Elgin City v Bray Wanderers

[BACKOFTHENET]

Well done to Elgin City. The Irish clubs are a good standard. But Aberdeen lost to Queen's Park in the League cup a few years ago on penalties, so these things happen. 

[HibeeJibee]

To date the Irish clubs have been beaten at home by Livingston (twice); beaten by Queen of the South aet; beaten by Elgin City of SPFL2; beaten by Falkirk; scraped by Motherwell's "B" team with an 84th-minute equaliser and 92-minute winner; and only beaten Spartans of LL 2-1.

Doesn't sound that "good standard", quite frankly. They've lost 5, struggled past a youth team, and huffed-n-puffed past someone from Scotland's tier 5.

[Big Berk]

On 03/09/2017 at 11:49, Snakebite said:

Alright mate, you're boring as f**k, we get it.

It but of distortion going on there. Crusaders lost late on to full-time Livingston in 1st game and put out a mostly 2nd string for the replay. A team losing in extra time at Palmerston is nothing to be ashamed of, neither is losing a tight game against Falkirk. Bray had 65% of possession against Elgin, and Linfield likewise dominated the match against Spartans, without huffing and puffing. Both St Mirren and Morton found Spartans a tougher nut than Linfield did.

Unlike here Football is not the main sport in Ireland where Hurling, Gaelic Football and Rugby all generally attract bigger crowds. That taken along with their part time status and the lower population compated to the mainland and the Irish teams are of a decent standard. Only recently Dundalk beat Bate Borisov 3-0 in the Champions league - which of our teams outside Celtic could manage that?

[Audaces Fortuna Juvat]

Can see both sides of this one.

We're not as good as we would like to think we are, but we are better than a lot on here think.

Linfield certainly did not huff and puff, but we really should have wrapped it up, given our domination. That said, Spartans could have rocked us with a late equaliser. Crusaders gave up last year and fielded kids in the replay. Bray are a shadow of the team that they were two months ago while Sligo have been fighting relegation the last few seasons and could well be in trouble this year again.

I suspect the Arabs will pump us in the next round as we will field a fringe team. Linfield fans are mixed on this one as, like the manager, the league is the priority, but if we are in it then I believe we should take it seriously. I suspect Crusaders will act similarly and might go out, although I hope not.