Football

Entries about football in general whether it news about Man Utd or Ireland games.

Bank me a holiday

Seen as it’s the bank holiday weekend I thought I’d do a general update on what’s been going on in my life. :) I’ve been shifting lots of stuff out of my room over the past two days in a vain attempt to sort the good from the bad. I’ve currently got a black sack full of old clothes which will be going to a charity shop soon. There’s still tons of old board games and bits of PCs that I need to sort and ship out as I’m sick of holding onto stuff when I have such a small space to live in.

Last night I went down to the local pub, Kenny’s, to watch the Ireland versus Israel match. I’ve never been so disappointed and frustrated in my life. We scored twice within 10 minutes and were cruising before Brian Kerr decided to introduce Kavanagh, a midfield player, for Robbie Keane who’s a striker. The change put the team off balance and they conceded two goals in the space of 7 minutes just before half-time. We then had to contend with their goalkeeper play acting all through the second half. :evil: Fair enough, he got a bash on the nose at one point but the guy was rolling around like someone had chopped his nads off. I’ve never seen such a display in my life and the guy should have been sent off after going for Andy O’Brien’s neck when they fell togetheron the goal line. Instead, O’Brien got sent off!! :sad: A dodgy ref didn’t help us either by turning away a rake of valid penalty appeals. We have another game against the Faroe Islands on Wednesday but it’s gonna be tough to qualify from where we’re sitting now.

It’s less than 3 weeks before I travel off to Prague for a week with a few of the lads I used to work with. One of the guys, Pavel, is from Czech and invited us over for his 30th party. We all travel out on the Wednesday and come back the following Tuesday. Our accomodation arrangements are fairly loose as we’ll be staying with family friends etc but it sounds like it will be a great few days. :) I also got word from my uncle that I can have his holiday home for ten days in August. Myself, Mark and maybe Hugh will be going so the arrangements will be solidified over the coming week and then I’ll book the Aer Lingus flights.

Fair Play

Fair play to Liverpool, they were worthy champions last night. :) I’m a die-hard United fan but it was nice to see an English team win it and with style. For those who don’t have a clue what I’m talking about then you need to read this. It was a superb second half display and proved that you can never really write off your chances even if you are 3-0 down. I watched it down in Kenny’s with Mark and Dave who haven’t seen each other in a while due to the fact that they’re on opposite ends of shift work. :roll: Sort it out lads.

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Dunboyne Vs Baldoyle United

This is a direct cut and paste job from the report I sent up for the club web site. All in all it was a solid performance. :)

Dunboyne AFC vs Baldoyle United

The Dunboyne lads had been looking forward to this one after a questionable loss to Baldoyle two months prior to this fixture and weren’t to be disappointed. In contrast to the weather at the return fixture it was blue skys as Dunboyne took the pitch hoping to maintain their recent good form. Irvine Ferris filled in at right back in a reconfigured defense in the absense of Alan Cosgrave. The game started well for the team with a couple of through balls just being over hit slightly. Ten minutes in the breakthrough came as Darren Jordan broke down the left and finished well as the keeper advanced. We were one nil up and the squads confidence grew.

Five minutes later we were two up with another break down the left again finished by Darren Jordan who was having an excellent game. Baldoyle responded and tested the defense on the wings with Conor O’Shea showing good commitment with a number of key challenges. However, Dunboyne had their backs up and broke with John Kennedy passing to Oisin Feeney who fed a lofted ball through to Damien Yourell who finished well. Dunboyne then had to soak up a lot of pressure as Baldoyle tried everything and their goal came after a frantic goal mouth scramble was only half cleared and the ensuing cross was finished off. 3 – 1 at half time.

The second half was much calmer from Dunboyne with the aim of holding on to a solid lead and consolidating our place in the table. Unfortunately Baldoyle got a goal back after the defense was exposed on the right side and nerves could have set in. Five minutes after Baldoyle’s second goal, Dunboyne grabbed their fourth with a good pass brought on by Padraig Gleeson and smashed to the back of the net. James Duffy made a couple of good saves in the closing minutes to keep the gap and the under 14s had another confidence boosting win under their belts. Onwards and upwards!

Squad: James Duffy, Irvine Ferris, Conor O’Shea, Oisin Feeney, Niall Gallagher, John Kennedy, Padraig Gleeson, Paul Booth, Darren Jordan, Damien Yourell, Colm Darcy, Robert Braerton

There’s only one Hugh Shine

I went to the Ireland vs China game at Landsdowne Road last night with Mark and have to say that it was one of the most dull matches I’ve ever witnessed there. Ireland seemed flat and couldn’t create much during the first half. I thought we had a good shout for a penalty in the first half but chances were few and far between. There were quite a few Chinese supporters there and they made the most noise throughout the match as the crowd was unusually quiet. I suppose we didn’t have much to cheer about. :neutral: Clinton Morrison came on in the second half along with Roy Keane and Morrison got the sublime goal ten minutes from the end to win it. A through ball down the right was begging to be lobbed over the keeper and he duly obliged. Have to say it was the only good thing that came out of the match. Hopefully the performances will improve ahead of the Israel game in June.

Now to explain the title of this post. :) When we were leaving Landsdowne Road under the east stand I spotted a mate of Dave’s who we hadn’t seen in about 4 years. Mark walked straight past him but I stopped him and we got chatting. Turns out that he’s going to Oxegen with a few friends so we’ll be able to meet up there. We’re also trying to twist his arm into going to Spain in August with us. The weird thing was we had only been talking about him the week beforehand and Dave was wanting to get in touch with him. :grin: Really weird coincidence when you think about it.

Rotoath Harps Vs Dunboyne AFC

Here’s the report I filed with the club web sitea about the Ratoath game yesterday:

The Dunboyne Under 14 D’s turned in a great performance in this local derby against Rotoath Harps. Dunboyne were boosted by the return to the team of a number of players and were resolute in their will to fight for the ball in all areas of the pitch. Chances were sparse in the game with most of the action taking place in midfield for the majority of the first half. In the second half Dunboyne’s defense battled well to keep Rotoath at bay on a number of occasions with Conor O’Shea (Man of the Match) and Alan Cosgrave making numerous key interceptions and challenges.

Dunboyne eventually made the breakthrough when Darren Jordan was put through on goal and drilled a low shot under the keeper. After that Dunboyne soaked up the pressure as Roatoath pushed for an equaliser. It came twenty minutes from the end as a break down the right exposed the defense and a low shot beat James Duffy who had done well to keep them at bay beforehand. Dunboyne nearly stole all three points when Colm Darcy’s right foot shot dropped just wide but overall a draw was a fair result for both teams in what was a great local derby. The team continue to get better and hope to continue the improvement next week against Huntstownvilla.

Overall I was impressed with their attitude yesterday. I’m desperately trying to get them to act as a team but its tough when some of them play two and three sports which dillutes their sense of unity with our team specifically. Hopefully this is the start of the turn-around anyway as I haven’t been filing reports about ten-nil drubbings away.

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