Sunk by Cork, now putting faith in Gypsies

El Punter is in the poor house after Georgie-boy's Riverdance antics at Dalymount saw him dismissed and take a chunk out of Cork's chances of winning.

O'Callaghan misses tonight's outing against the Students, and while it's a fairly safe maxim to never trust a student with your money, it must be said that UCD are overpriced. Cork may struggle without their master craftsmen carving the openings for Fenn and O'Flynn to capitalize on. They may indeed find a different route to goal but at 2/5 all the value is in opposing Cork.

Cork 2/5
Draw 5/2
UCD 15/2


Dublin City host Longford Town at Dalymount tonight in a new bid to set a lowest attendance record in the Eircom League. Alas the staunch solitary soul of El Punter will be on hand at the home of Irish football while others drool over Argentina and Germany in the World Cup. I may in fact be in the bar watching Riquelme et al, but I shall have the moral high ground as I will omit this detail when I tell all and sundry how I went to an eircom League game while a World Cup quarter final was being played.

It's unlikely to be a high scoring affair, particularly if the Viking's main source of goals David Freeman misses out, but it will be interesting to see if Alan Matthews has managed to force feed some consistency in to his charges as they bid for their first back to back league wins since Rummenigge and Briegel led the Deustch front line.

5/4 Dublin City
2/1 Draw
2/1 Longford Town




Pats and Sligo will be an intriguing clash. Sligo have sprung from the June break with wins over Derry and Bohs while Pats took the tonking of the season at Tolka and scratched out a draw with UCD. Pats worked very hard in the opening third of the season to take fifth spot and have plenty of reinforcements coming back to fitness to fend off the Westerners challenge for it. A big game, so I'm going for fence splinters up the jacksie and picking the draw.

10/11 Pats
9/4 Draw
5/2 Sligo




If there's any hope of a Bohs revival, it's got to involve a win tonight over Waterford. The draw with Cork will provide some inspiration and belief for the formless Gypsies. A three goal win will be just the tonic for Farrelly to loosen the noose and rally his troops for a challenge on a top half spot while Waterford must wait a little longer for their first league win. The money is down on Bohs!

Yes I'm well aware backing odds-on on away teams is the uberbahn to the poorhouse - but hey I live on the edge.

11/4 Waterford
9/4 Draw
5/6 Bohs



Drogheda badly need a win to get their ship back on the road (I once heard a Wimbledon player - Robbie Earle I think - use this beautiful mix of metaphor and so decided to incorporate it here for your amusement). Doolo's boys got out of jail against Dublin City to salvage at least one point from two games. For all the talk about the Drogs scoring problems, they managed to put four past Waterford. The Bray defence is similarly porous to the Munster side's and the Boynesider's are taken to find their groove tonight with an assured display.

3/1 Bray
9/4 Draw
8/11 Drogheda

Row Row Row in to Cork

There's a cracking double header in the capital tonight which leaves me fuming at inability to master bi-location (or the fixture committee's inability to have the big games on different days!).

At Dalymount, Bohs may as well be playing lead guitar with Mark Knopfler at the moment such is their standing (that's Dire Straits kids - ask your Dad). How far those heady double days must seem now as Sligo Rovers run rings around them. There's many schools of thought as to how the Gypsies have gone from worse to cat, mine is that they've never recovered from their neighbours raid on a sizeable chunk of the first team in Ryan, Hawkins and Crowe.

The champions visit tonight and morale could not be any more polarized in these camps. Having got one over on Drogheda at the weekend, and then seeing the Drogs drop points at home to Dublin City, the Rebelmen will fancy taking another three points tonight.

Admittedly, Cork haven't travelled particularly well thus far in the campaign - one win from six road attempts, against seven straight home wins. However, last year the away form was Cork's greatest asset with more points picked up away than at home. Cork to win, El Punter already has the money down.

Bohs 11/4
Draw 9/4
Cork 5/6



Just up the road from Dalymount, Shelbourne host Pats at Tolka Park. I think this is the game I'll take in. Shels burst of goals against Vetra will have done them a world of good - particularly Glen Crowe who has never found his true form at Tolka. With Gary O'Neill out, Crowe may get an extended run and a chance to find his scoring feet again. Pats pack a mean defence however, and it will be interesting to see if Shels have the guile to crack it. Joseph Ndo looked very sharp against Vetra (maybe it's hard not to against 8 men), hopefully Nutsy will give him a start and we can enjoy a good attacking spectacle.

I fancy Pats to return to Inchicore with a valuable point in a score draw.

Shels 5/6
Draw 9/4
Pats 11/4




Was it a Bray revival we witnessed in genesis at the weekend, or did they just find the one team in the league that was worse than them? Well, I don't think we'll be much wiser after tonight's game, as Longford too remain an enigma. I remain perplexed by Alan Matthews side - doubtless they will have taken a long look at themselves during the break. If Longford have any realistic aspirations of troubling the top six they must dispatch Bray tonight. I expect them to do so, but I couldn't back Longford at odds on if they were playing against a girls under 10 team.


Longford 8/11
Draw 9/4
Bray 10/3



Updated Race to the Top Half prices

Sligo 11/10
Bohs 9/4
Longford 7/2
UCD 6/1
Dublin City 10/1

Betting Preview - 26 June

A quick set of back to back games leaves little time for taking the WD-40 to teams showing rust on their return to work after the World Cup break.



The Drogs are one side that could do with a bit of regrouping; having lost their assistant manager during the break, they promptly came a cropper for a second time in this campaign when asked questions by a title rival. The Boynesider's inability to score against Shels and Cork in the league so far only underlines their vunerabilities as title challengers.

However Derry stuck three past the Vikings, and Drogheda ought to do likewise, but having only exceeded the one goal mark against Waterford you couldn't have much confidence in them.

Drogheda United 4/11
Draw 11/4
Dublin City 15/2



Sligo, fresh from beating Bohs and taking some valuable away points will have a spring in their step and plenty of confidence when Derry visit. Stephen Kenny's visiting team are in for a real battle here, but are unlikely to lose out in this battle of barber shop poles. Derry to take all three points.

Sligo Rovers 5/2
Draw 9/4
Derry City 10/11



Waterford are the whipping boys...any chance of passing that tag on to Bray was passed over when Wanderers - who had managed only 6 goals in 11 games - stuck three past them. Pete Mahon's plucky outfit ought to continue the misery here for the Blues.

U.C.D. 4/7
Draw 12/5
Waterford United 9/2

Sligo pull away in race for top six spot

With Bohs falling down the table quicker than a drunk ice-skater, the Bit o'Red now sit three points clear in the race to be in the top half of the table and are installed as 11/8 favourites to remain there when the whistle blows in November.

The Gypsies are out to 2/1 and with a visit from Cork coming on Tuesday night, they may well be a bigger price come Wednesday morning as the pressure gets ever more intense on Gaz Farrelly's shoulders.

As an aside - I was reading an article about Bohs sacking of Stephen Kenny and the general opposition to it at the time. To quote Cher: 'If I could turn back time...and you'd stay'. But to quote my mother: 'You've made your bed you have to lie in it'

Shit...could have used Paul Weller instead of my mother there!

Anyway.

Elsewhere UCD's point won in Inchicore cuts them in to 13/2 while the Vikings are out to 10/1 after getting tonked in the Brandywell.

To Finish Highest in the League:
Sligo 11/8
Bohemians 2/1
Longford 10/3
UCD 13/2
Dublin City 10/1


Meanwhile in the title race, Drogheda drift out to 10/3 from 5/2 while the champions are cut from 11/4 in to 2/1 as they sit a top the table again.

Shels 13/8
Cork City 2/1
Drogheda 10/3
Derry 7/2
St Pats 28/1
100/1 Bar

Race to the Top Half

With the top five spots in the eircom League Premier Division looking assured in terms of contenders though certainly not yet finishing order, El Punter's attention turns to an intriguing race to finish in the remaining top 6 spot. Technically the prices are 'Who will finish highest from Bohemians, Sligo Rovers, Dublin City, Longford Town and UCD'

Fallen giants Bohemians look best equipped in terms of personel to finish in the top half, but factors such as form, confidence and motivation leave big question marks over the Phibsboro club. However Gareth Farrely's men are only one point behind in this race and are certainly not to be discounted yet. Players such as Kelly, Ward and Arkins have yet to find their groove this season, but if they do, the goals will flow. Bohemians - Odds 7/4

Neck and neck above Bohs at this stage are the top flight's two newcomers. Sligo Rovers and Dublin City have proved beyond doubt that they will be no-one's whipping boys this year. Indeed, it's one of the stories of the year so far that the two promoted teams should find themselves in the dizzy heights of sixth and seventh place.

Rovers have one game less played than the Vikings and look a very assured side at home in particular. Their 3-1 win over Longford at The Showgrounds, came on the back of a 4-0 cup win, and a 0-0 with Drogheda. You could say the World Cup break has done Rovers no favours at all. It will be interesting to see what momentum they bring in to the second stanza of the season. Sligo Rovers - Odds 2/1

For all of Dermot Keely's squawking and complaining about refs, his players, other players and anything else he is asked about, the glass half empty philosophy has kept his Vikings ship well afloat so far. They are consistent in that they tend to lose the games you expect them to, and also get the results against the teams below. Such is the recipe for a respectable - though maybe not top six - finish. Dublin City - Odds 8/1

Pete Mahon's students won't be entirely happy with their position at the moment. Some might say anywhere above the bottom two is an achievement for UCD but that's not the attitude they bring to the league. There's arguably little or nothing between themselves and the promoted sides, so the mission is certainly to finish above them and challenge for the top six spot. UCD take a four game unbeaten run in to the league's resumption at the weekend with a tricky trip to Inchicore. UCD - Odds 8/1

Cup specialists Longford Town got off to a very disappointing start. Never the most goal crazy team in the league, it was still a shocking statistic to see that after seven league games the Flancare Park boys had scored only two goals. A pasting of a poor Bohs side was an indication that things may be starting to turn a little, but three successive league defeats including ones to Bray and Sligo have pissed all over that spark of optimism.

Almost inexplicably Alan Matthew's men knocked Cork out of the cup during this period. They look to have their work cut out to leave the bottom three at the moment - never mind troubling the top six. With the undoubted ability to beat any team on their day, questions must be asked about the character and motivations of this side. If they were a racehorse you'd say they were a monkey...if you know what I mean. Longford Town - Odds 11/4

Bray and Waterford, it's all gone very wrong, they never got out of the stalls. We won't waste space talking about their top six chances.

Prices are from Stan James
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Bohemians 7/4
Sligo Rovers 2/1
Longford Town 11/4
Dublin City 8/1
UCD 8/1

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