We have a few league games to get under our belts before the next round of the cup and we start away at Dundalk. The Lilywhites from Louth are performing as expected this season which is in the silver medal position. Quite a way behind Shamrock Rovers (aren’t we all!) but building a nice gap from third place. So, despite our recent upturn in form, we were obviously expected to get our arse handed to us. It turned out to be a rather busy game. We took the lead but were immediately pegged back and went 3-1 down just after half time. We fought back though and earned a point thanks to goals from Tony McNamee, Seamus Keough with his first of the season and new signing Omar Bugiel with his first goal for the club. Is a purple patch of scoring too much to ask? Lucas Antonicelli made his debut too, by the way, coming on at half time to register a solid 6.8.
Back to back home games next which should be a blessing and a good chance to claw back some ground. Although, the last time this happened we failed miserably so I won’t be counting my chickens just yet! Bohemians up first. But first, deadline day! I’ll be honest, I’m not expecting a great deal of action. As you can imagine, none of our players are exactly putting themselves in the shop window and we have made a couple of additions already. We have Philip Gannon, Irish midfielder of 27 who is only rated at two stars for both ability and potential but out injured for a dodgy knee for a few weeks so I doubt he’ll be an attractive addition for anyone. The only other player I would be happy to lose for sure is BJ Banda, our South African attacker who is rated at two stars ability and just 2.5 potential. I’ll stick him on the unwanted list and see if we get a bite. I started with “sell for value” which was €12k but there was no interest, so I have tried “at any value”. That managed to draw out a South African club from their North West Division 2 called Orbit College. They bid €12,250 which was higher than first advertised, go figure! No complaints here, bid accepted. The deadline passed and no word from South Africa yet but I have no idea when their deadline is. In Ireland, we have crossed over into a free transfer window for a month so always time for extra additions if necessary but we should be ok as we are.
Tony McNamee’s opener at Dundalk managed to earn him second place in the Goal of the Month competition:
I haven’t shared a Monthly Performance Review yet so here is the one that came in from the board on 2nd August.
As you can see, a C rating with a couple of highlights being our transfer business at A- and our squad harmony at B-:
And the Supporters Review at a slightly lower rating of C-:
Back to the match day and our game at home to Bohemians, Ryan Flood continued his roller coaster season with us by missing a penalty in a first half we dominated. In the second half, Bugiel put us ahead 1-0 with a good header from a Keogh cross then on our newest signing, Antonicelli smashed home and Eoin Wearen made it 3-0 a minute later. We defended brilliantly to hang on for a massive win. Frustratingly, Cobh won as well so our gap to safety is not getting any smaller! The silver lining is that the team they beat are who we play next, St Pat’s Athletic.
Achievement achieved – record sale as BJ Banda goes back to his home country of South Africa for €12,250. That balances the books a little.
Second of the two home matches wasn’t as as successful as the first. We were second best throughout and although we seemed to be hanging on, we succumbed to an amazing strike in the final minute of injury time, 90+5mins! Our left winger, Alex Cetiner, gifted him the ball on a silver platter too which makes it even more disappointing. We now must get a result at Cobh Ramblers, in my humble opinion, to have any chance of surviving this fight. We are seven points adrift of them and they now have a game in hand.
Tell me you got your arse kicked without telling me you got your arse kicked… I threw the water bottle and told them they were a disgrace. And do you know what, I hope it hit our German goalkeeper right in the eye after he turned in a performance of 5.3! We really got our pants pulled down there. Cobh are on fantastic form of late. So much so that they are no longer in the playoff spot, Cork City have dropped to that position. I’d like to say that they are our new target but with three games in hand on us and already eight points ahead, it doesn’t look even remotely likely.
I remember hearing a joke as a child that Manchester United were playing Manchester City (of old) and were several goals in front at half time and decided to leave just Roy Keane playing on his own in the second half while the rest of the team went to the pub. When the game finished, Roy Keane joined them and informed them that the score didn’t change. When he was asked why he didn’t manage to increase their lead, he said, “I got sent off”. The relevance of this joke here is that we were 2-0 down on 58 minutes when Cobh had a man sent off and the game finished 6-0. So, even with a man advantage for over half an hour we actually managed to be worse off!
Strangely enough, the board have not come calling after that result. I half expected the chairman to be stood next to a taxi with my bags already in the boot. I simply had a few players come to me who were confused by my recent team talk…I didn’t have the energy to fight it if I’m honest and backed down, promising to improve. Lots of green up arrows so all friends again.
What’s the situation?
The situation is as follows: we have Longford at home next in the Challenge Cup followed by a last round of matches against each of our fellow league members. We are the only club to have played everyone three times, the other are playing catch up which is ironic given that only team trying to catch up is us!
I think it’s safe to suggest that we may not be in a job by the end of the season and even if we do miraculously make it to the final day, we won’t be booking an open top bus tour of Ballybofey.
Heart of Football 
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