Limerick FC 2014

Jofspring wrote: »

You can see our only bit of quality is Duggan, Clarke, Tracey and Williams. Paudie O'Connor also but he is missing due to Leaving Cert. Jason Hughes tries hard and did ok at right full last night. Outside of that we are extremely weak.

Paul O'Conor is a good player too but really hasn't done it for Limerick, bar the odd flash. Should have been booked last night. I wonder is it just complacency or whether he was made to look better by the Sligo midfield.

Hughes is a good player but did make a few bad errors last night, I don't think he's totally comfortable at right-back.

Fireball07 wrote: »

Looked like a definitely penalty at the end too, Schlingerman took out whoever the Limerick player was (maybe Clarke?).

From where I was watching towards the back of the main stand near halfway, it looked a nailed-on penalty. However, from talking to someone who was behind that goal, they said that Schlingermann got the ball first. Opinion seems split on that one depending on people's vantage points.

Drogheda's second goal had a distinct whiff of offside, though.

osarusan wrote: »

Agree with this. Although Hughes obviously isn't a full back. Hopefully when Harding comes back Hughes will get a chance in central midfield alongside Duggan.

But really, we have no outlet in midfield for the defence to pass to, apart from Duggan. So either he gets marked out of it, in which case the ball goes long to Clarke over the top, or else Duggan comes really deep to get it, in which case there's no midfield, so it goes long over the top to Clarke.

Last night Tracy or Williams were looking for Clarke all night, but the Drogheda midfield just cut off the pass on the ground, and there was literally nothing else.

We desperately need somebody to play up alongside Clarke. So far, Faherty, Hanlon, Rainsford and Mann have all tried and not looked like the right player.

I think if we had a strong enough midfield with proper wingers, Clarke could possibly be fine up there on his own. I can see why they tried Hanlon, a more physical focal point with Clarke able to come in and attack from wide. Faherty is an odd one, I think he's a decent player, but he still doesn't look fit.

I have no idea why Russell doesn't play a midfield trio of Hughes/O'Conor/Duggan; playing Hughes on the wing or having him on the bench is madness, he's a midfielder and a good one. And if Prince arrives, are we going to play him on the wing too?

We have no wingers really- Turner is the best of them, but is only good when running at players. Russell is poor, Rainsford lacks confidence, Mann isn't really a winger imo...

Jofspring wrote: »

I actually think I had the best view in the ground. I was in that corner looking directly at the collision. Clarke got a touch to ball first and Schlingerman took out Clarke. If it was outside the box it was a free so a def penalty in my eyes. We have had two given against us this season for less.

Prince and Ali arriving this week. Rumours of more in July and the budget being loosened a bit.

Possibly a bit late? If Ali is arriving, he could shore up our serious goalkeeping issues. I rate Prince very highly too, serious footballer. Where he'll play I don't know.

We're in serious trouble though, have a weak squad and we're running out of winnable games.

Green Giant wrote: »

From where I was watching towards the back of the main stand near halfway, it looked a nailed-on penalty. However, from talking to someone who was behind that goal, they said that Schlingermann got the ball first. Opinion seems split on that one depending on people's vantage points.

Drogheda's second goal had a distinct whiff of offside, though.

I was behind the dugouts in the half where it happened, possibly not the best view, but looked like a penalty. Didn't think there was any hint of offside for Drogheda's goal though, thought he rolled past Whitehead.

Surely a time has to come when Russell as manager needs to be looked at?..

Is there a record for most losses in a single campaign?..

We're olaying some okay football at times, but the last ball/finish jas just been abysmal..

And our attempting to play it out from the back.. We're notBarcelona,and we're getting punished awfully for it..

Had 2.5k at markets field, these results continue, theyll struggle to get 500..

Jofspring wrote: »

I still reckon Russell is a good manager. Even at that you get rid of Russell who do you get in? I think if you stick with him, in the long run we will be better for it. I'm not sure another manager would be doing any better with is right now. He has proven what he can do with a decent squad. If one or two come in in July we might get enough to keep us up. It's going to be tough but we definitely still can do it.

Agreed. Any manager would find it tough given all the off-field issues since the New Year. Also, as shocked as I was when Taylor left, Russell took the team from 11th to 6th in his 3 months at the club last season.

Dundalk 6 - 2 Limerick

(Harding, Duggan)

A goal down after 4 minutes, and 3 down after about 30. O'Donnell flapped and missed a corner for their second, and they tore us apart on the break for the third.

In the second half they got a 4th that looked offside. Then a Harding freekick curled into the box went all the way in at the back post - a real howler from their keeper who obviously thought it was going wide. Not to be outdone, O'Donnell added another real shocker of his own, allowing himself to be muscled out of it by a striker so a hopeful flick forward ended up in the net. Shane Duggan then capitalised on a stupid header back to the keeper by a Dundalk defender, and we could have had a third but Shane Tracy missed a penalty. To round it off, Tony Whitehead put into his own net trying to cut out a cross.

Massive, massive, lose-and-its-all-over game next Saturday against Bray at The Markets Field.

Limerick 0-1 Bray

Well, that is pretty much our season over. Even first half, but we had Sean Harding sent off with about 25 minutes to go, and Bray finished stronger. O'Donnell made a few very good saves but Bray scored from a free-kick in the 90th minute.

Lee Lynch started but was hopelessly short of match practice, and his very sloppy play lead to the free for the goal. Dean Clarke missed a great chance about an hour in when one-on-one with the keeper.

Next game is home to Galway, next Saturday.

osarusan wrote: »

Limerick 0-1 Bray

Lee Lynch started but was hopelessly short of match practice, and his very sloppy play lead to the free for the goal. Dean Clarke missed a great chance about an hour in when one-on-one with the keeper.

Next game is home to Galway, next Saturday.

It was Lynch that missed the one on one

goldencrisp62 wrote: »

Season is over , dead certs for relegation. What does the future hold? Are the pushing ahead with making markets an 8000 all seater stadium?
We could have the best loi stadium in Ireland playing in division 1 with no fans

8000 all-seater stadium?

Never heard anything like that before.

I posted this on another site, but I'll leave it here also - my take on our team:

Duggan, Clarke, are players who would get a game for another premier division club. Tracy, Williams, maybe.

The rest are not good enough, and in most cases, nowhere near good enough. To what extent that squad was patched together as cheaply as possible, I don't know. What choices in personnel Russell made before the season, I don't know. Were there players he could have signed, but didn't? Who were they, and who did he bring in instead? Would Russel have known privately that we were totally screwed before the season started, or did he misjudge the quality of the squad?

I don't think we could get any manager who would keep that squad in the premier division. They are weak all over the field, deficient in almost every position. The only way we will stay up (I don't think there is any hope of that, to be honest) is if we get in a load of decent players. If there is another manager who would be able to bring a few quality players with him, then get him in, but lets hope he knows how to get a team promoted too.

What bothers me more than that is that we have not really altered our play in any way since the start of the season. We are still passing it aimlessly around the back. We are are atill looking for the ball over the top to Clarke every time. There is still a gaping hole between our midfield and our defence in every game, with loads of space for the opposition to exploit.

Russell doesn't address these problems, either between games or during games - yesterday Bray had acres of space between our midfield and back 3. It was crying out for Jason Hughes or somebody to fill that space and protect them, but he never made the switch, and we were under pressure there for most of the 2nd half.

And, while in most cases, our squad is so uniformly poor that I don't have too many complaints about who he selects over other players (Raisford, Hanlon, or Faherty alongside Clarke - it doesn't matter, none of them can do the job), his persistence with his son is unforgiveable.