Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Dublin Candystripes Challenge Grant Thornton

The Dublin SC particapated in it's first 5-a-side challenge match of the summer against Grant Thornton Dublin (the compny I work for) out in Irishtown, with scoring allowed inside the box only.

The result was an outstanding victory for the lads from GT, cruising to a 17-9 win over the Dublin based Candystripes. What makes the result even more empathic is that GT played with 5 men, no subs, were as the Candystripes played with a squad of 7, having 2 roll-on roll-off subs. The squads were as follows:

Grant Thornton:
Mark
Doug
Nicky
Dara
Manus

Dublin SC:
Morph "The Hitman" Smyth
Stephen "Haircut 100" Large
Grame "Scoops" Taylor
Ronan "The Thug" O'Kane
Ciaran McCauley
Karl McCay
Will "The Child" McCann

GT got off to a flying start in the match, scoring six goals without answer, including a deceptive own goal by Ciaran and a couple of back heals and flicks from Manus. The Candystripes then forced their way onto the score sheet with a cracking own goal from Manus.

After that the Candystripes did tighted up a bit and almost kept pace with the scoring rate of the GT lads, although the fitness of some of the Candystripes, myself included was badly exposed.

With the score poised at 10-5 to GT, they then resorted to under-handed tactics with Manus taking out one of the least effective Candystripes, striking a well powered shot firmly in the McCann Crown Jewels. "The Child" went down like a sack of spuds and was barely able to make it off the pitch. Although this was probably the most comical aspect of the match, I don't view it in this light, as it happened to me and not someone else.

Back on the field our defense did tighten up a bit, but our attack couldn't take the initiative and start banging in the goals, with chances and first touchs not coming off effectively - the sign of a team playing together for the first time.

Then in the last 10 minutes GT upped the pace again and banged in a few more goals to make it a resounding defeat of the Dublin Candystripes. It ended up 17-9 to GT with some fantastic OG's, back heels, mainly from the lads in GT and quality strikes on goal.

Some positives to be taken away from the match:
  • a cracker volley from Scoops from a pin point cross from Karl
  • the passing got better as the game went on
  • better movement off the ball, which will improve the more matchs we get in
  • we started to create more chances, although the conversion rate wasn't the best
  • my balls have finally dropped back into place
  • winning the outside the box scoring 2-1, with a strike from The Thug and Haircut 100 scoring with a well placed free-kick (totally out of frustation me thinks) with Dara scoring a great low drive for GT after running the length of the field

The Dublin SC would like to extend it's thanks to Grant Thornton lads for the match and we'll consider a revenge match at some stage if we improve over the summer.

As for player ratings, I'll let the lads from both team post comments on this.

Friday, March 09, 2007

March Madness

Well the new Eircom League kicks off tonight with Bray Wanderers coming to The Brandywell. This is our first game in March and kicks off a period of 3 weeks in which we play 7 games, 4 League games and 3 Setanta Cup games which will take up up till the end of March. So it looks like we'll be starting the new league campaign the way we ended last years campaign, playing 2 games a week. So, a quick run down of the March Madness

Friday 9th March - Bray Wanderers @ The Brandywell (League)
The last time Bray visited The Brandywell, was near the end of last season, in what looked like a home win for the team, but what turned out to be a very frustrating 0-0 draw. In the other games last season, we played Bray at home early on and won 3-0, great result considering I had €10 on the scoreline and then we won 3-2 down at the Carlisle Grounds, was close this time with €10 on a 3-1 win.

Tonight I'm going for a 2-0 win to kick start our league campaign, of course any win would do, but with €10 on 2-0 at 9/2, it would be nice, with Kevin McHugh and Darren Kelly getting on the score sheet.

Monday 12th March - Drogheda United @ The Brandywell (Setanta Cup)
Now this will definitely be a tricky one in my opinion. The Drogs had the better over us in the 4 meetings we had last year, we beat them comfortably in the League Cup, but in the League they took 4 points off us in The Brandywell and beat us in United Park as well, although all the league games were at the end of a long season and the Drogs were on form.

In the Setanta Cup, they have already lost to Linfield in the first Group match, and I do think we can inflict their second defeat, I'm going for a 1-0 win myself, but that guess may change after the first league match results. As I can't make it to the Brandywell for the Bray game, I'll watch the Bohs v Drogs match on RTE.

Saturday 17th March - Sligo Rovers @ The Showgrounds (League)
What a day for a game of footie, St Patrick's day, and a Saturday afternoon kick off, we won't have many of them this year. Sligo will be out for revenge after their 5-0 drubbing in the FAI Cup semi-final replay last year. Last year in the league they did beat us 3-1 at the Showgrounds, so it will be interesting to see how this season goes fort them. I'll going to chicken out at this early stage in making a prediction for this game until next week.

Tuesday 20th March - Linfield @ Windsor Park (Setanta Cup)
In last years Setanta Cup Group Stages the honours were shared between the 2 teams with a 1-1 draw at Windsor Park and another frustrating 0-0 draw at The Brandywell. Linfield have currently played 2, won 1 and drawn 1 and top the group with 4pts, although we have a game in hand over them. I'm going to stick with my Setanta Cup predictions on this one and go for a very open and entertaining 2-2 draw.

Friday 23rd March - St Patrick's Athletic @ The Brandywell (League)
St Pat's are another team after revenge with us beat them in the FAI Cup Final 3-2 in extra time in what was a memorable match. Not to sure on St Pat's strength and squad depth, but I think they'll be in the running this year, but they'll come away from this match with nothing, but it will definitely be a tough battle for the Candystripes.

Monday 26th March - Linfield @ The Brandywell (Setanta Cup)
The home tie with Linfield and I think we'll run out 2-1 winners on this for revenge on last years 0-0 draw, and this result will keep us at the top of the Group 1 table. I'll go with Farren and McHugh to score in this one, if they both start.

Friday 30th March - Drogheda United @ United Park (League)
This will be a tough game, the Drogs did the best against us in the league last year, and our last game against them we lost 3-1 and it's also the day we lost Kenny. I don't think the result here will have any impact on where the league ends up, but I'd say the Drogs will be up there with us this season challenging for the title, I'd be happy with a draw here, and bloody delirious with a win.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Glentoran 0 – 1 Derry

Anticipation
When we wake up next Monday morning, we’ll be saying to ourselves, I can’t wait till Friday, the league kicks off for us with Bray Wanderers visit to the Brandywell.

Well yesterday morning, it was different, I woke up and the only thing on my mind was the Glentoran v Derry match at the Oval come 7.45pm in the evening. The start of the 2007 season for Derry. It had been a long 12 weeks and 1 day from the FAI Cup final over St Pat’s, the wait was over.

Headed in to work for a half day and the talk began, although there’s not that many Eircom League supporters in the place I work, almost everyone knows when Derry City are playing, might have something to do with me. The anticipation slowly built during the day and it really kicked in when the Derry jersey went on my back at 1pm, and I headed out to door to meet up with the lads.

Getting There
Met up with Morph “The Hitman” Smyth in town at 1pm, and got the Luas out to the Red Cow hotel to meet up with the rest of the lads. Stephen “No Nickname” Large and Graeme “Scoops” Taylor were already sitting at the bar waiting on food, so the grub was ordered and the day was about to kick off.

We had two cars heading up; Car 1 had Gary “Big Daddy” White driving, “The Hitman” riding shotgun and “No Nickname” and “The Child” in the back. Car 2 had The Twins, Darren McConway and Neil Karran, Scoops and Paddy “The Blonde” Ward in the back.

So Car 1 heading off at 2.30pm, with Gary White giving the rest of us strict orders to be at the door of the hotel at 2.30pm pronto as he wanted to hit the road ASAP. I have to admit I found this highly unusual as the rest of us were having lunch in the hotel and “Big D” is fond of his food, but that matter was soon cleared up when he brought out his Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends lunch box with his sandwiches and pack of crisps, and I was surprised that he managed to fit 4 Ham Baps in to it.

What’s Said in the Confessional Stays in the Confessional – Not Likely?
Well after “The Blonde’s” stint in Big Daddy’s Confessional (also known as the back seat of “Big D’s” car) last year with him confessing his undying love for Blonde’s it was my turn to open and mouth and firmly insert my foot into it.

After a good hour in the car, many a wise crack already passed, and Maverick being played, we were passing a lot of road works and “The Hitman” commented that the traffic always seem to slow down at this point even knowing they was no real need for it, to which I loosely responded “Sure it’s all the blokes slowing down to eye up the builders”.

Well 100 yards down the road “The Hitman” pipes up “What d’ya think of that builder Willy, he’s kinda cute!”, and the ribbing began, I’m hoping it will end some time around next April. My only saving grace is that I’ve already been nicknamed “The Child” after last years European Tour, otherwise It would have been Will “Bob the Builder” McCann.

Pre-Match Gargle
Well Car 1 ended up in Belfast just after 5pm, although we probably would have gotten there sooner if the car didn’t slow down all the time passing builders so that the lads could continue ripping the piss out of me, and we headed straight for the Odyssey, and “Big Daddy” headed straight to the Tapa’s Bar for some food and drink. And as always, when it comes to food, he made the right call, the grub was good and the pint of San Miguel also hit the spot. Then it was down the stairs for a few more gargles and to meet up with the rest of the troop.

A few beers were had and the Ryan “Ratboy” Smyth showed up from Derry with the match tickets in hand, and the anticipation went up another notch and then we headed towards the Oval.

The Match
If any of you have already read my previous attempts at doing a good match report you’ll know I fail every time, but hey, I can’t be perfect all of the time. For a much better match report check out CityWeb’s one at http://www.derrycityfc.net/season/07/news/displaystory.php?storyid=40

The match kicked off with Jennings, Rogers, Kelly, Oman, Hargan, Deery, Molloy, Martyn, McCourt, Bermingham and Farren as the starting 11. (shamelessly nicked from the about website).

Considering the Glens were mid season and match fit and this was Derry’s first competitive game in 2007, I thought we played very well. You could notice some of the rustiness that you would expect, like the odd stray pass, the first touch letting the players down (although I can’t really say anything about first touches, as if I try to control the ball in the box, someone usually ends up collecting it in the centre circle).

The things that did stand out in the match was the incident leading to Pat Fenlon being sent off, with the Glens Number 2 attempting to stamp on Paddy when he was on the ground and then squaring up to him when Paddy got up, to be honest I’d surprised the lad never got sent off in the match, as he did get a Yellow after that. Don’t blame Pat for going ballistic as the crowd was behind him on this one. From the new comers I though Dave Rogers had a great game and Bermingham did OK.

The game changed when Kevin McHugh came on for Bermingham, McHugh played brilliantly for us last season, whether it was on the wing or up front, and he didn’t fail us this time either, as on the 87th Minute when he rifled the ball into the back of the net after good work from Molloy and McCourt in mid field.

As always the Derry City Supporters showed up in force, the flags, the drums and the harmonica where all there, some good chants rang around the Oval, fav’s from this were

“Are you Shelbourne in disguise?”

“You’re just a small team from Belfast, a small team from Belfast.”

Of course all the old favourites were in they as well and the guys on the drums played all night.

That goal made the drive down to Dublin that much shorter, as you all know and probably have experienced, there’s nothing worse than having to make the trek back home after a defeat, but that wasn’t on the cards for the masses of Derry fans that made it to the game and long may it continue.

C’mon the Candystripes

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Setanta Cup - 1st Up Glentoran

It's been 12 weeks since Derry's last competitive match in the final of the FAI Cup, where we all know they came out 3-2 victorous winners against St Pat's in Lansdowne Road.

Our first competitive match is in the Setanta Cup, where we have again been selected to play in the toughest group. This year the group consists of ourselves and Drogheda United from the League of Ireland and Linfield and Glentoran from the Irish League.

First up in the cup is Glentoran away. Glentoran are currently mid-season and have already played 11 competitive matchs in 2007, 4 Wins, 2 Draws and 5 losses, they currently sit 3rd in the Irish League 6 points behind Linfield. Both Glentorn and Linfield were in our group last year and against the Glens, we won 3-1 at home and lost 1-0 away. So hopefully come tomorrow night there'll be pay back for the defeat last year.

There's a squad of us heading up from Dublin for the match, and it will be my first time in the Oval, so hopefully we get the right result to talk about on our way back down.

Setanta Cup Predictions
To make it interesting and to try and raise some funds for the Dublin Supporters Club, I decided to run a Setanta Cup Predictions competition. We have 20 people entering, 18 predictions in so far, just waiting on the other two coming in tomorrow. So far, out of the 18, Derry are the firm favourites with 13 people saving they'll win the cup, 2 go for Cork, 2 for Linfield and 1 for Drogheda - although this might be slightly biased as most of the entries are coming from Derry fans.

Full predictions can be found here Setanta Cup Predictions . To view the file choose the FREE option to download, wait until the timer runds out, enter text and press enter to download. Out of 19 predictions in for tomorrow nights games we have 11 people going for a Derry win, 3 for a Glentoran win and 5 for a draw, with the favourite scoreline being Derry winning 2-1.

Bring it on, it's been a long wait for the start of the new season, but we are now less than 24 hours away, and hopefully we can build on the last 2 seasons and Pat Fenlon can continue his winning ways back winning the league.

C'mon the Candystripes

Match report and crack from the trip up in Belfast to follow in a few days time.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Killer Football - Round 3

In the off season we have moved into Round 3 of the Premiership Killer we are running to rasie some cash for the Supporters Club. The results of previous rounds are listed below:

Round 1:
Joint 1st - Kevin Costello (GT), Kevin McDaid (QUBSC), Will Ryan (AIB) - €50 each
26 entries - €110 raised for the supporters club

Round 2:
1st - Robert Foley (GT) - €90
Joint 2nd - Ahmad Younis (AIB) & Gary "Big Daddy" White (DSC) - €20 each
22 entries - €90 raised for the supporters club

So from the first 2 round it looks like lads from GT and AIB are doing well, and even a member of QUBSC has won more than any members of the Dublin SC. Gary White is currently flying the flag for the SC, coming joint 2nd in Round 2.

Round 3:
Started last weekend with 36 entries, with €130 being raised for the Supporters Club, and on Match Day 1 there was a massacre with 25 out of the 36 losing 1 of there 2 lifes. Luckily enough I didn't lose a life, so it's all good.

The question now is, can one of the SC Memebers come first this time - well here's hoping "Yes it can happen" as I intend to win it this time round with my superior footballing intellect, although cheating is always an option as well.

Big thanks this time round for Killer goes out to Mick McCourt down in Cork who roped in 9 lads for McAfee to joing in and Ciaran McCauley, working in AIB who roped in another 6 lads, but considering the AIB has a 1st and a 2nd in previous rounds, I don't blame them.

We even has 2 lads from up north playing this time round with Jay Crumley, from Ardglass (originally Top Of The Hill) and Thomas McCann from Belfast (originally Lecky Road).

In the previous round and this round, we had a slight change to the rule, in which if you don't get your selection in on time and get an Automatic Selection instead, we work are way up from the bottom of the table