ALL HUFF BUT NO PUFF

 

For the first time in ages I got to see us play on Tolka Park = 100% correctly, tickets for this fixture mostly just go to Members,
Thanks to the person (you know who you are) who could not go, as they were in work and gave me their ticket.
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“Take a stroll down the Richmond Road,
it wasn’t just the weather that left you cold,
Same oul shite, different night,
When will the board, this management team fold?”
 
 Another agonising week, another post match blog charting another hapless performance on the pitch.
Our performances on the pitch are becoming as predictable as a wedding band setlist, all we are left wondering is if “You’re the one that I want” will be played before or after “Sweet Caroline”

We had so much possession inside the Shelbourne half, yet despite being in the vicinity of the home sides box, more times than I Conor has roared “Our ball OUR BALL YA STUPID TICK!”,
We had ZERO corners and only one single semi shot on target over the while 90 minutes.
If the stats app on my phone is correct, we only managed to get the ball within their 8 yard line just 3 times.
Our contingent in Tolka Park were like the congregation at a Mormon funeral – vut could you blame them for feeling this way?

It'd like that famous scene in “Keeping Up Appearances” where Hyacinth has Richard driving around the Roundabout 8 times;
Yes we can get the ball up outside the opposition box, but once we get there, we haven’t a clue what to do next.
Seriously – What ARE the lads being taught in training?

After 9 games, we have a paltry 9 points out of a possible 27.
What makes this figure even more stark, is thinking back to the games we DID win.
We beat the Hoops in the Aviva, less than 72 hours after they have played in Norway,
And Rovers played like a Sunday League team who had rocked up to Bushy Park, straight from the hotel, where they stayed up at a teammates wedding until 4am.
We played a Waterford team who had more gaps in their defence than the Birs Flanagan had between his teeth.
And our final win, so far, came against a Sligo team that were so poor on the night, Newtown Rangers U-16’s would probably have beaten them.

The Bohs Board are like a gardener who has an Apple tree that’s full of rotten apples.
He knows it is beyond repair and will continue to damage the rest of the garden as well;  But does nothing about it.

We have players of undoubtable talent, but they are being stifled by clearly ineffectual management and are running around the pitch like clueless keystone cops.
It's like having a very high end laptop, but all the Operating System allows you to do is play Solitaire.

When quality new signings were announced in Pre-Season, I certainly thought we’d be doing a lot better than languishing on just 9 points after 9 games.
The management setup we have is like a car that will only go as fast as 30kph, with a Formula 1 engine wasting away under the bonnet.
They are driving this team the wrong way down the Motorway and we badly need to stick a new driving in front, to turn our season around,

Up next are a Cork City side who have 4 draws so far, but 4 losses, and only one win sees them in 9^th place in the table.
I would not rule out half the Jodi falling asleep on 70 minutes as both sides ramble along to an excruciatingly boring 0-0 draw.

ANYTHING WE CAN DO, SLIGO CAN DO WORSE…

 

At last! I get to write a blog following an actual win for my beloved Bohs.
Who would have thought that 8 games in we would be in a potential relegation 6 points?
Give the squad we have, it is simply inexcusable that we find ourselves in this position.
It is very welcome that we won on Friday and have moved up the table, but let’s be abundantly clear;  It was down to individual brilliance in front of the opposition box and not any tactical nous, that saw he run out 4-2 winners after 90 minutes,

We were understandably in ‘pinch me dreamland’ after going 2-0 up so early in the game, but it was alarming to see how easily we let Sligo get right back into the game.
You oft hear of trams falling asleep, we definitely went into a deep snooze for the rest of the first half.

Up until the point we scored the 3^rd goal, it looked very much like it was going end in a stalemate, like cars meeting each other on a small country road, and neither driver seeking to a way to get past the other.

Much like Liverpool FC have done a few times in the recent past, individual brilliance meant that we managed to goals practically out of nowhere.
Once again the lads traipsed round the pitch like headless donkeys, giving it a lot of huff and puff, but it was akin to an army laying siege to a goal, but the cannonballs keep landing in the moat to the left and right of it’s walls.

4 days from now we take short 2.6km walk to Richmond Road, to take on Shelbourne at Tolka Park.
I was chatting to a work colleague who is a Pat’s fan and he was saying the Reds were very ordinary in Richmond Park last Friday and that Pat’s had plenty of chances to win the match, but frustratingly for him, they didn’t convert.
The Champions are another side who have a number of players with the ability to win a match on their own.
They are also a side who have a fairly mean defence, so it is going to be quite the task for the away side to come away with any sort of a result come 21.45.

We seem to very much be  in “A stopped clock is always right twice” phase, and despite the win don’t see us in anyway properly getting out of our rut anytime soon,.
It's like the person who gets 2 Question right in the cash builder on The Chase, but they were two complete and utter guesses.

So the largely ineffectual managerial setup just about lives to fight another day, but how much more must this farce go on, before common sense prevails?

Honestly I would love to eat my hat (shaped cone full of Ice Cream) in a few weeks as de Boez defied most peoples predictions and racked up a number of back-to-back wins on the trot;
But all things weighed up, Friday could yet be another very false dawn…

SINKING FASTER THAN THE SPANISH ARMADA OFF THE SLIGO COAST

 

“This is the song that Doesn’t end, it just goes on and on my friend…”
This song that first aired on the kids programme “Lambchop”  encapsulates how us Bohs fans are feeling right now,

When was the last time a team had 72% possession and 21 shots at goal, compared to just 6 for the opposition and LOST a game 2-0?
Maybe the time Ireland beat The Netherlands on the way to World Cup 2002 had a similar outcome, but that’s it.

While it is undeniable that things went stale during the end of Keith Long’s reign at Bohs,I remember us once losing  1-0 at Half Time to Finn Harps in Dalyer, about half way into his reign.
Subs were made at Half Time, tactics were changed and we ran out 3-1 winners at the final whistle.

At the moment the team is akin to a dog that keeps chasing it’s tail – Do the players even have something which even remotely resembles a “Plan A”?
So many times the players just played a nothing hit it and hope ball into the box; hoping the ball would by itself land in the back of the net, as  time after time it ping ponged  between players in the box.


If we were a team with just a group of young inexperienced players, who were merely turning up in return for bus far and a ham and cheese sandwich, you could sort of excuse things,

But with the squad we have, it is obvious that they are not being given the on field instructions that could fully unleash their collective talents and see us win games we previously would have blindfolded.
It's like a General into war using the exact same tactics as were used in the previous battle he oversaw, where his aemy was roundly defeated.

I’m sorry to say it, but those of ye who still have any notion that this managerial team will turn things round – there is more chance of Russia pulling it’s troops out of Ukraine tomorrow.

No doubt there will be people reading this and exclaiming to themselves “Yeah sack the manager, but who else is there who we could get that would improve things?”
The situation is akin to that of the ice caps in the Arctic;
We don’t know for sure if taking serious climate change measures will fully reverse the damage we have done to the earth, but it will definitely improve things for sure.

After 7 games, we are just 2 points away from the relegation zone.
A squad with the individual talents of the likes of Mousset, Tierney, Devoy et all IS 2 POINTS AWAY FROM THE RELEGATION ZONE!!!

I have said it to others that a quick and ready to move replacement I would like to see become our new manager is Liam Buckley.tc would be required.
No compensation would be needed.
To me he is a manager who know what it takes to grind out a win, to change tactics depending on the opposition if required.

Some have nearly choked on their curry chips at my suggestion; but regardless of who it is, we need to stop the rot right now, by removing the completely dead wood of Reynolds and his backroom team.

I fear the Bohs ship might already be doomed to sinking into the First Division, by the time the board take the correct course of action.

“This is the song that doesn’t end, it just goes on and on my friend…