the Stone Island boys decided they wanted their half time pint which almost led to one steward being thumped, and the SI gang  just ripping apart the barrier between the two stands. You wonder why the club bother sometimes.

On to the football. If we must. It wasn’t just bad, it was really, really bad. Again the wind made for an absolute nightmare of a spectacle at Tallaght Stadium. If the SDCC really want their “boutique stadium” to be usable year round they’re going to have to stump up for a stand at the car park end of the ground. At the start and end of last season games were badly disrupted by the wind, and there’s no way around it when you plonk a stadium on the side of a mountain like that. You couldn’t have a game of rugby in those conditions so it’s going to badly affect their plans for the stadium at certain times of the year.

In saying that you can still play the conditions. We didn’t. Instead we lumped balls up front to Graham Barrett who toiled as the lone front man again. For 70 minutes he didn’t have one decent ball to deal with, and was left working off untidy balls from midfield, and no support from the widemen. The game plan was for him to put through guys like Chambers in the first half and Rice in Sligo, as well as having the two wingers cutting inside. When they don’t do that, and Chambers, Bradley and Rice can’t secure decent ball to feed Barrett with he’s got no options apart from being given the ball with his back to goal, surrounded by 3 men and with no-one in support.

In the middle he certainly received no support, bar that one Chambers chance in the first half. Stephen Rice continued his shocking form, Chambers was industrious but produced precious little while Bradley reverted back to his invisible man impression. Dennehy and Kavanagh offered very little threat from wide positions, and failed to support Barrett up top. Bayly came on for his debut at 0-2 down and looked tidy enough, though he could have dropped his shorts and coiled one out in the centre circle and still been our best player on the night.

For me Danny Murphy was the best of a bad, bad lot tonight, he was one of the few players that at least tried to deal with the conditions and play the ball out and on the deck. He’s a very tidy ball player and a good footballing left back which makes up for his lack of physicality. Craig Sives was quiet, Pat Flynn was poor. Then there’s Captain Fantastic. After seeing Murray play 4 times so far us I think it’s time the skipper was dropped. Whether he hasn’t got his head around leaving his beloved Cork City yet or whatever it is, Murray has been very poor thus far. The great leader we presumed we were getting went meekly about his night’s work tonight, again looking nervy at the back whenever he had to do anything other than rush on to a ball.

At least tonight Murray managed to get to a few attacking corners, but at the other end is it any coincidence that in our two league games since his arrival we’ve conceded 3 goals from set-pieces? It needs to be sorted by Sunday afternoon and as captain and centre-half you would expect it to be Murray who should sort it. If not, Aidan Price should be rewarded for his fine form and put back beside Craig Sives, the partnership which went 22 games unbeaten lets not forget.

We were found out by Pats’ two only efforts in the game. Both were free-kicks in dangerous positions but the way they used theirs in comparison to us spoke volumes. When playing with that wind we were happy enough floating balls in to the box and using outswinging corners, none of which caused real problems. Pats had two, both times they were whipped in hard to try to take advantage of the conditions and both times it paid off. Mannus should certainly have done better with the first, but presumably he saw it late after it came through a crowded box…just how did no-one get a head or foot to it first?

Up next is Dundalk on Sunday, and a lot of work has to be done. The defence need to start taking responsibility when a ball is played in to the box from a set-piece. Sullivan will be back in for Flynn, and Price may well return for Murray, though I doubt MON will make such a big decision so early in the season. In midfield Ricer simply has to be dropped, he’s a much better player than he’s shown and he needs to start working harder to recapture his form of old. With the injury problems we have up front, 4-5-1 may have to be used again due to the lack of options. If so we need Dennehy and O’Connor (Kavanagh was woefully out of sorts tonight and is another who could be dropped) need to push up and cut in without the ball more to help relieve Barrett and give him some support to look for, as well as to drag  some of the defensive cover away. The other option is to revert to 4-4-2, but Dennehy didn’t look like much of a striker in the final 30 minutes tonight. There is always Don Cowan who while not a world beater, is at least a striker. Cowan wasn’t in the squad today, but was in Sligo and so maybe it’s time to throw him in at the deep end. Whatever happens on Sunday it surely can’t be any worse than tonight.

You can’t win a league in the first few weeks, but you can lose one. Bohs came from behind tonight (minus Barry Murphy who’s already been dropped) to dig out their second undeserved win in a row. That’s why they’ll probably be champions again come November.

A bad, bad night.

It now appears Rovers are not going to hang around for Chris Turner, and have swooped instead for Robert Bayly.

Shamrock Rovers have completed the signing of former Cherry Orchard, Leeds United and Sporting Fingal player Robert Bayly.

The 22-year-old – an attacking midfielder and nephew of former Hoop, Richie Bayly – has agreed a one-year deal and if cleared in time could feature in the squad for tomorrow’s (March 16th) game against St Patrick’s Athletic at Tallaght Stadium.

“Robert’s a talented player who had a very good season last year with Sporting Fingal,” says Rovers’ boss, Michael O’Neill. “He’ll make a welcome addition to our squad.”

Leaving it this late to do the deal for a free agent makes one thing extremely clear; Turner was the first choice, but MON and the board have now decided not to hang around for him any more.

In the wake of last week’s decision it seems as if the club are either upset about revelations to do with Turner’s involvement in the dodgy deal with Sligo, or have been put off by the decision. The latter seems strange, unless of course Sligo launch a ridiculous appeal. Such a move seemed extremely unlikely given how badly they fared at the initial arb, but now rumours are that they may launch such an appeal. That would push back Turner’s availability for another few weeks. The club may also have gotten word that Turner’s involvement in the deal was such that he will be banned for longer than a couple of games by the FAI as punishment.

Either way, we’re left with Plan B in MON’s eyes, who had been willing to wait around for Turner as long as possible, until now opting for Bayly as a replacement. Bayly is certainly a very promising midfielder, and will be remembered for his star turn against us in the Cup last year where he ran the show against our midfield. Not bad for a 22 year old. You can’t help but wonder why MON didn’t opt for him in the first place though. One reason that may have been a factor is Bayly’s disciplinary record. To be frank, the guy’s a nutter on the pitch. He picked up an extraordinary number of cards last year for Sporting Fingal, and fell out with Liam Buckley to such a degree that Bucko opted to do without the talented player, a bold move for a newly promoted club, but one which suggests he may come with a lot of baggage. The picture above is of a 19 year old Bayly being sent off in his first (and last) performance for Leeds United for throwing a headbutt.

There is the slim possibility that Turner may yet sign, but the timing of the Bayly deal makes that look extremely unlikely. If that was the plan, Bayly could have been signed months ago and enjoyed a full pre-season with the squad, instead we’re left with throwing a player in to the squad against Pat’s without much a pre-season behind him.

It’s been messy but we do at last have a new central midfield player the squad needed. Bayly is undoubtedly talented and MON may just be the man to instill a bit of discipline in him. The ex-Cherry Orchard man might benefit from the professional set-up at Rovers too and a Championship push might help him mature also. With Chambers, Rice, Bradley, Bayly, young Craig Walsh and even Ollie Cahill who’s played in the middle in pre-season we certainly have no shortage of competition for places in the middle.

In other news, MON has also confirmed that he’ll be back in the transfer market in the next couple of days to sign a new striker to fill the gap left by the absence of Gary Twigg and Dessie Baker. As mentioned in a previous blogpost, the options are limited to free transfers and loan signings, and is unlikely to include Declan Edwards despite him impressing in pre-season. Where MON will find a suitable option isn’t clear right now. Wishful thining on my part, but wouldn’t it be nice if we could ressurect a short-term deal for Pavel Jurco, the big Slovakian who was on trial for us last summer. If he’s a free agent (information is hard to glean from the net) then a short term deal might be affordable until the summer, from when we would have the two strikers back, and could add Declan Edwards or another (cheaper) striker too. Jurco’s size, power and pace would destroy League of Ireland defences, and would be perfect to play at the top of a 4-5-1.

Like I said, wishful thinking.

]]> http://gdtww.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/change-of-plans-bayley-in-turner-out/feed/ 0 smulv Bayly's infamous debut for Leeds http://gdtww.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/in-brief-lsc-turner-and-rte/ http://gdtww.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/in-brief-lsc-turner-and-rte/#comments Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:59:27 +0000 smulv http://gdtww.wordpress.com/?p=137 ]]>

Ordinarily we’d have a league game to be previewing or reviewing at this stage of the weekend, but after the Pats game was delayed until Paddy’s Eve we’ve got some time to kill. So before that game, here’s a round-up of some other bits and pieces.

The Leinster Senior Cup draw was made mid-week and turned out as so;

Bray Wanderers v Dundalk
Shamrock Rovers v Shelbourne
Bohemians v Sporting Fingal
UCD v St Patrick’s Athletic or Drogheda United

Matches to be played on or before Sunday April 4th.

Couldn’t have turned out much better for us, we get a game against a side we should beat, can play a few youngsters and rest a few regulars while we’ll also get a decent crowd, as opposed to the potential disaster of playing UCD on a wet Thursday night. The competition isn’t important, but it’ll be nice to have a competitive fixture with Shelbourne once more.

Still no further update on the Chris Turner subject. Rovers are presumably waiting for the outcome of disciplinary action against Turner (as they’re unlikely to be waiting for Sligo to appeal, surely they wont). Turner hasn’t covered himself with glory in this whole affair, and I’d expect to see something along the lines of a five game ban with three games suspended. That would be fair enough, but Rovers are right to wait until final word comes from the FAI before signing Turner to a deal.

Finally I’d just like to recommend RTÉ’s new League of Ireland podcast. It’s broadcast live on RTÉ Digital Radio on Mondays at 6.30, but is available to download at any time. If you don’t have iTunes just click here to listen online to the 30 minute show. If you do have iTunes then you can download the show by subscribing here and the show will automatically download to your iTunes every week. It’s just the sort of thing we need to see more of, a very well put together show. Best of all they’ve avoided looking to rent-a-quote morons like Roddy Collins or Pat Dolan. The hosts are amiable and knowledgeable (even if they do confess to being a Sligo and Bohs fans) while Alan Matthews and St Pat’s Damian Lynch make for good guests. Most of the talk this week was about Lynch and Matthews readjusting to part-time football and makes for an interesting listen.

Speaking of RTÉ, last week’s MNS is also up on the RTÉ player (click here) and is a big improvement on last year’s already good show. There seems to be more time allowed for actual footy, and again the guests and Con Murphy do a very good job. There’s also a new Cult Heroes feature, and this week feature’s our very own Mick Leech. Some great footage of some great goals and well worth a watch for anyone who hasn’t seen it. Also worth seeing is Drogheda’s amazingly awful performance in Week One (will they pick up a win all season? not if they play anything like that) and ex-Rovers youngster Ciaran Kilduff’s fantastic performance against them for UCD. One for the future.

Until the Pat’s game on Tuesday so.

KOH

Oh yes, the pic above are the rather great looking new Rovers matchday tickets for 2010. Very smart and professional looking, Rovers continue to drag the league in to the new millenium. After the jump is another pic I took in the club shop of the new home kit, and also a very special comparison of our new tickets with Sligo Rovers.

Shamrock Rovers Tickets 2010

Sligo Rovers Tickets 2010

New Home Kit

As per the official Rovers site

That means that Turner’s deal with Sligo never existed, and as a free agent Turner is now free to sign for Shamrock Rovers, which he can do despite the transfer window being closed. Sligo Rovers come out of this looking extremely amateurish, whilst there bungling and the FAI’s has cost us a player for a key game (last week v. Sligo) and also leaving Turner without a pre-season. Sligo still have the option of an appeal, they may just be ridiculous enough to chance it too. As such don’t expect him to start against Pats next Tuesday, but from there on in we should have the best midfield in the country.

Welcome aboard Chris. More details after the jump….

The Disputes Resolution Chamber (DRC) today (March 11th) issued its judgement on a case involving Sligo Rovers, Shamrock Rovers and Chris Turner.

8. The parties are reminded of the possibility of an appeal to arbitration pursuant to Article 31 above of the SPC and Article 33 of the FAI DRC Regulations within ten days.

————————————————————————————————————————————————–

The gist of it is that Turner technically has no contract with us, presumably because he has yet to pay back Sligo their lump sum. However as a free agent he can sign for us now, although only after he pays back Sligo that fee. Turner and Sligo will also be further investigated and possibly disciplined for doing business in such a dodgy way. Looks like there could be further complications so, a fine for Sligo and potentially a few games ban for Turner.

From eleven-a-side.com

Shamrock Rovers bid to lift the Airtricity Premier Division title has suffered a major setback following the news that strikers Gary Twigg and Dessie Baker will miss the next couple of months through injury.

Twigg has missed the Hoops’ pre-season campaign and last season’s Premier division top scorer will now have to undergo surgery on the calf injury that has left him sidelined.

The Scottish striker will definitely be out for two months, while it was confirmed that Baker broke his arm during Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Sligo Rovers.

“But the most important thing is to cure the problem and unfortunately only an operation will do that. Gary will have that this week and we’ll concentrate on getting him ready then.”

Whoever backed Twigg to win the golden boot again this year should be a little worried. Frankly we all should be. Losing a player of Twigg’s importance is going to have a big effect on this team. To lose Baker as well is a further cruel blow, severly limiting our options in Twigg’s absence. It’s hard to blame MON for leaving us underresourced up front. Three weeks ago when Twigg and Baker were both fit things seemed fine, nothing much can be done about two so serious injuries in the space of a week, and Barrett/Baker/Twigg (and the tactical switch) meant there was no need to carry a fourth striker like Purcell or Amond. But as Biggie Smalls would so eloquently put it, things done changed….

This of course leaves us with just two options up front, Graham Barret and Don Cowen. Barrett is a very good player but wont be a prolific scorer (expect the boo-boys to be out in force so) and Cowen is a promising youngster but very inexperienced. With the transfer window closed our ability to remedy this wont be easy, and limited to loan signings and free transfers. At this stage of our season (and the Scottish one) free transfers wont be available, and frankly anyone good enough to lead the line wont be allowed on loan from our rivals. What a pity it’s too late to swoop for ex-Rovers youngster Ciaran Kilduff who after a great performance against us in Tallaght last year continues to blossom for UCD. UCD will hardly allow their most important player out on loand, but maybe he’ll return in the future (luckily MON mentioned at last years AGM that he left on friendly terms!)

It looks like it’ll be a case of treading water and trying to keep within touching distance of Bohs until Twigg and/or Baker returns. We’re not helped by the fixture list which as I mentioned earlier ( here ) favours Bohs early on. On the plus side is how we’ve lined up in pre-season so far. Even before these injuries we were set to play a new 4-5-1 formation more often this year (details of that here ) and a few weeks of hard work and lots of game time has already gone in to this. It’s not the finished article yet, but with a player of Barret’s intelligence and movement up top we can probably get by with this for the time being. When we need to chase games as we did against Sligo on Saturday, Cowen can be introduced, or Billy Dennehy can be converted in to a make shift striker, allowing us to play with 3 pacey players (O’Connor, Kavanagh and Dennehy) which will certainly give defences something to think about even in the absence of the mercurial Scot.

That is, unless MON has a bit of transfer business up his sleeve, a free transfer/loan signing raid on the league up North for instance.