**Friendly - Wednesday, August 20th V HBFC. Venue : Wesley (TBC) ; Time - 7.15 (TBC)

homerjay2005

dfx- wrote: »

I guess it's time to find out how to get to Wesley College without aimlessly wandering around South Dublin all night. :eek:

how u getting there?

its about 10 mins walk from balally luas stop which is the dundrum shopping center stop.

just head out straight towards the M50 passed the tesco garage, through 2 roundabouts and its on the left. its handy to find actually.

dfx-

I'm just off Camden St, so the Luas sounds handy enough.

helimachoptor

Have you lads played against the opposition before?

Idu

I'm finished work at 7 so I'll hop on the luas and be there ASAP. I'll bring a ball too

homerjay2005

helimachoptor wrote: »

Have you lads played against the opposition before?

nope, but i have played with them.

there a UCL team, young lads like ourselves. they wont be bad and will be a good test of us. i dont care if we loose 3-0 or win 3-0 tonight, its the performance that matters, getting lads back into the groove of playing and getting a run of friendlies started for 4-5 weeks. we need to build a team and a squad and nights like tonight will help that. another big thing tonight is giving the new lads a chance as much as possible.

one aim would be the have the squad in place for that Memorial final v beechlawn on the 6th September. That should be another excellent test for us, lost it 3-2 last year.

FrankGrimes

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!CHANGE OF VENUE!!!!!!!!!

Astro just rang me to say there's something up with the pitch in Wesley and the Health & Safety officer won't allow any games on it so they are moving us to St. Columbas college.

It's in the same general neck of the woods as Wesley but this will make a big difference to anyone on public transport.

I was thinking of getting changed and stretched at Wesley to catch any stragglers and give them a lift to Columbas but I have a bike in the back of my car so the back seats are folded down so can only give one lift - if anyone else can help here it will mean less people get lost.

Ed - can you confirm this change is ok for the other team?

Ref is €40 as the only one they could find at this short notice has a fair bit of travel.

Idu

Jules any chance of a lift from Sandyford? Or anyone else offering lifts from there or town? Otherwise I can't make it to Colombus. It's a public transport black hole

homerjay2005

jules, me and art will be at wesley at 7.30 with room for one or 2.

mikie, have you room to carry lads over to columbas if needed, should only be one or 2??

. im texting the new lads now, jules texting our own team

i rang the oppostion.

ian im sure you can go with jules.

if anybody is unsure, ring me, come to wesley and you can follow us there!

dfx-

Ah.

FrankGrimes

Texted our existing players.

Iain - if you want I can pick you up from Sandyford Luas stop at 7.20pm.

Simon & Lepo also need a lift from Sandyford but I won't have space. Anyone reading this whos driving to the game, can you offer lifts to help out?

Dfx - if you can get yourself to Wesley for 7.30 we'll get you there one way or the other.

homerjay2005

dfx- wrote: »

Ah.

you need a lift? text me and ill arrnage to meet you at laus? jules, can you give lift to Ian?

i think all 5 new lads are told now, text 3 and 2 more are viewing the thread now!

Idu

cheers Jules. Will see ya there

helimachoptor

HomerJ I know the way, but I've a big car and room for people if anyone needs a lift from wesley

homerjay2005

cool, lads, ill be in wesley with art and so will the opposition. if you need a drive, head on there and ring me...ill be there about 7.15.

i think we are ok now anyway.

emc2

I can swing by wesley as well to collect anyone thats needs a lift over from there.

homerjay2005

so looks like a great turn out tonight, and brilliant to see 5 new players.

Daryl - YES - GK.

Ed - YES
Dan - YES
Michael - YES
Simon - YES
Lepo - YES
Larry - YES
Robbie (Kiith) - YES
Iain (j_o_c) - YES
James (Eddies Bro) - YES
Jules – YES
Art - YES
Eddie(Nunu) -YES
Derek (tadhgbaby) - YES
Ciaran (spider) - YES
helimachopter - YES
PHB - YES

thelepo

Gentlemen,
Shall myself and Simon head to Wesley and try to pick up a lift there?
Probably handier than Sandyford as people might turn up there anyhow.

Lepo

_blank_

Yeah lepo, do that.

Baggly

Daryl - YES - GK.

Ed - YES
Dan - YES
Michael - YES
Simon - YES
Lepo - YES
Larry - YES
Robbie (Kiith) - YES
Iain (j_o_c) - YES
James (Eddies Bro) - YES
Jules – YES
Art - YES
Eddie(Nunu) -YES
Derek (tadhgbaby) - YES
Ciaran (spider) - YES
helimachopter - YES
PHB - YES
Peter (LOTP) - YES

_blank_

What position are you peter?

Baggly

Traditionally a forward but i loved playing on the wing too. Was usually put up front because i have a bit of height. Ill play where im needed tho.

homerjay2005

4-4 draw. decent result considering we had 6 new players in. i enjoyed the game, it was played at astro standard and definately not at friendly pace, there was some hard challenges and a good pace to the game. i think we used to rotation system well and everybody got a good spell on the pitch.

overall a fair result. we got 2 good goals, they got 2 crackers also. mistakes for the other 2, however these things happen. we need to learn from them though. we fell asleep from a short corner and a throw. we need to be more alert from these, but thats what friendlies are for, the rid of these.

overall, some great performances and one or 2 lads played their best games tonight for us. some good performances from the new lads, i hope they enjoyed it and as i said, give it 6 weeks to get to know everybefore deciding if to commit!

good stuff lads. 1 friendly again for tuesday, will confirm it tomorrow and availibility of pitch. possibly same time in same place, but on tues.

dfx-

Good game, enjoyed it if very annoyed by a stupid ref.

I'll have nightmares over that second goal for a while. Some problems as the game went on and the goal caused by the short corner was really frustrating.

homerjay2005

dfx- wrote: »

Good game, enjoyed it if very annoyed by a stupid ref.

I'll have nightmares over that second goal for a while. Some problems as the game went on and the goal caused by the short corner was really frustrating.

ah the ref was grand to be fair to him!!!!!! it was a tough game and while he blew a few silly fouls, thats the norm these days:eek:

mistakes happen, forget about them. we could have done better for all the goals, but saying that, we got 2 soft goals too, so these things balance out. you will concede and score alot of soft goals on astro with no sliding tackles and no offsides. the thing here is, who ever makes the least mistakes, will generally wil games. we have 5 weeks to make all the mistakes we want and learn from them! if we dont concede a goal from a short corner and a long throw again all season, then last night will have been a great experience.

Idu

The ref was grand. He was consistent in his decisions so you can't ask for more than that. Ridiculous the amount of foul throws last night though. Good jebus!!!

helimachoptor

Tis the same with all the astro refs, they don't really let too many hard tackles go without blowing up.

But seriously people need to learn how to throw in the ball!

FrankGrimes

helimachoptor wrote: »

But seriously people need to learn how to throw in the ball!

Ah, another one sharing my frustration on my pet hate - I've been going about this for five seasons now but there's very little improvement. To anyone that plays at fullback or on the wing - you owe it to your teammates to put in some time on your own practicing throw ins. It's just not on to be giving away foul throws week in week out and not take the responsibility to do anything about it. If you're not sure what to do, ask someone in the squad then practice what they show you. Am sure there'll be videos on youtube showing how to do it too.

We give away a ridiculous amount of foul throws but also lose possession very often on the ones we don't foul due to the poor quality of the throwing. Never throw to the midriff - either throw to head at speed for flick on or to feet.

Anyways, that's my periodic throw-in rant over. Good game last night lads against a decent team and the pace of the game gives the new lads a good indicator of the standard that will be needed. Some really good performances by new players - a few will clearly add to the quality of the squad, though like the squad as a whole fitness is the main area for improvement. Knowing what you need to improve is half the battle.

Some lovely football played at times and our defence was noticeably better at clearing the ball effectively first time than in recent games. Great to see Dan back - that solid partnership with Ed at centre-half gives a very good base. A hungry performance by Iain rounded off with a lovely top notch finish from 25 yds - that's what happens when lads see new players competing for their spot, everyone looks to up their game.

There was a tendency for the defence to sit very deep and leave too much space between them and the midfield which actually leaves the defence more vulnerable to runners than if they push up and get tight early, but overall a very positive game and there's definitely the potential to push on from there.

homerjay2005

FrankGrimes wrote: »

There was a tendency for the defence to sit very deep and leave too much space between them and the midfield which actually leaves the defence more vulnerable to runners than if they push up and get tight early.

ya, i think we need to sit down and discuss what way we are going to play defensively this season. its the one line, that we cannot afford to be making changes in. it takes a few minutes to get settled in when your playing in defence and once the season starts, we need 4 players in there and they all decide that there staying there for the season. without that stability, were doomed!!!!!!!

we need to cut our concession of goals. those lads seemed to have 4 lads up front last night though cos every attack, all 4 of our defenders had a man to cover.

helimachoptor

homerjay2005 wrote: »

ya, i think we need to sit down and discuss what way we are going to play defensively this season. its the one line, that we cannot afford to be making changes in. it takes a few minutes to get settled in when your playing in defence and once the season starts, we need 4 players in there and they all decide that there staying there for the season. without that stability, were doomed!!!!!!!

we need to cut our concession of goals. those lads seemed to have 4 lads up front last night though cos every attack, all 4 of our defenders had a man to cover.

As the game went on our midfield didnt do as much defending as they did attacking so there were times when they had 1 or 2 men over on us which I think is why we ended up defending so deep.

Idu

helimachoptor wrote: »

As the game went on our midfield didnt do as much defending as they did attacking so there were times when they had 1 or 2 men over on us which I think is why we ended up defending so deep.

In a no offside game its natural that towards the end of the game a team will drop deeper to defend against the ball over the top and their own tired legs. Its a pychological thing as much as a fitness thing. Their defence was also very deep whenever we had possesion of the ball.

Also they played a lot of ball through their fullbacks who came out unchallenged a lot which gives them an extra man in the middle which is where you get the extra runner coming onto the back four