Well another disappointing season. The expected new spine at the back wasn't much better than what they replaced. The DR from Brum got himself a 6.3 rating from 32 matches and "thinks the club is underachieving." One of the DCs, also from Brum, got a 6.44 rating from 34 appearances (but at least scored 3 goals as a solid penalty taker) but at least "is happy to stay at the club." Another DC bought from Bury for a record E26,000 had some niggling injuries that limited him to 29 appearances, but got a 6.49 rating.
Keepers are bad. Pretty much went with a squad rotation there. The best (a player/coach) had a 7.56 rating giving up 13 goals in 18 league matches. The youngster drafted in when the previous #2 bottled it gave up 14 goals in 6 league matches (6.17 rating).. The ousted #2 managed to get 9 appearances - enough time to give up 27 goals (yes, that's an average of 3 per game :eek: ) for a 6.89 rating.
But I've got a 28-yo GK coming in from Derby (but who doesn't have a 1st team match in 5 seasons) on a Bosman. Hopefully
that will stop our tendency to concede goals in the first 10 minutes. As well as another DC (25 years old) coming in from Bolton on a Bosman.
Youth development seems to be proceeding alright though. Our 20-yo striker bagged a club record 20 league goals en route to being named Young Player of the Year and runner-up for Personality of the Year (whatever the feck that is
).
Oh, the table:
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">********************************************* ************************************************** * Irish Premier Division - Saturday 29th April 2006********************************************** ************************************************** ================================================== ============================================== 2005/6 Table============================================= ================================================== =Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st C Shelbourne 33 9 2 6 36 20 10 5 1 38 28 64 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2nd St. Patrick's Ath. 33 9 2 6 32 24 11 0 5 35 34 62 3rd Waterford Utd 33 10 1 5 26 18 8 6 3 32 24 61 4th U.C.D. 33 8 0 8 30 26 10 4 3 36 21 58 5th Sligo Rovers 33 6 6 4 36 28 11 1 5 38 29 58 6th Bohemians 33 6 4 6 32 26 10 2 5 32 30 54 7th Cork City 33 8 3 5 39 33 6 3 8 28 25 48 8th Shamrock Rovers 33 9 1 7 38 28 5 4 7 24 26 47 9th Galway Utd 33 5 7 4 26 23 7 4 6 22 22 47 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10th R Limerick 33 5 5 7 29 27 2 3 11 23 42 29 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11th R Longford 33 5 2 10 26 36 1 2 13 12 40 22 12th R Cobh Ramblers 33 0 2 15 16 46 2 1 13 15 45 9 </pre>
Plus I've got another young striker who bagged a hat trick against Cobh Ramblers on his debut. Of course, he didn't score again in 5 first team appearances. From the looks of it,
I could have bagged a hat trick against Cobh.
Cups were a bit disappointing. We made it to the League Cup quarterfinal before losing 2-1 at Waterford Utd. As for the Challenge Cup, we knocked out Sligo in the 2nd round 5-3...and then proceeded to lose at non-league Fanad Utd 1-0, part of a stretch where we scored only twice in 6 games (5 of them clean sheets)
Season breakdown:
First third: 5-1-5
Second third: 5-3-3
Last third: 4-1-6
The board are merely "satisfied" with my performance, having demanded a respectable league position both seasons, only for us to finish 8th both times. Yet I still have a rapport with the fans.
Group F is the Group of Death for the 2006 World Cup: Colombia, Mexico, Denmark, Spain. England are in Group B with Sweden, Nigeria and Uruguay. The Republic of Ireland are in Group E with Brazil, Portugal and USA. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland did not qualify.
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