GypsyDownUnder wrote:

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GypsyDownUnder,

I find your ignorant remark offensive.

I was under the impression the calibre of discussion on this forum was someway above that on the various rivals.net and footy-mad boards. It seems I was wrong.

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Agreed. Some lazy stereotyping from the big Aussie there.

There seemed to be about 200 Croats, but they made plenty of noise.

Hmmm.
Certainly didn't mean to cause offense.

No I'm sure you didn't.

My team, as Duncan certainly knows is Bohemian FC. And I still have memories, some fond, some not so fond of your club's supporters visits to Dublin in 1984. And there was no lazy stereotyping about the right wing sectarian scum wearing blue then. (at least 1,000 Linfield supporters came down to support your 1st team from Glasgow).

Funnily enough my friends who attended that same game have slightly different memories of the day, still they're probably just right wing, sectarian scum wearing blue so hell mend them eh.


If it's all changed and a bed of roses up Windsor way nowadays then good. I just find indignant remarks from Linfield FC supporters funny.

Indeed, they should know there place.

Yes, I know you've finally signed the odd catholic or two and that Pat Fenlon played a few games in the early 90s, but honestly jokes aside, would it even be okay to go to a Linfield game now with a southern accent?

If you were supporting Linfield I imagine you'd be just fine, if you weren't, well you'd get the same reception opposition fans get at grounds around the world.

Certainly on your Setanta Cup exploits south to the big city, your supporters love nothing more than a bit Union Jack waving, Sash goading and even Queen mask wearing. Old man GDU still lives between Dalymount and Tolka and drinks in a few of the local pubs.

Well phone the UN, it doesn't get much more sectarian than that now does it.

[i[i]]I fear for next season's competition when for the first time, some of Dublin's lowlife will feel like they've received an invitation under the guise of Bohemian FC's probable qualification. God help us if De WoeFers ever qualify.

[/i][/i]

Ah but they'll have been provoked so it'll be OK.

Why didn't you have a go at him for the score, or the tactics Linfield employed, why nothing about football?

Hofzinser wrote:
[quote]Hold on, saying that some clubs may have slightly dodgy fanbases isn't allowed round here any more? Even when said clubs have a history of dodgy fanbases?
That's what Quagmire did do.

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Still nice to see the tactical revolutionary that is Linfield manager David Jeffrey opting to play a postively ground breaking 5-5-0 formation for the second half thereby making Wednesday evening a landmark night in the history of the World's number one most popular sport.

Not at all. He was merely copying the formation employed by his Ibrox brethren across the channel in European matches last season.[/quote]

Too many up front for that system to work, and maybe a couple more defenders in midfield would help too.

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Why didn't you have a go at him for the score, or the tactics Linfield employed, why nothing about football?

AMMS, not sure if you're new or who you used to be. But there's no point aimlessly rambling on about the same auld shite.

I'm part of a small yet optimistic bunch of football fans who support their local football club. Albeit in my case from the other side of the world.

I'd love to talk about football with Linfield. But the problem is there's much more than just football associated with certain football clubs in Ireland. And you know it. Trying to endless blame the other side as been worse than us, doesn't solve the problem.

If you're telling me that I can finally go an enjoy a game at Windsor, then good, I might try and fit a game in on my next visit. You'll understand that until relatively recently, this absolutely wouldn't have been possible.

I'd love it if fans from every club could go along to watch a match without the historic trappings.

Yes, I equally deplore the mindless violence and tri-colour waving, celtic supporting knobheads attached to Bohemian FC. We have them too. I admit it, but some at our club are actively trying to solve the problem, not just slag off the opposition.

The thing is the way forward for football fans in Ireland is to have a 10/12 team league. It should be composed of the best teams on the island irrespective of where they come from.

Everyone who knows football wants this except a few old cronies the in the 2 associations.

And it may seen bizarre to you, that I'd like Linfield (and indeed other IL/LOI teams) to succeed in Europe. This is an odd thing currently associated with football in Ireland. Most fans currently want rivals to succeed in Europe to lift the value of local football and to get more people involved.

Or are you just going to continue to make snide remarks?

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But there's no point aimlessly rambling on about the same auld shite

Indeed. So why ramble on about Linfield fans acting the cunt in the 1980s? They generally don't now- I was at the Irish League Cup final last term, and a couple of other games were live on Sky TV. Linfield have played in the cross-border Setanta Cup in recent years without serious problems.I didn't see a single Nazi salute in any of those games, apart from the Zagreb fans.

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If you're telling me that I can finally go an enjoy a game at Windsor, then good, I might try and fit a game in on my next visit. You'll understand that until relatively recently, this absolutely wouldn't have been possible

Look forward to seeing you soon. Of course it would have been possible. It's a football ground, not the UDA's romper room*. Of course I accept that a Dubliner might feel initially uncomfortable, but as AMMS said it's not significantly different from other grounds elsewhere.

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The thing is the way forward for football fans in Ireland is to have a 10/12 team league. It should be composed of the best teams on the island irrespective of where they come from.Everyone who knows football wants this except a few old cronies the in the 2 associations

Your evidence for this being what, exactly? Many fans in NI- and some in the Republic- would prefer separate league competitions with the cross-border cup as above. There isn't sufficient support in Ireland for 12 teams in a full-time league, and likely won't be while the large majority of fans prefer to support teams in England and Glasgow. The new set up would be over-reliant on TV sponsorship which would likely disappear if viewing figures and attendances disappointed. The latest plan (basically a publicity stunt from Paddy Power) would add only Linfield and Glentoran, plus franchise teams from Galway and Limerick to the LoI. It's a non-starter.

* kneecappings

wouldn't be so sure about that dunc. i went for a drink with a couple of the irish journalists in vienna who were convinced that this all-ireland league will be the rock john delaney perishes on. he's opposed to it, but they claimed it's something all the potentially participating clubs want, both north and south of the border.

speaking personally my ignorance about these issues is exceeded only by my indifference.

GDU - I'd accept everything you said if you'd actually engaged the Linfield fan and he'd responded with the 'same auld shite' but he tried to talk about football and you responded with a snide remark so you can't have it both ways.

Here's the London Times story I meant to link to above.

Garcia- I'm hearing it either ridiculed or ignored by Linfield and Glentoran fans. I'll let the thread know if that changes, while noting your own lack of interest.

Talking of Vienna. Is the schnitzel stand by the Riesenrad still there? Schmecken immer.

i never made it out to the prater. even if i had, i doubt i would have tried the schnitzel. how did these things ever become world famous? we have them in ireland, they're called "batterburgers".

Llanelli fall 4-0 in Latvia ... bye bye Champions League for another season

Drogheda Utd lead 1-0 in Tallinn with 10mins to go, leaving them 3-1 up on aggregate. Tallinn down to 10 men. Looking good for a second round tie with Dynamo Kiev.

TamU 1-0 up in Podgorica, Myntti with the goal.

Drogheda Utd through 3-1 on aggregate.

Since UEFA structured the Champions League Qualifiers in it's current three-round format back in 2000, Ireland's representatives have got through the first round seven out of nine times:

Victories:

Shelbourne beat Sloga Jugomagnat of Macedonia in 2000/01.
Bohemians beat of champions of Estonia (?) in 2001/02, and of Belarus (?) in 2003/04.
Shelbourne beat Reykavik of Iceland in 2004/05, and Glentoran of Northern Ireland in 2005/06.
Cork City beat Apollon Limassol in 2006/07.
Drogheda Utd beat Levadia Tallinn in 2008/09.

Defeats:

Shelbourne beaten by Hibernians of Malta in 2002/03.
Derry City beaten by champions of Azerbaijan (???) in 2007/08.

That's a sense of where the game has been at over the last decade. Our champions are mostly capable of beating representatives from countries like those above. In the second round, however, the Irish champions have been beaten five times out of six. The only success being Shelbourne's victory over Hajduk Split of Croatia in 2004/05. The champions of Norway (Rosenborg in 2000/01 & 2003/04), Sweden (Halmstads in 2001/02), Romania (Steau Bucharest in 2005/06), and Serbia (Red Star Belgrade in 2006/07) comfortably beat their Irish opposition. Those kind of sides are still way ahead of our own. And I expect that Drogheda Utd will pose little problem for Dynamo Kiev.

That Shelbourne/Malta result still defies belief, given how well they had played against Sloga Jugomagnat and Rosenborg a couple of seasons earlier, and against Hajduk the following year.

Dynamo Kiev aren't particularly great, and are certainly miles below the level of Zenit St Petersburg or even Spartak Moscow. They have a few good players (Maksim Shatskikh, Artem Milevskyi, the new Croatian midfielder Ognjen Vukojevic), but the embarrassing ease with which Man United scored eight goals against them in last season's CL gives you an idea of where they stand in the greater scheme of things.

Still, they will get past Drogheda whatever happens, so it only remains to be seen in which one of two ways it will occur: either embarrassingly narrowly, or by a vast number of goals.

And if Drogheda want to make Kiev really work for it, the best thing they can do is to resist the temptation to move the game to a bigger venue (i.e. somewhere in Dublin) in order to make a few quid, and hold it at their own ground, a tiny little place that holds a few thousand, and make the pitch as narrow as possible, Graeme Souness-style. They'll lose the return leg by a few goals, but they may as well maximise their chances of discommoding Kiev at home.

Revised 2nd round qualifiers draw (teams in bold who I think will win):

Rangers v Kaunas
Brann Bergen v Ventspils
Inter Baku v Partizan Belgrade
Tampere Utd v Artmedia Bratislava
Anorthosis Famagusta v Rapid Vienna
Domzale v Dinamo Zagreb
Panathinaikos v Dinamo Tbilisi
IFK Gothenburg v Basel
Sheriff Tiraspol v Sparta Prague
Drogheda United v Dynamo Kiev
Anderlecht v BATE Borisov
Beitar Jerusalem v Wisla Krakow
Fenerbahce v MTK-Hungaria
Aalborg v Modrica

Assuming the Huns beat Kaunas, they will be seeded for the third qualifying round draw (which takes place on August 1).

Ooh, that's harsh.

Are Artmedia any good these days? How do they cope with long balls lobbed up to a 6' 7" striker?