USSR V Rep Of Ireland k.o 4pm

Surreal,one of the most exciting 2nd halves i,ve seen in a long time,not sure for the right reasons,well done Richard and Shay.
Still in for a playoff place but couldn,t be certain of a result against any team.

My nails are long gone

Amazing result tbh, we should have been done 4 or 5. How can Trap keep looking at that central midfield partnership? And as for Stephen Ward..

Totally outclassed but if the other team were much better why didn't they win...We Have the best back in the world and one of the best keepers in the world....2 players world class

http://www.balls.ie/2011/09/06/richard-dunnes-new-jersey/

Ole Ole Ole

We are going through now at worst as a second place finisher if we get 6 points from our next two matches one of which is against Andorra.

Trap must be the luckiest manager that ever lived. Tactically from the dinosaur age.  We were dominated in midfield, two holding midfielders that are suppose to distribute balls to two isolated forwards. It was obvious a midfielder should have come on for a forward. Ward is a dreadful fullback, Andrews has collapsed as a player. An embarrassing performance.

shocking display. andrews and whelen cudnt pass water. keane and doyle luked 50 percent fit

Vinnie did you bet Russia

To be fair Trap's tactics from the dinosaur age got us a point we should never have got as well as pure Irish heart and courage.

Only a absolute clown would call that performance embarrassing and i mean a clown !

rocket we shud have got beat at least 5. had 2 players given and ricardo dunne!

Rocket i lold when i read your post we should have been destroyed. Now you think trapp is a tactical genius. You are the clown.

Nothing tactical, just guts, courage and staying power of the Irish lads combined with the wastefullness and casualness of the Russians in front of goal.

Rocketfingers  - you are the class clown if you think any different... we were hammered.

Should of could have would have every time ! Fact o'matter is we got a draw when better teams with less heart would never have got that. You can't call it embarrassing or a bad performance, embarrassing is when a team do not put it all in imo bad is when they play below themselves. Richard Dunne give one of the best performances by a centre half ever and people are saying the team were embarrassing, get a a grip they were throwing themselves at the ball to block certain goals. We should have been beaten but playing with such heart is very rare in sport these days and amazing what you can accomplish when doing so.

If your team or my team had that much heart we would not be 3rd in LOI and you would not have to be relying on Sion getting kicked out of Europe by UEFA to remain in it.

Can some one tell Vinnie Roe the score, hey Vinnie go and tell them that in the bokies you might get paid

Thats all well and good, but on another day them chances are going to go in.Imo if russia got 1 it would have been 5 or 6. He has to change something now. Ill agree dunne and given were immense

Yourlack but change what? What would you change mate? We have gone to Italy and drew should have won, we went to Paris won 1-0 in 90 minutes, we have now gone to Moscow and drew 0-0. They ain't bad results. I am not saying Trap is a tactical genius but for such an average group of players away from home he is doing something right anyway as we are undefeated.

At home is a different kettle of fish but a lot of it comes down to the fact the players are not good enough and we are set up to perform better away from home. But our boys would die for the cause trying, makes me proud anyway. Interesting if any of the papers calls the performance embarrassing !

trap a tactical genius?3 nil alls in a row...great stuff...

And deserved neither Kavvie

Are you telling me we have no better central midfielders than whelan and andrews?  He seems loathe to give youth a chance.

Slovakia v Armenia http://bit.ly/qf4ebJ

0-1 Armenia take the lead after 56 mins.

0-1 to armenia

0-1 go armenia

what a lucky man

it was Dunkirk and gallipoli and stalingrad....under siege and dying for the cause.

Have to put the result to heart and bottle and not that time-warped manager we have. We seem forever to have managers who take dislikes and grudges against certain players and the nation suffers for it.

You can take the result as a wonder but you have to admit to embarrassment when you see the lack of ball control, poor passing and dreadful crossing,I mean DREADFUL!. I watch these recent games like I imagine the hollywood stars watched snuff movies in the 20's. You just expect the worst all the time and you're rarely disappointed.

trap should consider the lotto!!

trap should consider the lotto!!

Mate i agree those two are terrible but up to last week i would have said certainly we have but i ain't sure now, the young man on the bench i have my doubts about for the moment after seeing him last week in the under 21 match. I'm not sure Gibson is better, Fahey not sure about either. We have serious issues there and that's part of the problem in my view they only work when they don't have the ball, when they have it they are useless, saying that Andrews made a block on a shot that had to be going in. If we lost tonight in my book we were as good as out.

I have massive concerns over Trap and the football we play is poor esp at home, but i honestly don't think we have the players to play good attacking football like me expect because barce play that way. Also i am fickle so and so like most fans football fans, on Friday night i would have given trap a oneway ticket back to Italy tonight i think he's not too bad . The only way i would extend his contract if he got us to the Euros though.

Look the bottom line imo is yes we very lucky tonight but the way we fought tonight was superb and certainly and we deserved a little bit of luck and not embarrassing as that clueless muppet described it as.   

Armenia 1 up

2-0

there is a god

2-0 Fcking hell

Trap should do the Lotto tomorrow

If the Slovakia match stays as is and then the Slovaks avoid defeat at home to Russia, we can win the group!

While Traps tactics are open to question i really hope we qualify for the likes of Dunne,Given,Keane,Duff etc.
These guys have sweated blood & tears for Ireland and deserve to get back to a big championship.
With Traps luck im beginning to think we'll win the group.[:D]

slovakia have to beat russia for us to win the group

I hope we get there for Dunne. He's never played in a major finals before.

A draw would do I think

Apologies. vinnie roe is correct, Slovakia would have to beat Russia

Armenia 3-0

Goallllllllll Sweden in the 68th minute go 1 up against the mighty 10 man San Marino who just got beat 11-0 on saturday

0-3

Slovakia have to beat russia now

Slovakia need to beat Russia and Ireland have to beat armenia for Ireland to qualify, Armenia go 2nd in group on GD but if they did finish even on points with Armenia Ireland would qualify for play off with Russia winners of group

If it stays like it is with 2 games to go it'll be

USSR 17
IRE 15
ARM 14
SLOV 14

Armenia could beat Ireland and go through

Who's going to beat us? 630 minutes without conceding a goal

Armenia score 3 goals against a team that ripped ireland apart away. Get rid of whelen and andrews and put in Mccarthy and soebody new then Ireland have a chance

aremenia have a +9 goal difference, by far the best in the group.

Overall goal difference is not a big factor - its head-to-head results and goal-differnce within those matches.

4-0 amazing result, 7-1 on aggregate

GD won't be any good for them if they are even on points with ireland as it comes down to the points between top 3 teams head to head. Ireland are in danger of getting ahead of themselves and getting nervous on dday and blowing it yet again.

slovakia must win there last 2 games to qualify, presuming everyone beats andorra. Obviously if they beat russia and we beat armenia, we finish on top.

we at home to armenia?

fai ticket site has crashed, looks like a full house is on way

Job done, ticket bought... ole ole ole ole

Even if we beat Armenia, we still have to find a way to score against Andorra!

rte 2 for highlights of ireland now and i think the dream team will discuss are changes of qualifying to

It'll be a lot easier to watch the game now..lol..wonder will they leave the drawing the no.5 bit in

al prob think russia will still score

How the hell Russia did not score is beyond me! We were cut like a knife through butter in our half, only for Shea Given and Dicky the legend Dunne we would have been thrashed. Ward looked hopeless, McGeady got him out of jail a couple of times most notably early on in the first half when he was left for dead on a few occasions. Keane did not looked interested either. Well at the end of the day a 0-0 all draw away in Moscow, a result I would take with two hands but a performance to forget! Midfield needs some shuffling badly. I would suggest bringing in Keith Fahey, we need some sort of change in the centre badly. We got to love the Armenians after tonight, the slovakians must have been in Dublin all weekend on the rip, how could they be so bad! We owe Armenia one, Eurovision next year I'm voting for them boys!

Gotta be changes for the next game surely?!

Who's a decent LB

----------------Given

O Shea-----St Ledger----Dunne----?????


Duff-----McCarthy-----Whelan----Hunt

---------Long-------Doyle



Keane, McGeady and Ward did Sweet Fck all tonight!

But no doubt the only changes will be in defence

dunne is suspended for the next game

at least mcgeady can reate something out of nothing

[:(]let me know when its save to out from behind the settee[:(]

Knew some1 was suspended, could remember who - replace him with O Dea [:x]

could nt*

Ciaran clarke a possibility at left back- fine player

At least Hunt can cross a ball and take a decent free kick - something the rest of the team seem incapable of!

o shea, o dea, st ledger, kelly??? something like that maybe

Forgot about James McCarthy.. we could really do with him in the centre, I with Long up front from the start but I'm not sure if we could afford to drop Keane or McGeady. I always thought Ciaran Clark would be our future LB whats the story with him? It seems like Trap has chosen Ward ahead of him. Too many players been ran from the squad, I dont even think James McCarthy wants anything to do with Ireland.

McCarthy was on the bench tonight and not even brought on!!

Trap ffs wat re u playin at

Russia 26 attempts on goal

lol Traps birthday is on St Patricks Day - he has the luck of the Oirish

FFS It's only a fecking game

Met Police confirm Welsh fan in 40s has died of head injuries after a fight outside Wembley - 6 supporters in custody

Wales fans fighting amongst themselves twas too

Turkey 1-0 Republic of Ireland

Tuesday, 6 September 2011 23:07
The Republic of Ireland Under-21s suffered their first defeat in the 2013 UEFA European Championships qualifying group when they lost to Turkey in Manisa.

A goal by Turkey's lone striker Sahin Aygünes on ten minutes proved to be the difference between the nations in an evenly matched contest.

James McCarthy's promotion to the senior squad as well as the withdrawal through injury of striker Rhys Murphy meant manager Noel King was forced into making two changes from the starting team that defeated Hungary 2-1 on Thursday.

An added blow came an hour before kick-off with the loss of another impressive performer from last week, Adam Barton, due to a virus.

Hull City's loanee from Manchester United Brady was used as a striker after starring on the wing in the 2-1 win over Hungary in Sligo last Thursday.

There wasn't much in the contest until the home side forged ahead in the tenth minute. A lofted ball from Turkey full-back Kamil Çörekçi into the inside-right channel left the Irish defence scrambling and Sahin Aygünes made full use of the space by rounding Ireland goalkeeper Ian McLoughlin and tucking home from an acute angle.

Despite much good play from King's youngsters, there was little threat on either goal in the remainder of the opening half.

Mark Connolly blazed over from a good opening shortly after the restart when Brady made the opening and the creator pelted a shot at Turkish goalkeeper Özkan Karabulut midway through the half which was batted away.

King introduced substitute James Collins into attack on 66 minutes and, not long after him, Shane Duffy. Normally a centre-back, Duffy's aerial power gained Ireland an extra edge heading into the final ten minutes.

Duffy connected with a Brady delivery ten minutes to see his goal-bound header cleared off the line by Turkish skipper Serdar Aziz.

At the other end, Turkey would have finished the contest with a second goal had McLoughlin's not intervened twice. He bloked Uludag's shot with his legs a minute from time before pushed an Aygünes curling free around the post.

Italy opened their account in the campaign tonight by defeating Hungary 3-0.

Turkey: Karabulut; Çörekçi, Aziz, Basdas, Nizam; Kaplan, Gülle, Demir, Uysal, Çolak; Aygünes.

Subs: Yilmaz for Kaplan (70 mins), Uludag for Çolak (85 mins), Ozmen for Basdas (90+2)

Republic of Ireland: McLoughlin, Oyebanjo, Canavan , Kiernan, Gunning; Towell, Connolly, Clifford, White; Hendrick; Brady.

Subs: Collins for Hendrick (66 mins), Duffy for Oyebanjo, Hourihane for Towell (80 mins)

Referee: P Massoleni (Italy)

trap seems to have a bee in his bonnet with mcarthy over his commitment to the cause. it's irritating how he is so willing to hold a grudge, similar to the andy reid situation. it's not like we're blessed in the midfield department. andrews was simply pathetic against slovakia and his block against russia will probably keep him in favour with trap. at least he should be giving other guys a chance, they can't be any worse. how ineffective does someone have to be to get dropped? miraculous how we came away with a point from russia. maybe we're destined to make it after the slovakia result v armenia.

Mcgeady wasn't fit last night but his defending saved Ireland, still a better player than the good impact sub that is Hunt. Ward, Whelen and Andrews simply not good enough. Fahey and Mccarthy are both quality players along with Seamus Coleman. Keane is past it, Doyle would be far more effective with Longs pace to work off. It would be nice to have a real emergence of a young centre back. Ciaran Clarke is the LB of the future. Things really are not that bad but Trapp just seems asleep and he could cost us the chance we have been given by Dunne.

Cannot believe the Daily Mail only give The Wardrobe 9 outta 10 . .He must have backed USSSR

Racism, booze, violence…Welcome to Wembley

Luke Moore | 07 September 2011

Just why are England fans so angry?

‘There were ten German bombers in the air….’ is belted out by four alcohol-sodden morons, who scream with misplaced enthusiasm outside Wembley, the ‘Home of Football’. That’s football. Foot. Ball. A sport. A sport where people kick a ball around to each other and….well, if you’re reading this, you probably know how it works by now.
If anyone’s looking for further reasoning why England cannot sell out their national stadium for a competitive qualifier against fellow Home Nations opposition packed with Premier League players, beyond high ticket prices and the ridiculous location of the ground, they could do worse than to look at the threatening, snarling and downright uncomfortable atmosphere that pervades everywhere, the pathetic, jingoistic stench with an undercurrent of transparent racism and anger at every turn, both inside the stadium and out.
Just a short time before the ‘ten German bombers’ incident, (a song in reference to World War II, an event that finished 66 years ago, and hardly anything to do with a football match against Wales), a group of other unruly England fans* had stopped a train by jumping up and down on it in a lager-fuelled rage screaming (yes, actually screaming) ‘No Surrender to the IRA’, a song with severely right-of-centre connotations, adopted from Irish Loyalists by Combat 18, who took to singing it in between ‘Sieg Heil’s. Nice. I’m not really sure what that’s got to do with a football match against Wales, either.
The most confusing thing about the tension, drama and nastiness that infiltrates England games by an alarmingly large number of fans is that you’d expect them to actually be enjoying themselves. They like football, they clearly like England (a little too much, probably), so why are they so angry? What drives someone to hurl themselves down thirty rows of seats to yell profanities at England’s manager Fabio Capello like ‘F*** off Fabio you c***! Yeah, that’s right, F OFF! F OFF BACK TO ITALY YOU C!’ before storming out half an hour before the end of a game that England were actually winning (yes, this happened last night, too)? It’s surely not football related. Capello has not been the shining light and ambassador for progressive football for England that we’d all hoped, but you can’t argue he’s been THAT bad. He has easily the best win percentage of any England manager ever, nearly double that of Kevin Keegan, a manager who was actually quite popular. In this case, the reason is more primal, more regressive and more unsavoury: he’s not English. Whether the England manager should always be English is a different conversation, but is it morally right to question someone’s ability to do a job based on where their parents had sex? Certainly not. Again, xenophobia prevails.
Some would argue that the high ticket price makes people angry, like it’s a sort of ready-made excuse to justify behaviour of this sort. I’d dismiss that out of hand; people know the price when they pay, and they choose to pay it. The amount of money paid is not inversely proportional to how well people should behave when attending and travelling to and from games, and it’s certainly not inversely proportional to how tolerant they are to people from other countries. It’s a complete non-sequitor. We also know it’s nothing to do with ticket prices when you can pop down to your local pub and see the same imbeciles behaving in exactly the same manner, only in a way that is even more futile: actually berating a giant TV screen, an activity that is only punctuated by a desire to shove as much lager down their throats as possible. At least at the game there’s a chance the target of your anger can actually hear you.
Upon leaving the game last night, I was pondering whether I’d like to take my parents along to an England game, or my girlfriend, and it didn’t take me long to come to the decision that I definitely wouldn’t. It’s not that I’d fear for their safety, per se; my parents and my girlfriend are White British and would be supporting England, so I doubt they’d feel the ire of any of England’s more unsavoury element directly. It’s just that I wouldn’t want them subjected to the language, attitude and behaviour. As someone that loves football, I feel embarrassed by it, and I’m not even a parent that takes their children to games. I felt genuinely uncomfortable for some of the decent, normal people that had taken their children along to see that game last night. I was embarrassed by proxy.
But that said, it’s not all nationally motivated. Some of it is just pure thuggery. I had to stop myself apologising on behalf of the England fan who had smashed another England fan in the face, just in front of us and in front of a man and his son who were almost certainly at one of their first England games together. ‘What was your first experience as an England fan, Johnny?’ ‘Oh, when I was 8 years old and that guy’s England shirt was completely soaked through with blood.’
So, if The FA is reading this, they should know that it’s not just the prohibitive price of tickets, food and drink and the location of Wembley keeping people away from England games, it’s probably the clientele as well, and depressingly, I don’t have the first idea of what to do about it.

*yes, fans. Not ‘fans’. Whether we like it or not, they are genuine fans of England, and we shouldn’t make excuses by claiming ‘oh, they’re not real fans’. They are. They’re one of us, and that’s possibly the most unsettling fact of all

We have a fair collection of scobies in Ireland............Poor LOI fans stumbled into a pepper gas training session a few weeks ago.......one trouble maker made a complaint that the Gardai didn't like Irish football.

Agree with all zipifried said there

Yeah zipi is on the ball alright. Our 51 goal striker, who is the top scoring player in this qualifying group, is past it and we should drop him. I saw Clinton Morrison scored for Wednesday the other night. I hope Trap has his number.

If he good score that free header from 4 yards on Friday night and converted that penalty late on against Slovakia we'd be through automatically, but that is beside the point really, his legs are clearly gone, it is so blatantly obvious, even to the dopes that manage most of the clubs in the premier league who can't even string a sentence together. He has been a fine player, Irelands best ever forward, but if Long and doyle are available, they should play, his general play both on Friday and last night was extremely poor, he was shown up by simon Cox when he came on really.

The argument that he has scored 51 goals for Ireland doesn't hold water with me on the basis that there is always a day when a great (in the context of Irish sport) player isn't a great player anymore. For example, DJ getting cleaned against Galway in 05, Kauto in the King George, Fed at Wimbledon the list goes on and on, you can't keep backing people on past achievemaents, He has hardly scored a Premier League goal in the last 3 years.

Doyle' injury alligned with Keane's immobility put the Irish midfield and Defence under even more presssure last night, doyle could hardly move and Keane just points and gesticulates rather than actually closing down.

Ha i was murdered telling you all months ago he was finished, Irishro is a big Keane defender where is he?

I like Keane and would still have him in the squad as an impact player to spring off the bench, but I have also being saying for a long time that he isn't what he was, one could really end the argument by saying, he is in America, why is he in America?, because he hasn't got the legs for top flight football anymore, not so much legs even in terms of resistance, but pace, he simply can't get away from defenders or on to through balls anymore. Shane Long left a Chelsea defense for dead a few weeks ago, he is the best all round athlete in the Irish team by an aabsolute mile, he is quick, strong, with a great leap and his football is getting better all the time, how on earth can he not be a better option, in fact, i think if Robbie is going to play, he would be a better foil for him than Doyle tbh, I think both would be seen to much better effect playing with Long. My Ideal scenario would be an Irish front 3 with long and McGeady wide, and Doyle through the middle, allowing us to play McCarthy as the extra man in midfield and letting us spring Keane and Duff, to unleash their footballing intelligence when the pace of the game dies down in the second half

Agree with all that NeillD.  McGeady getting some harsh press after yesterday. He is first and foremost a winger - yesterday, when only half fit, was been asked to cover Left back as well. Himself and McCarthy the key to irelands future and the key to breaking down the Armenians next month. Keane, despite his recent goal burst is well past it and Long and Doyle are both better all round players. As an aside, he should never have been given the captaincy - he is just not captaincy material. Why were Given and Dunne overlooked for this - this is not just a reaction to yesterday either.

Yeah that is a strange one, dunne was just unbelievable yesterday, probably the best performance from a centre back I've seen, he is one of the few who plays even better for his country than his club, in short, maybe the coach feels Robbie 'needed' the armband more than Dunne, maybe as an incentive for Robbie to keep showing up for friendlies etc when his career was at its peak, Dunne should have had a better club career. on last nights showing, is it possible some mega rich russian club might sign him up and pay him 150 grand a week, that place Eto'o and Zhirkov are gone maybe, he'd be a great addition.

Keane peaked during the 2002 WC both for club and country. Recently making noises about quitting if he was dropped tells you all you need to know about our 'captain'

Yeah, had played all his best stuff well before he was 25, it was good stuff though

Lads ok McGeady was not the worst yesterday and he was not fully fit which i find as a shoddy excuse but anyway, but what has he ever done in an Irish shirt? Nothing imo!

He hasn't fully shone as yet, but, i can't think of an Irish attacker that has in recent years bar maybe Doyle, I think his style of play makes him something of an easy target and that his best years are still in front of him, he is one of our few technichally gifted footballers, the move to Russia will improve him and I don't think we have a better alternative as Duff can no longer go past him and Hunt is vastly inferior technichally. As I say, I think the Russia experience is improving him, and if he was only half fit yesterday, there is lots to come, I know we are waiting a long time for him and I can see why people take against him, but along with McCarthy and maybe Gibson, he is currently  our most technichally gifted player who might still be improving.

Neill he has no end product, can't cross and does not seem to have a great shot either. If he has improved he has not shown it for Ireland in my eyes no pint being technically good if you can't cross or have some sort of end product. I've seen enough of him now and Hunt made more happen the other night in 5 minutes than McGeady done in the 85 before v Slovakia and i ain't a real fan of him either.

I can see where you're coming from, and I was saying the same thing on friday night, a lot worse actually, as I have had the same conversation with friends who also reckon he is useless and they were giving me plenty of it. I've been disapointed with him up to now, no doubt, but I thought he showed a bit more of a work ethic last night and he certainly isn't afraid to hold onto the ball and try something. The basis for my faith in him is his champions League performances for Celtic around 07', (the games against Milan, he was simply amazing, youtube it if you can, I'd hope there is something there), I just feel, we have noone else who could possibly aspire to that level, if he can ever get back to it, we'd have a serious player on our hands, I also think he would be helped if the midfield could give him the ball in better positions as he always seems to get it with his back to goal, I just think he is worth persevering with. Apparently he has been going pretty well in russia as well, so lets hope.

McGeady is not being played correctly to get to his full potential. The guy for some reason can't hit the ball 30 yards in air right at all, best not getting him in position to do that every time as we see the result, everybody gets on his back, pressure, frustartion, Dunphy repeats is a thousand time to make a living and people repeat Dunphy.
  Mcgeady fit and in relaxed mode is a fantastic footballer who can beat players and pick a pass in and around the penalty area, a fast direct pass that can lead to goals. What he needs is players around him with the ability to make intelligent runs who can read the play quickly. The midfield and full backs just are not on that level yet, instead he is left to do what he doesn't do the best. All theses nations like Aremnia, Slovakia, Czech and even Lituania and the likes play this short passing game, rarely do you see a winger left to whack it into the box these days. It's called technical ability and McGeady works in this way more often than not for Spartak and he has done well there. McCarthy, Coleman, Fahey all have better understanding of that style and i reckon with the right tactics and prep McGeady could become much more effective than he has been before he becomes a has been.

^^^^^^^^^^^ Yep that's it

I'd give McGeady another chance, if he beefed up a little and improved his final ball he could be very good, there is potential. I can't say the same about others. McCarthy and Fahey should be our midfield pairing going forward.

Wat team would ye put out if he had the choice?? Bet every single one would be different yet Trap keeps usin the same 12/13 players

Well said zipified bang on.Dont understand the amount of hate aiden gets at all.One of our only players who has a bit of spark and creativity about em.
Alot of potential if we play him right