I thought I'd do a little round up of our opponents in the group in some detail:

Malta:
First team up, and it could be a tough one, what with potentially the core of the Defense and Midfield being over 5* players... The rest of the team is no pushover, either, a win here would be hard fought to come by*

Faroe Islands:
Things won't be getting any easier with this game, as they have a similar set of best 14 players to Malta, with a possible core at 5*+, so another game where it will be a hard fought match for the win.. or Draw.. anything.

Austria:
Third time unlucky, as The Irish run into possibly the Strongest team from the group, with almost every player from their top 14 at 5*+, we'll be in for quiet the bumpy ride and we will be lucky to get a draw. (sorry Lads)

Hungary:
This game has draw written all over it from the moment the draw was made, simply put, both sides are extremly decent in comparison to each other, and either side could score many on their day, a real intense game on the cards IMO.

Greece:
Our half way point after this game, and after games against two rather strong sides, this will be more a test of stamina for the lads from late on in this season, and it will be a stern test against a team that will be another one that's going to be hard to break down.

There you have it, a real banana skin of a group, and judging by all the teams, the whole group could end up anywhere. although I see us finishing behind Austria and Hungary (sorry David :P)

Tell me about it I've been scratching my head on this one quite a bit.I was hoping for at least one easily beatable team :P,

Tbh i think anyone of the teams could top the group its so evenly matched anyone could beat anyone.
Happy to get a point on the board today anyway..some players didnt play to well and that'll be looked at in the Cameroon game with different tactics being played.

First game leaves us sitting 3rd so can't complain with a big result coming for Hungary against Austria.

I was hoping to play a more attacking style but that didn't come off overly well today even though we had more shots as the away team..so gonna look at the defensive approach for the game later.

your was being outdone by their goalie + they played the long ball, and only really got the goal cause Ireland was too aggresive on the corners (?), either way, as you say, not a terrible start to the group.. (and did you change the title *head-scratch*)

i agree with Gaz, the players list shows Hungary and Austria are stronger than us, but if we get enough points from the other teams we still have a chance to get in main draw.
btw, i cant believe their keeper are 30y/o but only 3.1 stars.

Yeah there goalie played well they also blocked a lot of shots!
Yeah true i was playing aggressive on corners as i thought there goalie would be there weak link..turned out to be the opposite ha!

Nope didn't touch the title!I dont have admin powers on the League Forum only the National Side one!

Yeah they played their younger keeper though who looks pretty strong!Yeah im aiming for the 3rd qualifying spot anything higher is a bonus!

In case anyones interested here are some of the young players that are coming though for us.There a few others with similar potential so the future is certainly bright i think!

http://rockingsoccer.com/en/soccer/info/player-353118
http://rockingsoccer.com/en/soccer/info/player-362532
http://rockingsoccer.com/en/soccer/info/player-419962
http://rockingsoccer.com/en/soccer/info/player-258706
http://rockingsoccer.com/en/soccer/info/player-411597
http://rockingsoccer.com/en/soccer/info/player-334371
http://rockingsoccer.com/en/soccer/info/player-394066
http://rockingsoccer.com/en/soccer/info/player-420715

Wah! my Cahey's abit behind..!

oh, nevermind, he's 23 now.. ehe.

Solid win after going behind always looked in control!come on the lads!

Cahey is 4th choice striker atm!

I've starting looking into the Faroe Islands a bit more..and they were quite fortunate against Greece ..a corner and a penalty leading to their goals..with their star playing being their AM being able to smash in those free kicks from looking at past games so cutting down fouls will be key in this fixture i feel.

Close again :/...won't be able to look at the game properly till later but still 1 points better than none.

Dissapointed as i thought we'd do enough 2 big games next any points in the next would be a big boost.

Sickening played our best football yet and fully deserved something for it..not often down the losing team get the man of the match player..a huge game next against hungary

Another big disappointment with 2 reds in 2 games which was very unusual for us..Hungary was probably due to the pressing defensive however the Macedonia one was ununlucky..a must win game against Greece to keep us in contention and we'll need to turn our wasted chances from the first round of games into points in order to progress.Strongly believe we can beat anyone in the group and out matches have shown thay despite results.

thanks, David. i have one more NT player,Jermaine McConnahugh.

No problem ill be rotating him in and out of the squad most likely as a few good young defenders popped up in the last shortlist,certainly in the plans for the future as our current back 4 are aging

Well that was disappointing our good win against Tunisia cost us 2 of our best players which we couldn't replace with nearly equal quality for the Greece game.

This leaves us in a very hard spot unfortunately we really can't afford to lose to the 3 weaker sides in the group we most definitely can't afford to lose anymore than one game more i would say and the rest need to be wins which is unlikely but at the same time doable as i think our team has the quality just lack some luck.Sorry guys feel like I've left ye down during the first half of qualification!