Ea-sy! Ea-sy!

Ea-sy! Ea-sy!

Glentoran 1 Linfield 4


Delighted on the one hand, but as the eternal perfectionist, disappointed we didn't win by more.

This was my first game in months, and my mates were fearful that i would be a 'scud'. Never have I been so confident or optimistic going into a 'Big One' game, and this worried me, as cockiness can often be your downfall, but this time it proved to be well-placed as we tore our nearest rivals apart.

Finally I saw what all the fuss was about. Our first half performance was simply top-class. We came out all guns blazing, forced a save out of their keeper within 2 minutes, a couple of corners, and opened the scoring on 4 minutes from Winkie Murphy (who was immense yesterday, one losing one header all day and out-muscling the awful reject Morgan) after a great cross from a short corner (incidentally, our HUNDREDTH goal of the season, a European record, and the 1000th under the stewardship of FDJ). After that, we just took them apart with simple pass and move, Oran Kearney almost chipped Morris after running 40 yards, and Ferguson incredibly missed an open goal from the rebound, then he went close with another header. But we weren't to be denied. 2 rapid-fire goals just after the half-hour, the first turned in by Ferguson after great work and a super left-footed (!) cross from Michael Gault, then a header from Pistol Pete after an overhead knock-on from Ferguson again. Thompson tortured the Glens defence with his pace and sharpness. The Glens had no answer, their only chance falling to Sissy Morgan after our injured keeper couldn't kick the ball, but Sissy hit it straight it at the shaken Mannus.

3-0 at half time, game over, and the gates at the home end had to be opened to let all the Glenmen OUT! A surprising number did stay till the bitter end, to be fair. Cue songs of 'Ea-sy!' complete with wrestling/ Soccer AM style clapping, and many choruses of 'Jingle Bells' from the gloating Bluemen, waving in delight to all the planes passing overhead upon take-off from the nearby City Airport.

5 minutes into the second half, we scored the goal of the game, and a goal that, had it been scored by Shearer or Henry in the Premiership, would have been played over and over on TV. Good football in midfield releases Kearney down the left. He seems to have hit his cross too far, evading the crowd of players standing in anticipation around the penalty spot. From nowhere, Spike Ferguson appears round the back, shapes perfectly and cracks it on the volley back into the far corner of the net. Totally unstoppable, and the cue for scenes of disbelief and delight among the Bluemen. Plenty of licks of 'Cheer Up Roy Coyle', 'We Love You Linfield' and continual chants of 'Ea-sy! ea-sy!' ensue.

And then, in my opinion, we took our foot off the gas a bit, and i'm a bit gutted by that. We even missed ANOTHER penalty (our EIGHTH miss in 12 attempts), Fergie's penalty for his hat-trick being saved by Morris. Fegir then put a couple of headers wide that he would normally have buried. We seemed to stop competing for every ball, the Glens had more space, and scored a consolation on 86 minutes, cheered ironically by Bluemen and Glenmen who decided they'd chant 'easy' :) I was so pissed off with this, for the simple reason that I have never seen Linfield beat Glentoran by 4 clear goals, and this is as good a chance as we're likely to get. But still, spending the night in an East Belfast pub among miserable Glenmen cheered me no end :)

MOTM: Probably Fergie, though Winkie in defence was immense, Gaulty was everywhere, and Jim Ervin at right-back was brilliant in defence and attack, and the lifelong Bluemen certainly lapped up the celebrations afterwards!

Never have I seen us so comprehensively dominate them. That's 3 spankings in a row we've given them now since the horror of that 2-3 title loss game last season: 4-2 in the Setanta, 3-0 in the CIS final, and now 4-1 in the league. Happy days.

I can't believe Roy Coyle played 4-3-3, we have 4 big midfielders who overpowered a 4-man Glentoran midfield in the CIS final, so Coyle takes one out? It made it even easier for us.

The win puts us 10 points clear, and it'll take a miracle for us to lose the league now. I truly believe we have an historic opportunity to do a clean sweep this season, given the poor quality of the league and the ineptitude of our biggest rivals. Who knows, with a bit of luck.

And the Boxing Day unbeaten run continues, 17 years and counting...

Setanta All-Ireland Cup 2006

Did I tell you we are reigning Champions of Ireland?

Group A

Linfield (holders)
Shelbourne
Glentoran
Derry City

I'm none too happy with this draw. It's probably the toughest draw we could have got (despite the fact that Cork City won the Eircom League). Setanta will be delighted with it, as it's the one that guarantees the highest ratings. Originally I thought that the old 'heated balls' would come into play to keep Linfield and Derry City apart after the events of February [link to jh], but as it turns out, my faith in the randomness of draws has either been restored, or this group was put together deliberately. It's a cracking draw football-wise and Setanta will no doubt be delighted with it, but we will have to do very well to progress from the group. Ah well as the old saying goes, if you want to win something you have to beat the best. But I remain disappointed. Why?

1. Shelbourne: they may have had a disappointing sesaon, triggered off in no small part by our convincing defeat of them back in May, but the had a strong last third of the season and Pat Fenlon will no doubt have them back stronger than ever again next season. Let's not forget Shels are full-time and took the Glens apart (2-1 and 4-1) in July in the Champions League qualifiers.

2. Glentoran: Our 3-0 win over them at the weekend would make you think I'd be delighted to play them. But no. This will now mean we will play Glentoran at least 6 times this season (2 league, 1 CIS cup, 1 CA Shield, 2 Setanta) with probably a seventh in the Irish Cup. Familiarity not only breeds contempt, but it breeds a certain boredom and takes the crunch out of encounters. Considering we played them 7 times last season too, a little break would have been welcome.

3. Derry City: I am still amazed we were drawn together. I thought it was a cert we would be kept apart, after what happened to our supporters coming out of the Brandywell after the friendly there back in February. Put simply, security arrangements INVOLVING THE PSNI are going to have to be put in place very soon, or a) the games will be for home supporters only, or b) Linfield refuse to fulifll the fixture if the safety of their supporters cannot be guaranteed. We cannot run the risk of being sitting ducks for a mob of republican hood scumbags outside the ground again, policed by no-one except ex-Provos. I've heard it mentioned that there may be another way for Linfield fans to enter the ground. All I want is that the safety of visiting fans is secure.

This will really test the credentials of a future all-Ireland league. Derry City are seriously handicapped by the location of their ground, and the seemingly no-go area status for the police in that part of the Bogside. Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited by the games with Derry, it will be our first competitive fixtures in 34 years. Some are even speculating that these two were paired together on purpose to 'test the waters', so to speak. The problem is that there is going to be a media frenzy in the build-up to the game (it doesn't help that we play at the Brandywell in our penultimate group game, with no doubt a load at stake) which will no doubt attract hangers-on of all hues. Linfield now have a travelcard scheme in place for contentious away matches, and I have no doubt that genuine Derry fans will behave impeccably. But it's getting in and out that will be our problem and if that cannot be guaranteed or should the same scenes happen again, I fear for Irish League football. Fingers crossed...

Carlsberg don't do weeks...

For you 'farriners': What's Loughgall famous for?

To paraphrase the famous TV spot slightly. Linfield scraped a 2-1 win away to Loughgall last night, Thompson and that man Ferguson again being the heroes. To use a cheesy cliche, truly a sign of Champions, getting results even when you play badly :)

Bu the icing on the cake was Glentoran's 2-1 home defeat against Ballymena, just days after our duffing of them. So much for the 'big reaction'. So now we are 5 points clear at the top, and the Glens now have their 2 biggest games of the season lined up, Portadown away, a place they haven't won at for years, and Linfield at home on Boxing Day, a fixture they haven't come out on top in in 17 years! The results of these two matches will define the Irish League season.

The Glentoran fans are not a happy bunch, and it in part shows the fickleness of football fans. 8 months ago, when their Linfield reject M*rgan scored a last-gasp goal against us to more or less secure the title, they were in ecstasy. Now, 5 point behind us, some want Coyle out. Let's put things in perspective. Glentoran have lost 1 league match this season. In fact, they have only dropped 7 points in 12 games. Coyle is one of their most successful ever managers. They still have a chance to put things right. I would wager their points total is on a par with last season, it's just that Linfield have raised the bar this season.

On the other hand, by all accounts they are playing diabolically and grinding out results. This season, we are witnessing possibly one of the weakest Irish Leagues in history. Coyle has fallen out with some of his top players. He failed to strengthen sufficiently during the summer. The parallels with Linfield last season are startling. We lost a league game to Ballymena at home. We lost the CIS cup final to the Gurns. We were playing crap and still grounding out results. OUr manager's position was being questioned by fans. I look forward to them being as successful as us in the league last season ;)

The Glenmen shouldn't be surprised. I haven't witnessed them retain a league title in my lifetime. It is a Linfield speciality to piss on their parade after a league win and reimpose themselves yet again.

Roll on Boxing Day, I'll be there...

League Cup Winners 2005/06

League Cup Winners 2005/06




Hat-Trick Hero Spike (Thanks to South Stand Says Gallery again for the great pics)

And live TV humiliators of Glentoran once again. THREE - NIL! Finally the spanking I was yearning for. AND we missed a penalty (again!) and hit the bar! As Full-Time Supporter said in his text, EASY EASY!

MOTM was astonishingly Glenn Ferguson, with a magnificent hat-trick. I say astonishingly as his recent record against the Glens is less than impressive: 1 goal previously in 25 games! He was the subject of much debate on I.L.F. during the week, most of it negative. That should have silenced a few, but it is about time he did that, it almost makes up for previous failures.

I didn't find out the result till 9pm, Full-Time Supporter had deleted my number, which I was unaware of, I had been waiting for a text since full-time, and so I thought no news was bad news. I didn't want to contact him as I had friends staying and knew that if I found out for sure that we had lost to the Scumdogs from the East, that i'd be fu cked off all night, but eventually couldn't wait any more. Boy, was I a happy bunny. Those fu ckers luckily beat us in the final last year, and we have been long overdue a proper spanking of them. Now lads, a similar result in the Boxing Day fixture (we're unbeaten in Boxing Day matches in 17 years) would make my Christmas.

The Linfield bandwagon goes rolling on...

TeBe won 2-1 in the Berlin Cup to march on. Report as always from Doughnut Boy here.

And Gillingham won THREE - NIL too! "Ronnie Jepson, he's keeping us up!"

What a weekend! I love this game sometimes.

Vive le Maccers

Player of the Month (Thanks to South Stand Says (Thompo?) for the pic)

So Maccers has finally got the recognition he deserves, being voted Harp Football Writers Player of the Month for November. Well done big man. I always knew Maccers would come good. Had an argument about him with a mate in Belfast last Christmas who said that if Maccers was rejected by Portadown, then he wasn't good enough for us. I reckoned it was due to fitness and injury problems, and thought he would shine. Plus, Ronnie has been known to make big mistakes. This is one of them.

I wrote it before on my other blog, but it's worth mentioning again.

"This guy is my favourite player. He may be overweight, a bit slow and he struggles to last 60 minutes of a match (bit like me, some people might say, and they'd be right, maybe that's why I like him :) ). But he's currently the only midfielder at the club who can put the foot on the ball, look at what options are available and pick a Blue shirt out with a pass. He has a footballer's brain, an absolute boon when those those around him are powerhouse headless chickens. Our team is much more balanced when he's on the pitch. Plus he gets stuck in too. Vive le Maccers, as our French chooms don't say.

Best moment: some might choose any of the 3 goals he scored vs. the Gurns last season, especially the 20-yard cracker at the Oval on THAT day, but my favourite is a goal he scored up at Coleraine last season. He played a lovely one-two with Spike, a little feint took him round the keeper before he slotted it in from a tight angle, right in front of us. Lovely.

Worst moment: getting sent off vs. the Gurns in an Irish Cup game after headbutting an (admittedly hateful) opponent THREE minutes into the game. Many think esteemed leader DJ wound him up too much in the dressing room before the game. It dropped us right in the shit, but he was close to tears upon leaving the pitch."

Blue is the Colour

The White Vieira

The mighty Linfield go marching on. We won 6-0 on Friday night away to Distillery, and even missed a penalty, the bazillionth in a row since the end of the season (our penalty record must be one of the worst in the world this season, I kid you not). Michael Gault (!),aka 'The White Vieira', not known for his goalscoring prowess and someone who has been a bit too keen on the WKDs this season, scored a hat-trick. Apparently we are playing some delightful stuff. But this result shows once again just how poor the league has become this season. Apparently Glentoran are playing abysmally but are still unbeaten domestically (as are we) and are only 2 points behind us in the league.
Anyway, something's got to give on Saturday, in the final of the CIS League Cup, live on BBC1 NI. The season really starts here. It is about time we gave the Glens another beating, but to use a old cheesy cliche, 'current form goes out the window in Blues-Glens matches'. I have a bad feeling, I hope this is a good omen, we played this lot last season in the final too and that time, i felt confident despite our injuries, and we lost. Time to establish supremacy over Satan's Disciples from the East.

Typical Glentoran b*llshit in the lead-up to the final. Here's their boss and his thoughts on the final, bear in mind that Glentoran are only 2 points behind us in the league:

Glentoran boss Roy Coyle admits that Linfield will be huge favourites going into Satuday's CIS Insurance League Cup final at Windsor Park.
"From a bookmaker's point of view, the Blues will be clear favourites to win the cup," Coyle told the News Letter.

"Indeed they will be huge favourites considering the number of goals they are scoring and the fact that they will have home advantage.

"But I have a lot of faith in my guys. Don't forget we are also unbeaten."

Coyle said that people imagined that there must be a crisis at the Oval this season the way things have been going.

"Far from it," said Coyle. "We are nicely placed, two points off the pace in the Championship.

Penis. Must have been on the vodka again.

As for TeBe, 3 wins in a row now after an impressive 4-1 win over a fading Yesilyurt, with Micha Fuss Fuss Fuss back to the form of old, scoring all four goals. I am now confident of survival going into the second half of the season. Our trainer question has yet to be decided, but surely Raicko, if he wishes to continue, will be given the job on a permanent basis given the upturn in fortunes since his arrival. Maybe get someone with more experience in as his assistant during the winter break and get the Maschkes the hell out.

And the Gills had a good weekend too. They didn't have a match, so they didn't lose, ergo it was a good weekend :)

Armchair Supporter

An occasional column dedicated to the matches I watch on TV


Clumsy Carew

I watched Olympique Lyon defeat Paris Saint Germain 2-0 early on Staurday evening. Lyon were in control more or less from start to finish, Fred scoring after 5 minutes and Carew scoring just before the end. It wasn't a great match, and to be honest not many Lyon matches are, but I tell you what, they are a great side who have a good chance of going all the way in the Champions League this season. They work so hard for each other, their pressing game when they are not in possession of the ball is incredible, they are so solid, with possibly the best goalkeeper in Europe (Coupet) at the moment, and they have players capable of creating something out of nothing. Step forward Juninho, Tiago and... Carew. Carew is such a clumsy player at times, witness his almost falling over the ball on Staurday, but he has scored in almost every match, witness his recovery from the near-stumble and his unstoppable shot seconds later.

PSG were toothless, Tobias' favourite Rothen was ineffective, and one of my favourites (from Championship Manager!), Pauleta, didn't get a sniff.

Lyon are 11 points clear and as dominant here as Chelsea are in England. Boring!