New thread as the last thread seems to be broken.
Goal and assist. Good nights work
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Man, this is gonna be epic. Shades of Windsor Park 1993 ie: everyones tense.
Giving him a new contract was the right thing to do.
I was certainly not expecting us to get a play off spot. It was a very difficult group.
No point in reinventing the wheel.
I wasn't convinced by the HH appointment and I'm not mad about his approach but he's given us the best chance of qualifying that we've what for a long time. He's earned more time.
The one positive under new manager is that we have won games away that generally we struggle to do.
Beaten Finland, Bulgaria and Hungary. Now first two are not great teams but even under previous managers we struggled to win at home against these teams never mind away.
That gives me bit of hope about next week but even if we get over Czechs we still have most likely beat a even better Denmark team who really blew their chances in qualifying initially.
But after 93 mins in Hungary I sure as hell would have taken now in heartbeat, but its not going be easy.
I just hope.....
It's worth remembering also that we weren't exactly rushed with applications the last time. Is there anyone out there who would be better than HH is for us?
This is an important point. With the salary the FAI can afford to pay (600kish?) we actually have someone who is properly committed and is able to get results.
Not to drag up old arguments, but we were paying Trap and MON/Keane a lot more, and they weren't nearly as committed.
That Sparta back line is shocking; no anticipation, pace or urgency to get back.
If he loses the playoff and has a poor Nations League, his employment status will be called back into question, no matter what his contract says. That's how it's always been with football management - either a hero or a villain.
To be fair the most likely outcome is we won't make it so I'm not against him getting a new contract beforehand after getting the team to a playoff. That in itself with this squad is the achievement of the campaign for us. Anything from now is a bonus.
Im bit like you on that. If we had the 1990-93 team or 2000-02 team i would say something.
We have the worst midfield by some distance of the Irish and British teams for example. Even the north have ok options there now.
If we had Scotlands CM options I would give us a right chance. But we dont and what we have are players who are technically awful and physically non existent. Azaz plays more forward and he is decent alright technically.
If and its a big If we beat Czechs it generally scares me to think we will depend on somebody like Molumby to save the day for us against most likely Denmark.
But I say it again I have bitten your hand off at 93 minutes v Hungary. We have at least some chance.
Our ranking has screwed us for the near future.
Kenny deserves credit for blooding all the young players but he screwed our ranking.
We need to claw our way back to the 40s at least.
We have a decent team but lacking a quality CM. I'm not sure there's even someone coming through to be hopeful about.
A good showing in the NL and then qualifying for euro 28 would boost our rankings.
Obviously qualifying for the WC and then getting out of the group would be brilliant also for our rankings but the odds of us getting past the Czechs and Danes is probably about 16% at best.
Anyway he deserves a new contract.
We definitely have a chance. We have a winnable draw albeit we have to beat one side away who are near enough to our quality and probably a Denmark side at the Aviva who look in decline but are still better than us. We're here now and I know we'll give it our all. That's all we can ask for.
I give us 40% in each game so 16% overall.
Even then I'm probably being a bit too confident of Ireland.
Does anyone know how fit Ogbene is? Apparently he hasn't played in a while.
Came off the bench there a few minutes ago.
So he's fit but maybe not match fit as they say.
After a very quiet first half Harvey Vale had two assists for QPR in a very unexpected (for them, masters of inconsistency) 6-1 win over Portsmouth.
He has the potential to be our best footballer in the next few years at least.
Thats what so many people seem to miss.
It's not is he the best it's is he the best we can get.
Kelleher down with an injury in the Leeds game 😱
Hopefully nothing but he did appear to be holding his hamstring/quad
Will O'Brien play RB on Thursday? Had the two Chelsea wingers in his pocket this evening
They were wasting time for Andrews to give instructions to players mid match
The worst of injuries, the cheating one.
Yeah.... he's moving fine now by the looks of it
On what basis? Have you seen much of him?
He's very technical and clever.
Has potential to be a PL player. It'll be interesting to watch him progress.
There doesn't seem to be any new injury concerns after the weekend … ?
Seems that way.
Brady, Coleman and Idah all on the bench. Not a minute's action between them, unfortunately. It's a big ask for them to suddenly play a huge playoff game.
Swansea were 0-3 down and still didn't bring Idah on 🤷♂️
Ogbene did get 20 minutes off the bench, so that's a plus.
Coleman didn't play a single minute between the October window and November window before playing 150mins against Portugal and Hungary in two very important games that were basically like play off games.
