Derry City v St. Patrick's Athletic FAI Cup 2nd Round Match Thread

[MINTER]

Useless

Harsh

Absolute pish up front

[Paddydcfc2010]

Pats were really bad and rarely threatened. Out of two competitions both on penalties is hard to take. It was all going so well until this week.

[brandyball]

The Seasons in danger of Imploding. If only we had a centre forward.

[footman]

There was only 1 team playing football tonight. Of if we only had an out and out striker.

[Franco]

Useless

Who was?

[brandyball]

The Manager's view

https://audioboom.com/posts/8353905-we- ... EdpfM-PtoE

[Keyser Soze]

The elephant in the room has to be addressed when this season is over.

We create so little chances from open play, and our forwards simply aren't up to the standard needed.

And in games like this, when it won or bust we really need to be starting with 2 forwards. We had so much possession but nothing up top.

[mokendismucker]

As someone who knows the game better than I said at the weekend football is about suffering. And we have suffered this week. But on both occasions we were the better side. Only 2 trophies to be won and the big one is still there and in our own hands with 10 games to go. Would you have taken at that at the start of the season. I would. Heads up and let’s focus on what can be won. Citytilidie.

Btw we do have a centre forward. Colm Whelan.

[rodgers]

Thought Derry were better team by far in first half but when the goal didn't come, match tended to revert to a lot of what we had seen earlier in the year.

Think Cian Kavanagh could have made a contribution in a game like that.

[chucho]

People saying we need a centre forward. We have 3 fit centre forwards and one out injured. How many do we need at the club?

[magspat]

The one out injured isn't going to score goals ,the other 3 doesn't score many goals as I said from start of campaign we need a good out and out striker.Three matches played no goals scored from play bar Patchings penalty,so you think nothing wrong with our strikers?.

[Keyser Soze]

Doesn't matter how many forwards you have, if none of those available are good enough.

Football is about scoring goals. The 3 fit forwards we have simply aren't up to it. Granted Mullan has only arrived, so we are only basing opinions on a handful of games, but early signs aren't good.

Big Cian is still very young, but has got enough game time up to now for my opinion to be that I don't think he is the answer. Perhaps loan him out for a season to see if he can play every game and get into the habit of scoring?

And Jamie, he always gives his all, but I also don't think he has the ability needed at the very top level we are aiming for.

If we hope to become the dominant team in this country, we are going to have to find better forwards. Of course we have Whelan, but he's likely out until halfway thru next season, and 2 serious knee injuries doesn't bode well for him. The rest of the team is solid, but until we can up our goal count we aren't going to push on to that next level. Yesterday's game was the perfect example of how you can boss a game but still struggle if you aren't creating goal chances.

[mokendismucker]

Thought Mullan showed more of what he was about yesterday than we had seen before. Received the ball and linked the play well. Worked hard. Had one effort on the turn in the box that was blocked that maybe gave a flash of what Higgins seen in him. Obviously still getting fit and acclimatised. More optimistic about him now than what I had seen before yesterday. With McMullan in the side we are getting better quality into the box. But yeah we need a fox in the box…….Anyone seen one recently that wants to play for us…….,.

[chucho]

My point is that you can't lay the blame solely at the feet of the strikers. One up front with slow build up, deep lying midfielders and constantly recycling back to our centre halfs and keeper doesn't do our strikers any favours.

[marcoloco]

My point is that you can't lay the blame solely at the feet of the strikers. One up front with slow build up, deep lying midfielders and constantly recycling back to our centre halfs and keeper doesn't do our strikers any favours.

Spot on. When you play 120 mins of football with home advantage and not score a goal you don't deserve to progress. The away team has earned their penalty shootout and victory. No complaints from me. Its up to the home side to find a way through, take risks that you maybe wouldn't consider away from home. Playing conservative football, knocking it around at the back is pretty to watch, will prevent the opposition from scoring but is largely ineffective at the other end.

[mokendismucker]

Fair enough lads but remember we played 120 emotionally draining minutes on Thursday night and had to take on a Pats side, without our strongest starting 11, who are above us in the league, that didn’t want to come out. It was far from straight forward and what you need on those occasions sometimes is a rub of the green. It didn’t come.

I think we should reserve judgment on the style of play until all 36 games have been played………..

Uppacity

[kitwe]

I agree with much of the comments above. I repeat we were the better team in both games but lack a goal scorer.
It's now time to get behind the team. They must be devastated at what might have been with little luck.
We're all disappointed but it's time to move on and hope for some of the form in the future which got us so far in Europe.

[Keyser Soze]

We'll all be behind the team for the run in.

But I think for the last 10 games, we need to take chances if we are to win this league.

Ditch the safety, and have a go!

[magspat]

Agree 100%.

[stevebradley]

Max Mata at Sigo is the league's second top goalscorer this seaosn, despite playing for a lower-mid-table team. And he's recently moved to Shrewsbury Town in League 1.

I would have liked to have seen what he could have done for us (I'm working on the assumption Higgins didn't try to sign him). The only benefit of Shrewsbury for him is being in the shop window in England. We could have offered him European football, a genuine chance of silverware, and the likelihood of a better transfer to England afterwards (he's only 23 now).

Meanwhile our top goalscorer this seaosn doesn't even start games for us, and is in 10th place in the league's goalscoiring chart - behind players from struggling clubs like Cork and Drogheda. And our goal difference is 9 below Rovers'. We need to rack uo a decent score in our game in hand against UCD, as we've lost a league before on goal difference