Corcaigh

Yup, that Ireland team selection and formation/tactics on Friday night was a real blast from the past, Villa circa 2010.

gutted

Keogh to start ahead of Clark? neither fills with confidence but Keogh has looked iffy in friendlies. Wouldn't you be annoyed if you were an Irish player and your place in the squad was taken by an Englishman? The wise and genteel BOF (where's he gone to?) answered this Q all the way back in 2011 in this very thread: As for Stephen Quinn, great banter

Speaking of plastic paddies, take a bow Alan Mcloughlin 21 years ago!!!

Nothing worse then lads born in one country representing another eh TRS-T

Bad day at the office with both Wilson & McCarthy picking up injuries this afternoon.

TRS-T hears that a forrener is in the England squad

Yeah, you tell 'em that, see what they say

Nah, I like it as it is. I really can't see St. Johnstone - Longford Town or Portadown - Rhyl drawing in the crowds & TV money. The Old Firm will surely get their act together and make the SPL somewhat relevant again in the form of getting to last 16 of CL/EL the odd time. the Welsh have their most popular club teams in the English league system. I recall there was a proposal/flight of fancy for a Setanta Sport sponsored prize fund All-Ireland league during the bubble era, but nothing came of it. Can't see the IFA clubs and supporters being overly keen on the idea.

Cole and Benteke summing it all up

I am psyched for the game tomorrow night. The odds are stacked against CCFC but it could turn out to be glorious.

I thought MON's team selection & tactics were alright. The only thing I could quibble with was Keane/McGeady up front, the team was pretty solid at the back and in midfield 'til Mr. Unpopular Glenn Whelan went off injured. Fairplay to MON for having all 3 of his subs onto the pitch by the 75th minute. I was actually cursing Wes when he fumbled a few times towards the end of the game. Let's drink it in:

I'll take that.

So glad to see Reus is out, that **** ran riot at Lansdowne last time out. I'll be happy if the BIG go down fighting and they don't get pwned too badly, but reckon we could scrape a decent result in Gelsenkirchen. Then again, Stephen Ward.

I got as far as here and then went back to the start to re-read it in an Irish accent. Do I amuse you? You think I'm funny?

Yeah I was at the Gibraltar game as well, they'd struggle down in the LOI first division so shit they were. Fairplay to their fans, they brought a decent crowd with them and they got into the spirit of things after a while. That Poland win is a bit of a disaster for our prospects of qualifying automatically though. We've got a decent record against the Poles but still, we're up against it.

No surprise to see Lenihan get the call-up, the boy Roy was a regular at Turner's Cross this year 'til he got the job at VP.

Don't think so, in fact I doubt we'll ever see the likes of what's gone again. the legacy of the glory years of the late 80's/90's/early naughties has been completely squandered. Woeful infrastructure within the FAI and the domestic game has played a part, but the real killer has been the decline of Irish players coming through the big English clubs in the globalised era. All we can we do now is pinch Norn Iron's talent and rely on first/second generation sons of immigrants to provide the talent to supplement whatever we do produce. Ah this is a very bleak look at things. There will always be Irish players brought over to play in England. There is some infrastructure there in this regard. Of course the problem with Irish coaching is the same in a lot of places. The parish mentality. Let's have our under 9s win the provincial tournament, by picking the tallest hairiest nine year olds in the town, while those with footballing talent get completely overlooked because they're too weak and short. I think the coach that wins an under age tournament should be ashamed of his lack of foresight and self aggrandisement. Down the local drinking out of an under age trophy as if he's accomplished something other than the perpetuation of a system that produces bad footballers. If the FAI want to encourage good players, there should be no such thing as tournaments under a certain age group. Teach them the skills and then when they're 15/16 let's see if a parish's 11 best players can use those skills to beat other another 11 players from another parish of a similar age. What is achieved by a 12 year old winning a trophy? Yeah the coaches won't like it because they won't get the chance to drink out of a cup, but **** them. Let their joy be in seeing one of their players get a trial with an English team or actually gaining an understanding of the game, rather than trying to compensate for their own failures as a player with a peewee league win. If they can't get joy from a player improving his skills without it being to the end of beating Ballinstubble under 9s, then he may as well be at home playing Football Manager for all the good he's doing for footballing talent in Ireland Don't think I'm being overly negative. Sure we still have players coming through English teams, but these days they're coming through teams down the pecking order of English football. Look at the U21 squad, lads who play for 'big' English clubs but who are nowhere near the first team and aren't likely to ever be. For me, that well has run dry, that's why if you look at the most recent squad, our best players tend to have come from other countries, other Associations under-age set-ups & the mighty LOI. The FAI would do well to focus on the coaching and structures within the game, that's why they've got the Dutch lad involved, but we must have one of the only associations in Europe, if not the world, who don't have a proper pyramid structure in place for clubs going from the LOI down into the regional leagues. 'til that's sorted and junior clubs continue to farm the youth talent towards English clubs for peanuts, then we're always going to have a stunted domestic game, with lots of players returning from England to the scrap heap at 21/22. For things to change, it probably means we're going to have go on a Wales/Norn Iron style run of bleak results over years before things change for the better.

goshdarnit

Carbon copy of this fixture last season?

Don't think so, in fact I doubt we'll ever see the likes of what's gone again. the legacy of the glory years of the late 80's/90's/early naughties has been completely squandered. Woeful infrastructure within the FAI and the domestic game has played a part, but the real killer has been the decline of Irish players coming through the big English clubs in the globalised era. All we can we do now is pinch Norn Iron's talent and rely on first/second generation sons of immigrants to provide the talent to supplement whatever we do produce.

Loving Xann's selections , MOAR!

Looks like at this stage of the game the referendum proposal is going to be defeated by a couple of percentage points. Not a comfortable victory but such is the way of referendum campaigns. The timely intervention of Gordon Brown's Devo Max plan to stem the surge of support last week saved the day. Brown to be next Scottish First Minister? On the Ireland-Norn Iron border, there were custom booths and checkpoints for many decades, but it was still unsurprisingly a porous border.

Say what you want about Big Ian, the man knew how to work a crowd. The James Brown of NI politics.