irishblue

I wouldn't be all that surprised by them going out of the Champions League this early to be fair. McCoist is only in charge a couple of months and hasn't had the most successful of pre-seasons either judging by most of the scores. It could be a tough enough year for him but really it's too early to tell. So far they've won three, drew two and lost four under him, this includes friendlies, the league and Champions League. Not that any of this matters to the match on Saturday. Especially hope to see Chelsea win after losing to Rangers in 2007. Considering it's a friendly though I wouldn't rule out a draw.

Our group is actually tough enough I reckon. Like OReillyD36 said, Germany will probably win it, which I'd be fairly happy about anyway since Germany are my second favourite country. Other than that, it will Austria and Sweden will cause us the problems mainly. I don't expect that much from Kazakhstan and the Faroe Islands. I can't see really Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales qualifying unfortunately, but England can definitely win Group H. Montenegro, Poland and Ukraine are good and may even cause problems but I still think England could do it.

Hard luck on the Seniors but fair play to the Minors! I wasn't there for the minor game, but when I arrived midway through the second half, the Roscommon Seniors looked close enough and I reckoned they could nearly take it being so close, but everything just seemed to go wrong afterwards. I was in the Cusack myself, surrounded by Kildare supporters. Absolutely awful feeling coming out after that especially after extra time. I suppose it just goes to show though we're still not ready to be All Ireland contenders or anything, which in all fairness was never really the case anyway in my opinion. Fair enough, a few decisions did go against us but there's not much else that can be said about that, we've had a few go our way throughout this championship. Donegal's game plan worked out well after all. Like always when we lose, my sympathy lies with the players. They're probably part of one of the most hard working teams in the country and then it's gone like that. McGeeney really does put them through their paces, but saying that, I hope he doesn't go either because that's the last thing Kildare need. You've got people saying he has to go, he's too strict about fitness and there's not enough emphasis on the football, etc. but at the end of the day, this is the best Kildare have been doing since Mick O'Dwyer. I remember being told by someone before McGeeney came, that Kildare needed a manager from outside the county itself. How right they turned out to be. We may have only won the O'Byrne Cup over four years, but it's still only his first managerial job and the fact he brought them from losing to Wicklow to contesting a quarter final within two months of the job tells it's own story as far as I'm concerned. Maybe we haven't been beating the Corks, Tyrones, Dublins and Kerrys, but a couple of years ago Kildare under other managers might not have been beating Laois, Louth or Meath! I could be wrong about all this but I still think he's brought us further than most could have. As for the other matches this weekend, there's nothing I'm surprised about between Kerry and Limerick, completely expected that. Some goal from Darran O'Sullivan though, just brilliant. Delighted that Mayo beat Cork, it was more or less unexpected but it shows well for Mayo, going from a draw with London to beating last year's champions.

I'd be up for doing that.

It ended up 5-0 to Spain. I'm not too surprised to be honest but it still would've been nice to see them get to the final. Fair play to them even still though, Ireland don't usually get that far in a football tournament at any level, even if there had been only eight teams in this one. Hopefully the Czech Republic win the final, they have Kalas and I don't usually go for Spain in any game anyway. That was a great goal though.

Tyrone and Roscommon are two teams I actually like so I don't really mind who wins. I'd rather see Roscommon win it for obvious reasons, but I'm sorry to say I can't see it happen that easily. You do have some great young players but I reckon beating a team like Tyrone is a step too far as they were one of the most impressive teams, after Kerry, of the past decade. Either way, whoever wins, beat Dublin! I wouldn't mind seeing Mayo win either purely because I can't stand Cork, but it's another one I can't see happen. I just hope you're right about our match. :unsure: I wasn't impressed with Donegal that day either and you're right, that was a poor Ulster final, but Donegal are meant to grind out wins that way from what I've heard about them. I don't really know what to expect of them though, I'm not familiar enough with them to be able to say if we can beat them or not. Since they are defensive though, it's down to how well we can counter that I guess. Our defence should have just about enough to stop a Donegal counter attack, as it's been in brilliant form this year, particularly Mick Foley at full back. Twice now I've read on other forums that Kildare's league match earlier in the year against Donegal was one of the worse games of football. Funnily enough it was Foley who saved Kildare that time, with a goal at the end to seal a draw at 1-5 to 0-8. Hopefully we'll go through, and who knows, if we do, we might even end up playing Roscommon.:eyebrows:

The Republic of Ireland are up against Spain in the other semi-final of the U19 European Championship and it's about five minutes in at the moment. Come on you boys in green!

Yeah I will be hopefully, you going up? How do you think you'll go against Tyrone? Donegal could prove to be a bit of trouble for Kildare and the Sunday Game analysts have written us off completely. A lot of people in Kildare are annoyed at what Joe Brolly said about James Kavanagh and how he was against Down last year. I think it's safe to say that the Kildare hype in the media is finally gone! I'm just going to hope for a shock.

Derby County - Away

Hull City - Away

Congratulations to BluesChick, We Hate Scouse and of course LDN Blue and Madmax too!

No hurling matches at all this weekend, so here are the results and a bit of analysis from the football matches. Gaelic Football Qualifiers Limerick 0-14 Waterford 0-9 Down 3-13 Antrim 0-10 Meath 0-14 Kildare 2-11 Armagh 2-9 Wicklow 0-10 Connacht - Final Mayo 0-13 Roscommon 0-11 Ulster - Final Donegal 1-11 Derry 0-8 Only one team won at their home ground this weekend, and that was Limerick and I'm not surprised by the scoreline either. From what I heard, Antrim had a few good moments against Down, but they didn't last long and the Mournemen came away with a very convincing victory. Armagh and Wicklow was one of the more significant matches of the qualifiers. Wicklow had done well to draw with Antrim away and there was of course the Micko factor. If Wicklow lost, many suspected that this would be the end of an era with what was one of the greatest if not the greatest managers the GAA has ever seen, Mick O'Dwyer, expected to retire at 75 years of age. Unfortunately, Wicklow were conquered by Armagh and I think it was really from the beginning, but it was a surprise to hear that while Micko was finished with Wicklow, he could still go on to manage someone else. You could say I'm being biased here, but arguably the most exciting match of the qualifiers, if not of all matches this weekend, was between Meath and Kildare in Navan. This was always going to be a tense encounter and it lived up to expectations. If they weren't ahead, Meath were never far behind Kildare in terms of scores until the very end. There had been a two point gap at half time in Kildare's advantage, but in the second half Meath pulled out the stops and had me very worried about them getting ahead up until about 10 minutes from time. Emmet Bolton scoring that goal really sealed it for Kildare and they went even further from there. A half back scoring a goal and two points is pretty impressive at that. In fact, I'm sure I heard that our defence scored more than the forwards and it was even described as "total football" on the Sunday Game! Derry are up next for the Lilywhites. I can't say I was as impressed with either of the provincial finals though. From what I can understand having only seen most of the second half, Roscommon had the better of the first and for a good bit of the second half too but Mayo caught up and eventually got the better of them, winning their fourth Connacht title of the last decade. The game between Donegal and Derry took a while to get going and even then it wasn't the best of games. Donegal pretty much always had the advantage over Derry, but I'm surprised at Derry only scoring eight points to be honest. I know they can be more defensive but it's not a great sign for them. People are saying it'll be hard for Derry to recover from the loss in time for the match against Kildare, but I reckon they could put it up to us if they tried, but maybe that's just me being pessimistic from a Kildare point of view. I've went into a bit too much detail again, and with regard to the Roscommon-Mayo game maybe Shane can correct me, but that's my summary of all this weekend's games. On that note, hard luck because I would rather have seen Roscommon win.

I'm going to have to be even more careful when I post now.

I was able to give the away one you suggested a try after all and it's in my post now if you want to have a look.

I personally wouldn't be all that keen on it, but I gave what you said a try on the shirt as the home, away and third shirts and this is the result. The quality of these aren't great so sorry about that.

Bolton Wanderers - Away Manchester United - Away

Going a bit off topic here, but seriously? It's mine too! Happy Birthday Shane! To go back on topic, pretty tired even though I didn't do all that much today.

Porto - Home (centre) and Away (centre-right) Partick Thistle - Home Swansea City - Away Sparta Prague - Home

I'd go with Torres as well but we can only wait and see really, at least until the end of the pre-season. Granted he could be a bit of a risk, but Drogba is 33 and as Terminator X has more-or-less just said, if Drogba is given a lesser role, his reaction might have a detrimental effect on the rest of the team. It's a new start under Villas-Boas, so hopefully Torres can shine this time around, and with Drogba it's not as likely he can do that. Only time will tell though and the pre-season will hopefully give us some idea of how things could work out, but for the time being I'm sticking with Torres.

Results from the weekend just gone by. Gaelic Football Qualifiers Limerick 3-13 Offaly 0-15 Down 1-16 Leitrim 1-8 Antrim 1-13 Carlow 2-9 Waterford 1-17 London 0-13 Kildare 3-16 Laois 0-10 Tyrone 1-17 Longford 0-15 Armagh 0-19 Wicklow 2-13 Meath 0-11 Galway 0-10 Leinster - Final Dublin 2-12 Wexford 1-12 Hurling Qualifiers Galway 2-23 Cork 1-14 Limerick 3-22 Antrim 0-12 Munster - Final Tipperary 7-19 Waterford 0-19 Once again a weekend pretty much dominated by qualifiers, if only for the finals on Sunday. London's championship journey has came to an end after all, and many thought they could beat Waterford. On the plus side, I heard that it got a mention on Sky Sports News on Saturday or Sunday morning, anyone see it? Wicklow are still going well having drawn with Armagh away, I wouldn't mind seeing them win the replay either. As for Kildare, its just great beating Laois... and by such a scoreline. Tomás O'Connor was brilliant in the forwards and probably could have even got man of the match but Hugh Lynch also had a great performance. As for the Leinster final, I'm not surprised by Dublin winning it but the match certainly wasn't anything special. Pretty poor first half, Dublin going four or five points ahead at some stages and as I expected dominated it really. Second half was much better though and Wexford were really unlucky in a way. Much better side in my opinion, came out all guns blazing and really it only came down to an own goal. Then again, Dublin did have one disallowed. I didn't fully watch any of the hurling matches so I can't comment properly on them, but Tipperary simply destroyed Waterford. Lar Corbett scoring four of those seven goals, and four points as well as far as I know.

Republic of Ireland - Home Leeds United - Home Reading - Home

Getafe - Home, Away, Third and Goalkeeper (right to left) Brighton and Hove Albion - Away

Lost my final game to Clevemayer's UpTheChels 3-1, but I'd have been staying up anyway no matter what. Terminator X's X-Rated has won the TC Premier League by 3 points. They had it won on goal difference even before playing Steves XI, but X-Rated won 4-0 anyway so well done TX! New arrivals to the TC Premier League are bir_h's Super Villains and BlueLion's Fake Madrid, who take the places of the relegated Real Elite and Mighty Mojos. Final Standings of this season's TC Premier League:

Deleting your notifications doesn't delete your private messages from your inbox completely as far as I know. Try this link instead and delete them there. http://forum.talkchelsea.net/index.php?app=members&module=messaging

Not too many results this weekend, so here goes. Gaelic Football Kerry 1-15 Cork 1-12 Hurling Qualifiers Limerick 1-22 Wexford 2-13 Galway 4-25 Clare 0-20 Leinster Kilkenny 4-17 Dublin 1-15 Ulster Antrim 2-20 Armagh 2-12 I didn't watch any of the hurling matches so I can't really comment other than saying that I didn't think Kilkenny would let the Leinster final slip, especially after losing the league final. Not too surprised with any of the other results really either. From what I heard Kerry had a brilliant first half and were running rings around Cork, yet in the second half it took them 25 minutes to score! I'm still glad Kerry won it though.:censored: I wouldn't have mentioned this bit otherwise but because its somewhat Chelsea related I might as well. Celebrity Bainisteoir, a show in which Irish celebrities who have no or very little knowledge of Gaelic football, take on the management of a club, is back again this year after three series. Today, Laois club Killeshin announced theirs and I couldn't believe it when I heard it - it's Tony Cascarino.