Shamrock Rovers 5 Derry City 1 Surely Bucko has stumbled upon his ideal line up, Glen Fitzpatrick was excellent up front and if he can continue to compete at that level surely is a better option than Liam Kelly who to date has flattered to deceive, Glen and Grant seemed really lively up front and the ploy of using the channels to pull open gaps for the midfield to attack into worked a treat once Keddy remembered what it was like to go forward again! Stephen Grant again had a constructive 90 minutes and outshone the clearly lacking in confidence Shane Robinson on the right (in saying that he improved after earning the penalty, could this be the turning point!??) Rennie was, well Rennie, the fact people are no longer bemoaning the lack of bite in midfield speaks wonders for the job he has done so far this season. On this basis I believe a more attacking line up when Billyboy is fit with him playing behind Grant and Fitzpatrick could be the key to our season, we wont concede too many goals so scoring is the key to how far we can progress this season!!! A special mention has to go to the linesman that stood in front of the home support throughout the match, a shockingly poor performance that defied belief on occasion to the point of nudge, nudge, wink, wink when discussing a decision regarding a corner with the ref!!! If he doesn’t know the rules why in gods name is he there in the first place? Still he took the slagging well, even when his hair dye was running down his bright yellow shirt!! As for the ref, well seeing as we won I won’t complain, but I’m sure come next week it’ll be business as usual!! Koh DvB
Alls well that ends well, how welcome and unexpected was that eh? Set up a weekend in Cardiff a treat! (With another great win to celebrate!!) Have to say, thought the team played quite well allowing for the revamped line up Bucko went for, even when going a goal down I thought we were the better team and looked more likely to threaten than Derry did, The defence again looked solid enough and gave little away, the peno was yet another injustice (albeit well righted by the superb save that followed) heaped onto the ever growing pile that is Rovers season and the goal was a vicious deflection that left Bazza with no chance, still even have my doubts as to whether it was even a free in the first place. Midfield after a shaky start going forward clicked into place wonderfully in the second half and really pulled Derry’s shockingly poor midfield apart at will! Ok we got lucky with a couple of goals but we deserved some luck considering the course of events that is the season so far!
Waterford United 2 Shamrock Rovers 0 Having in my opinion slightly shaded the opening part of the game without creating any clear chances I felt Rovers were doing ok up to the point where the linesman decided Waterford obviously needed a helping hand and committed a double sin, firstly not seeing the ball cross the line for a goal kick from the offending cross and then seeing the ball cross the line when to be honest I don’t think even the Waterford fans thought it was anything other than a kick out! Feeling a tad aggrieved (and justified in doing so) I thought the Rovers support was outstanding, yet again proving that we are easily the best supporters in the country bar none, despite being well outnumbered we managed to out sing the home support for the whole game, the continuous chant for the whole of the second half was particularly impressive, even when they scored a dubious second (how the same linesman decided it was their throw in is beyond me) the home support and our OTT police escort were quite clearly surprised (and somewhat impressed) at the fact we didn’t break our stride and continued to sing! For me the real worry was again the fact that we look toothless up front without BillyBoy. In the earlier games I convinced myself that all was ok as we were still creating chances but just missing them, but the fact that these chances appeared few and far between in the last two games is a worrying trend that needs to be addressed soon. It’s quite obvious that the team which has started the last two games isn’t creative enough and a shake up is required, again we are failing to put opposing teams under any real pressure, in saying that with the majority of the game Rovers being down to ten men it was always unlikely we were going to press forward, but surely when given a dead ball situation (i.e. something we can prepare for) we should be capable of better than the pathetic efforts we have witnessed so far this season? I thought the defence coped admirably considering they were on the back foot for most of the game, midfield was combative as per usual (is this enough though if we are to really challenge) maybe it’s time for a change, I personally would like to see a fit Jonathan Prizeman playing alongside Reynolds in the middle, with Glen Lacey given a couple of games on the wing as to be honest Shane Robinson is a shadow of the player he was last season and is clearly lacking in confidence, Stephen Grant is doing well on the left but I would at this stage give him a shot up front alongside Fitzpatrick who must be worth trying ahead of Kelly and Tony Grant who seems happier running away from goal than towards it, this would free up James Keddy to play on the left and maybe bring some impetus up front along with an ability to go past players!! The trip certainly wasn’t without its merits though, the banter (lager fuelled) on the way down and back was as usual top notch along with the new Ultras t-shirts which will be worn proudly in Cardiff next weekend! (Look out for us on the TV lads!!) If only we had a team as good as our marvellous supporters! We live in hope!! Koh DvB
What can I say, it would be nice to say we were robbed on the night but aside from the two shocking decisions which bordered on outright cheating by the match officials Rovers again produced a totally lacklustre performance to set the alarm bells ringing. While it was always going to be tough against a newly promoted team on a high playing in front of a packed ground, Rovers needn’t have aided and abetted their rivals quite so much as they did.
Longford Town 0 Shamrock Rovers 0 Overall a poor excuse of a game on a poor excuse of a pitch, Rovers attempts at their usual passing game was rendered impossible on the poor surface with Longford’s more direct approach being better suited to the bumpy pitch. I though again we lacked any ideas going forward and when Billyboy went off our chances of anything resembling initiative disappeared into the dressing room with him, the lack of punch up front is starting to get worrying but I’m sure Liam is well aware of this and hopefully will be working hard to address it in the coming weeks. I personally thought the defence looked solid enough with Ryan being forced into the odd straightforward save and one particularly good one in the second half, reinforcing my belief that we actually have the two best keepers in the league, again I thought Terry Palmer was his usual elegant self at the back and was unlucky to see his goal ruled out for a push on the defender (albeit justified in my opinion) the real disappointment for me was the midfield, Alan Reynolds was his usual combative self only to be left outnumbered far too often inevitably losing the ball back or being forced into misplaced passing, Shane Robinson again contributed little going forward leaving Stephen Grant often as our only threat, this was reinforced when he was moved up front towards the end allowing Glen Lacey to come on, who himself did well putting in two or three crosses which were an improvement on anything up to that point, providing chances for Jason Colwell and Alan Reynolds. Up front Liam Kelly is not a goalscorer though and his neat touches and passes which are his good points were always going to be wasted on a pitch this bad, Tony Grant to me still seems to have something nagging at him and needs a few goals to boost his confidence going forward, all to often when in good positions to run at goal he decided to take the easier option of running into the wide channels. The loss of Billy Boy was disastrous as his vision and pace are in short supply at the moment and hopefully the injury that forced him off won’t rule him out of the Waterford game. The one positive from the game is that we are unbeaten and considering the state of the pitch and our lack of firepower it could have been much worse, the one worrying thing is the way we seem to be allowing weaker teams off the hook when we should be beating them, we seem to be allowing ourselves to get dragged down to their level rather than playing to our potential and beating them comfortably. One thing we can be sure of though is that the league is very competitive this season so to be still unbeaten is an achievement in itself but the worrying amount of draws may come back to haunt us if we continue in the current vein of form, in saying that a win on Friday will put us right back on course not that we’re miles off it at the mo! Koh DvB
What a rollercoaster of a week to be a hoop, a win over our new internet rivals citeeeee followed by an impressive win over Bray in the League cup but rounded off on the high end of things by the news on Friday, finally the hoops are going to the promised land that is Tallaght, 16 long years of wandering the wilderness that is the eircom league over and done with, considering all that happened it was a tad inevitable that we would be brought crashing back down to earth (or in this case a ploughed field) in Longford.
Shamrock Rovers 2 Cork City 1 I would like to see Billyboy play the deeper role more often as I thought in that position with Jayo and Reynolds making more runs into the box we looked more capable of pulling gaps in their defence, this would take some of the pressure of the two wide players who at times frustrate with the standard of crossing, coupled with our unbelievable poor standard of dead balls it’s an alternative that should be explored! But I’ll leave that up to Bucko!! Oh yeah, the ref was a disgrace yet again, doing neither team any favours! How long this level of incompetence can continue is beyond me, I feel it’s the single biggest thing holding an improving league back! Koh DvB
Personally I thought as the old cliché goes 'it was a game of two halves' on Sunday, in the first I was again worried at our lack of punch up front which if not sorted could be a considerable problem over the course of a very long season, after what was a poor start all round the team got to grips with the ball which in itself on such a treacherous surface was no mean feat, again though with central midfield being intent on breaking up the play as opposed to creativity it was left to the wingers to make any telling contribution going forward, to this end Stephen Grant carried on where he left off against bohs and put in another good performance, I thought we looked tight at the back and seemed to be dealing with Corks tactic of long balls up to O'Callaghan and him laying it off to O' Flynn quite well, then Bazza had that unfortunate slip, to be honest it was just one of those things and always likely to happen on a greasy surface, the fact that this was Cork’s only meaningful effort in the entire 45 minutes tells you something. For me the bonus in the second half was the changes Bucko made, playing Billyboy in the hole behind the striker worked very well, Cork couldn’t react to this new deeper threat and were struggled to cope at times, the equaliser albeit unlucky on Devine was well deserved as Cork seemed confident enough to allow Rovers to come at them in the second half, this they did with a gusto we hadn’t really witnessed this season, hopefully it can be reproduced more often, once the equaliser went in it was obvious that Cork despite their best efforts were struggling to adjust to attacking mode again, other than a free-kick tipped over by the solid Ryan they failed to make much of an impression, the late winner just capped off an amazing turn around that I genuinely though at half-time was as likely as Kilkenny winning the Champions League, but credit were it’s due, Bucko seen the options and made the changes, Dolan didn’t and paid the price.