Darron Gibson’s Twitter machine timeline as clogged with old teammates hailing his super volley against arch rivals…could he be the best sale Fergie’s ever made?

As a result Man City and Man Utd are locked in battle at the top of the Premier League and bet365 are now 9/1 about the title being decided by goal difference and 6/4 that Roberto Mancini finishes 2011/12 empty handed.

Since the start of December Man City have kissed goodbye to the Champions League, FA Cup and Carling Cup – the pressure is now on in the Premier League title race after Tuesday night.

With ten minutes to go in last year’s All Ireland hurling final, Tipperary looked like they were on the brink of breaking the Kilkenny stranglehold on the Liam McCarthy cup. Ten minutes later, Kilkenny had struck for two goals and the Tipperary players lay heartbroken on the Croke Park grass, honourably beaten after coming very close to an historic win. At that stage, everyone presumed that one final push in 2010 might be enough to see them over the line and win their first All Ireland since 2001.

That may yet be turn out to be the case, but some ten months later it’s remarkable how one defeat in the Munster Championship has led to such an overhaul of the team most considered to be the number one contenders for the ultimate hurling accolade. Among the more eye catching decisions for Sunday are Shane McGrath’s move to centre forward, David Young moving to midfield after a man of the match performance at wing back in their previous match, and the absence of Seamus Callinan, who was one of the most exciting prospects in the game last year.

(more…)

It’s been fully ten years since Meath and Offaly met in a championship match, a gap that will be bridged at 2pm this Sunday. The last time these sides met, it was in Croke Park and an excellent Offaly performance unseated the All Ireland champions on a 0-13 to 0-9 scoreline. Both counties have fallen from grace considerably since that match but this remains a tie with plenty of historical resonance.

Viewers of the championship action on RTE last Sunday would have been somewhat underwhelmed by the fare on offer, but assuming referee Derek Fahy can resist the urge to spoil the game with constant whistling for “illegal” handpasses, this could very well be an extremely enjoyable game from a viewing perspective. Both sides bring a fine set of attackers into the fray, and if the two management teams can resist the urge to counteract this by packing the defence, we could be in for a lot of scores. Even if Niall McNamee fails to make the starting Offaly fifteen, as is possible, there are plenty of scores in players like Ken Casey, Niall Darby, John Reynolds and others, while the Meath attacking unit is packed with quality. The absence of quality attackers like Jamie Queeney, David Bray and Brian Sheridan would severely impact on the chances of most counties, but the Royal county are still set to start with six excellent forwards.

Despite all this, goals have been very hard to come by for this Meath team. In their last nine games, six league matches and three challenge fixtures, they’ve scored two goals. They’ve scored plenty of points in that time, but the absence of pace in their attack means that they haven’t managed to take defenders out of the game and get enough clear looks on goal. Looking at the match ups against Offaly this weekend, they may have a size advantage in a few positions so it’s likely to be a direct approach from the Meathmen, but one that could run aground closer to the danger area with Scott Brady minding the house for Offaly.

Offaly scored nine goals in their league campaign and they’ll know that hitting the net at least once will be crucial in Portlaoise – possibly even twice. That might be a bridge too far, but they can accumulate a decent tally. This column’s suspicion is that they’ll do enough to at least stay within the three point spread, despite the widely held view that this could be an uncompetitive tie, but the safer bet could be over 29.5 total points at 4/5. 3pts at these odds is the recommended stake.

Ladbrokes are also offering betting on which team will register the highest tally this weekend, and while Offaly are intriguing at 11/1 for the reasons mentioned above, the best bet could be Louth at 4/1. Louth and Longford are two teams that have always played basic, traditional man on man football and both teams have plenty of good forwards who can score. Equally, neither team is over-endowed with man marking defenders and this could turn into a shootout very easily. Longford at 8/1 are not a bad selection either, but Louth are still a better team and they must be fancying their chances, particularly with Brian Kavanagh out and Paul Barden also doubtful. A 1pt bet on Louth to be the top scoring team at 4/1 is well worth consideration here.

Last week, we advised a bet on over 1.5 goals in the meeting of Portlaoise and Clara, and we were on course for a payout with one goal scored by half way before the sadly necessary intervention of referee Joe Curley ensured that refunded stakes was the outcome.

That bet was advised last week on the basis that both of these teams are capable of scoring goals, and having been in attendance for the 35 minutes of football that was played, this bet should definitely be re-struck this week, as both sides demonstrated their ability to get in and create goal chances, even in atrocious conditions.

(more…)

As we look out our collective windows and wave at our neighbours rowing past, happily adapting to the nation’s new status as the next Atlantis, it may seem to many people as if it’s slightly pointless to get involved in betting on any of the weekend’s games. Such has been the level of rainfall that unless fixtures get moved to neutral venues on continental Europe, the strong likelihood is that most of the ties arranged for this weekend will fall by the wayside. Every one of the ties are taking place in either the west, south or midlands, with no action going ahead in the east or north-east, which has escaped the worst of the conditions.

(more…)

It’s not difficult to make a case for either Galway or Waterford this weekend. Galway have been very impressive so far this season, competing well against Kilkenny before securing solid and well deserved wins over Clare and Cork. They’ve clearly addressed a few key problem positions on the field, and Joe Canning is no longer their only outlet for scores.

Waterford on the other hand have been really struggling to ignite and if anything they have taken over from Galway and become hurling’s main one man show, with John Mullane making a legitimate case for a hurler of the year award amidst a team which has otherwise been lethargic and disappointing. Nonetheless it should not be forgotten that they have been trained all year to peak around now and they also secured a few huge wins last season when, it could be argued, their form was no better than it is at the moment. 9/4 looks to be a huge price about a team that has not lost to Galway in their last seven championship meetings, though it must be said that most of those games are a part of history rather than form. If Waterford do get their act together they could cause Galway a lot of problems, but unfortunately that looks like a big “if”.

(more…)

Last week, this column made reference to what we call “The Jersey Test”. The idea is very simple; when assessing teams, it’s no harm to remove any of the allure or stigma that is associated with a particular team and see if that affects your reading of the game. Meath footballers are the perfect example of just such a team. Over the years they have beaten, battered and bruised so many teams into submission that the mere uttering of their name evokes an automatic level of respect.

(more…)

We’re all told that stereotyping is a negative trait to be avoided at all costs, yet sometimes it’s just too hard to avoid. Ulster football is just one of those situations. Honestly, if two red headed Irish lads landed into Piccadilly Circus in London wearing green clothes and drunk on whiskey and started beating each other up with shillelaghs while singing about the Famine, it wouldn’t be any more of a ridiculous parody of a famous stereotype than what went on in Celtic Park last Sunday – except that what we saw on TV was no parody, but simply Ulster football at it’s grim and gruesome best.

(more…)

Viewers of the live double header on RTE television tomorrow look very likely to see two very different games throwing in at 2pm and 4pm. First off is the clash of Monaghan and Derry and while Off the Ground stands by the view espoused in the previous article that Monaghan are very live contenders for this game, particularly with the two point handicap on their side, this column is nonetheless very aware that a blank sheet in terms of goals scored by the Farney men is very much a live possibility.

Tommy Freeman is a fine corner forward, but even he will struggle to break down this Derry full back line and if he can’t raise a green flag, his team-mates will find it doubly hard to do so.

(more…)

GAA dressing rooms in January are an odd environment, a distant cousin to the tense and energised setting that one finds in the summer. For every enthusiastic teenager with energy to burn and a point to prove, there’s a grizzled veteran in his early thirties who has been through it all before and knows well that the summer is a long way away yet. For every local lad who’s been pounding the roads over Christmas making sure that any traces of turkey have long been burnt away, there’s yet another lad who’s been burning sambucas deep into the night without a thought towards the calorific content in the glass, or even the crisp weather and mucky pitches that lie in waiting, ready to severely punish any such flamboyancy of lifestyle.

(more…)

• 1With question marks hanging over both these sides (Chelsea - John......
• 2The odds are so skinny on Ireland it may be wise......
• 3Plenty to keep the Winter chill at bay. Our Monty (10/1......
• 4Newcastle's Senegalese starlets Demba Ba and Papis Demba Cisse are back......
• 5With a busy day already done Laurence McCormack examines the Man......

• Twitter
• RSS
• You Tube