Shelbourne v Dundalk 21 April

[Richie87]

I don't see that Dundalk team getting past a round in Europe. They would struggle against minows from Gibraltar or the like.

[Pepsi]

Terrible display tonight from what has turned out to be a very average side put together for this season. 1 man advantage nowhere to be seem, not for the first time this season, surely it is time for SOD to feel the pressure. Apart from Davies, his signings this season have not been good enough.

This should have been year two of of five year plan. We've actually gone backwards. I've been banging on about the lateness of our signings this season especially as all the excuses last year were the poor pre season.

I have the admit, this is the first time I'm questioning if O'Donnell is the right man for the job. An extra man for 80 minutes and I think their keeper had about two or three saves to make.

I think it is a case of ownership on a very tight budget which is made out to be a lot more than it actually is, hoping to get lucky and find an investor stupid enough to come in and bankroll it. Wonder if Peak6 rang them tomorrow with an offer of silent partnership and hard cash and they run it, would they take it? Cannot seriously see what they have to offer an investor at this moment in time, because next season we will be very lucky to be in with a sniff of European places let alone anything else.
If the signings are all SOD signings and they are players he wanted, then the owners have to look at things again, because he doesn't have the eye they seem to think he has for players. For me Malley and Tulloch are luxuries we cannot afford at this moment in time. Malley seems like he has two gears at time, reverse and stop and Tulloch for the 4 goals doesn't influence games enough, however he does win the odd peno and pop up with a goal but over 90 minutes for me he is not consistent enough.
You are right, we have gone backwards so far this season and it is slowly becoming time for the owners or the manager to explain exactly what the plan is. SODs deflections blaming the pitch for injuries .... what do the owners plan to do? Do they have the finances to do anything to it or is it a case of waiting for a stupid sugar daddy to appear? That will be interesting, as we had one already and fans ran them out of town. Seems like a long time ago, that we were able to sign and pay what we wanted for players (granted, many were duds). But come here... we have our flares and fines and the owners are great lads so let them get on with it. The majority of our fans should remember, this is what they wanted and protested for.

Rant over .... all very frustrating ....

[Louth4sam]

On paper I feel the owners and O'Donnell were/are the right people to have running and managing the club and I'm not writing anyone off yet.

However I feel we should have been hoovering up the best of the rest that Derry and Rovers didn't want, instead we went with gambling on a lot of lads from the UK. I actually don't think any of our signings have been particularly bad but we've seen it under Kenny that it takes players from the UK a year to get up to speed. We also left it far too late to complete our signings so were always playing catch up.

[niall_hearty2000]

Terrible display tonight from what has turned out to be a very average side put together for this season. 1 man advantage nowhere to be seem, not for the first time this season, surely it is time for SOD to feel the pressure. Apart from Davies, his signings this season have not been good enough.

What can you do when the owners give u a shit budget and you are stuck with signing loan players every season. There is no continuity. It's rebuild season after season. Plus the injuries are through the roof. The squad that qualified for Europe last season is superior to the side which will play in Europe this season. What does lewis bring to the squad?

[Martin Lawlor80]

On paper I feel the owners and O'Donnell were/are the right people to have running and managing the club and I'm not writing anyone off yet.

However I feel we should have been hoovering up the best of the rest that Derry and Rovers didn't want, instead we went with gambling on a lot of lads from the UK. I actually don't think any of our signings have been particularly bad but we've seen it under Kenny that it takes players from the UK a year to get up to speed. We also left it far too late to complete our signings so were always playing catch up.

Agree with this 100%

I don’t think there is really any appetite among fans for a change of manager. It’s easy to call for it but I bet they couldn’t name a better manager at this moment to take over.
I know we are going through a tough spell but I’d be seriously worried for the future of the club if either SOD or the owners left. The chairman has said we need investment . Hopefully they can get something positive over the line sooner rather than later . We need to stick together.

[Gearóid Bellew]

Feedback taken & I have moved all into one game thread group rather than separate sub forums.

Back to the game, the one positive I can take from it is coming back from a goal down again, but being a goal down should never have happened against ten men in the first place.

[GC.]

Yeah, couldn’t have done much more….I’ll have some of what he is on. Unless I misheard.

https://twitter.com/lmfmradio/status/16 ... 3328?s=46

[niall_hearty2000]

All in all we have to accept we are missing a lot of starters at the moment. And that without hoban we offer practically zero up front. 10 v 11 for 80 mins and we go a goal down isn't good enough. Then again Benson scores the penalty and it changes the dynamic. There are players who unfortunately aren't good enough. Imho O'Donnell's hands have been tied with the budget on offer. Loan signings are not the way forward for a club that is hoping to challenge for trophies. It is a rebuild every season and you run the risk of losing players like we lost Connolly to Derry. That's where we are at, for the moment. Unless we get investment in or new owners willing to put some money in to boost the budget significantly.

[Richie87]

All in all we have to accept we are missing a lot of starters at the moment. And that without hoban we offer practically zero up front. 10 v 11 for 80 mins and we go a goal down isn't good enough. Then again Benson scores the penalty and it changes the dynamic. There are players who unfortunately aren't good enough. Imho O'Donnell's hands have been tied with the budget on offer. Loan signings are not the way forward for a club that is hoping to challenge for trophies. It is a rebuild every season and you run the risk of losing players like we lost Connolly to Derry. That's where we are at, for the moment. Unless we get investment in or new owners willing to put some money in to boost the budget significantly.

There's nothing exciting for an investor to get involved with Dundalk. The pitch needs to be replaced, the ground isn't modern. A lot of money to be spent before they get anywhere near the playing side of things.

[holidaysong]

Yeah, couldn’t have done much more….I’ll have some of what he is on. Unless I misheard.

https://twitter.com/lmfmradio/status/16 ... 3328?s=46

That's a completely baffling take on things.

[seand]

| “On the whole, I was very happy with our performance…” SOD on the radio, holy fukk

[Martin Lawlor80]

All in all we have to accept we are missing a lot of starters at the moment. And that without hoban we offer practically zero up front. 10 v 11 for 80 mins and we go a goal down isn't good enough. Then again Benson scores the penalty and it changes the dynamic. There are players who unfortunately aren't good enough. Imho O'Donnell's hands have been tied with the budget on offer. Loan signings are not the way forward for a club that is hoping to challenge for trophies. It is a rebuild every season and you run the risk of losing players like we lost Connolly to Derry. That's where we are at, for the moment. Unless we get investment in or new owners willing to put some money in to boost the budget significantly.

Yes a good summary.

If, and I know it’s a big IF, we can win the next 2 games, drogs at home and UCD away, it’ll be 8 points from 12. That’ll put a better view on things.
I did see some fight against Shels and Derry that’s giving me some hope….

[Louth4sam]

Yeah, couldn’t have done much more….I’ll have some of what he is on. Unless I misheard.

https://twitter.com/lmfmradio/status/16 ... 3328?s=46

He must be the only one holding that opinion. We had plenty of the ball yes but did nothing at all with it when we got to the final third.

[niall_hearty2000]

Yeah, couldn’t have done much more….I’ll have some of what he is on. Unless I misheard.

https://twitter.com/lmfmradio/status/16 ... 3328?s=46

He must be the only one holding that opinion. We had plenty of the ball yes but did nothing at all with it when we got to the final third.

I think we are being slightly over critical. How many guaranteed starters were we missing? Bottom line is we need to play hoban but he isn't fully fit and failing that sign a better striker than we currently have.

[superman]

I would go against the grain and say I thought there were a lot of positives from that performance. Did everything to win the game yesterday but score enough. Considering our defensive line starting, I thought it looked well, and we dominated the game, even before they got a man sent off. While we lumped it a bit too often into their box, we held onto the ball well and were dynamic winning it back. We could have had a second pen in the first half, while I think theirs definitely wasn't (feel the Shels lad was already going down looking for a touch from the Dundalk player). Their keeper was man of the match for a reason, and we hit the post and had a few chances just wizz the wrong side of goal.

The biggest issue was Martin up front. He has no instincts for a striker. Thats killing us. Genuinely would rather Kenny at this stage. I wouldn't write Martin off completely, but it is beyond evident he is not a Striker.

I put it down to just a very frustrating night where we played well enough to win, but didn't. No need to be throwing the bottle out of the pram about it. Its a tight league, everybody will go through a few games without winning. A good run would change things completely.

Im a bit surprised with the reaction on here to be honest, but I was avoiding it after the last run of form.