League of Ireland

Fair dues to Donedalk, fantastic stuff, all credit to Jim Kenny. Bit simplistic re-McGuinness & Bohs. Donegal have better resources and better stability than the Dubs did at the time. JMG wanted out anyway, and Gallagher also learned alot from that, his success has only come again many years later

Bohs were very stable at the time they got rid of SK. It was the start of the madness in the lead up to and after the supposed land deal that put the club in the position it was in up until very recently.

I agree with you Dub09 to a certain extent but there were problems at the time. There's no doubt he's a fantastic manager but I think he's better coming into a club with lower expectations to begin with and to build. When he took over at us and R*@?rs expectations were very high and trophies were demanded. I know he delivered somewhat at Bohs but the expectations were to high and he appeared to wilt a little.

What he's done at Dundalk is nothing short of remarkable. I remember contributing to their bucket collections when they were days from folding not too long ago. Roy of the R*@?rs stuff. Fair play to them. Great exposure for the league

Should never have lost the FAI Cup to Dundalk for starters. But he was inexperienced, and won the league the year after. Following Roddy Collins (and Mahon) was always difficult. And his part in the 2014 semi-final collapse to Donegal has been overlooked too.............

Average crowds around SK time wasn't far off the 3k mark. Have dropped significantly and now around 1600.

To be fair we've never tried to copy England. We've been members run since day one. No flash owners, just fans running the show on a voluntary basis. I fully admit the board at the time were beyond useless and very egotistical. That was evident with the sacking of Roddy too. Handled very badly.

In hindsight maybe we should have held onto him, but maybe we should have held onto Roddy too. That's the beauty of LOI and short term contracts etc. There's very little consistency and stability in terms of management, playing staff etc. It's likely the winner if the league could go bust the following year.

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Should never have lost the FAI Cup to Dundalk for starters. But he was inexperienced, and won the league the year after. Following Roddy Collins (and Mahon) was always difficult. And his part in the 2014 semi-final collapse to Donegal has been overlooked too.............

100 percent agree about Roddy but Pete Mahon was a disaster. He was ran out of Phibsboro. I think he even fell out with the cleaners. A total headbanger

Roddy has hardly covered himself in glory since............... Never a steady hand

He's just dragging everyone else down to look after his one true love. 😉

Ah in all seriousness yeah he's had some bad ones but he did do good jobs at Monaghan and Athlone. Still will always be remembered fondly by the majority at Dalymount. Them times he brought to us were special. I hadn't seen Bohs win the league till he came along, he also brought some fantastic players to Bohs like Hunt and Crowe. I don't think anyone else could have sold the LOI to them like Roddy did

Kind of getting off topic though. Fantastic night for da towwwnn and Stephen. They can only get four teams, Celtic being one of them. The dream is still alive for them and I hope they pull it off

Works well for Barca. If we had the board we have now 10 years ago wed be a very different club. I wouldn't ever change it hand the fact that I get a say in my club is something that should be encouraged

It's the same kind of supporters-run system that Portsmouth is run under now... The one that saved Portsmouth from going under after 'Arry Redcrap's time in charge.

Only seen the 2nd half of the Dundalk game. They were very very comfortable & made BATE look bang average.

Well done to them

On another note, how many great Irish soccer people have come out of North Dublin city? What with the gah still being fairly NS dominated, it makes wan proud :smirk:

Barcelona is twinned with Cabra Noel. (Drumgoole?)

Catalunya is more associated with Nuala Caty (from the Cooley Mts).

Tough luck on Dundalk. They got probably the hardest draw possible and didn't get a real crowd-puller that might have been Celtic.

With all the Poles in Ireland surely it will sell out. The only unfortunately thing here is we'll see the majority of people in an Irish football stadium cheering on the foreign team in a competitive fixture. Happens regularly at them farcical friendlies. I give Dundalk a slim chance