Down Club Hurling & Football

[grounded]

Unreal collapse.

How did a team that player with such an unselfish conviction for 35 mins evolve into that?

Its hard to know where to start. As a Down supporter definitely feel sick. My only consolation and its a very small one is we would have got got absolutely anhilated by Donegal.
     Cavan arent that much better but at the very least they can contest midfield. They will get tanked too, just not by as much.
      Until we get a pair of midfielders who can at least compete in the air we will always struggle.
       We also had a bagful of goal chances which we didnt take kicking balls into the keepers hands time after time, kills morale.
       

[SHEEDY]

Poland and flynn won nothing in midfield, how Poland stayed on as long is baffling. Shealan coming on before Ryan is another strange one.

[whitegoodman]

Unreal collapse.

How did a team that player with such an unselfish conviction for 35 mins evolve into that?

Its hard to know where to start. As a Down supporter definitely feel sick. My only consolation and its a very small one is we would have got got absolutely anhilated by Donegal.
     Cavan arent that much better but at the very least they can contest midfield. They will get tanked too, just not by as much.
      Until we get a pair of midfielders who can at least compete in the air we will always struggle.
       We also had a bagful of goal chances which we didnt take kicking balls into the keepers hands time after time, kills morale.
       

Finding one midfielder of note would do for now.  If Darren O hagan and Gerrard McGovern were added to the defence and Harrison added as an option up front there is the makings of a team there.

The players need to look at themselves after that but the line def did not help.

[Nanderson]

What midfielders have we got that would be capable of winning primary possession: Feel free to add to the list
Ronan McAlinden
Liam Middleton
Ruairi McCrickard

[whitegoodman]

Maybe he wasn't following his man or doing the necessary dirty work off the ball that we don't see on the tv but Kerr coming off so early is totally baffling.  He was one of the ones that was causing huge damage running at Cavan.

[whitegoodman]

What midfielders have we got that would be capable of winning primary possession: Feel free to add to the list
Ronan McAlinden
Liam Middleton
Ruairi McCrickard

That list wouldn't inspire me but I can't think of any other which is quite depressing.

[extra time]

Although we got cleaned at midfield 2nd half that wasent the main reason we got beat. Clear cut goal chances were missed and so many wrong decisions were made 2nd half. We still had enough chances to win the game even without primary possession.

[Nanderson]

Flynn had mckiernan pocketed until he got that silly yellow card at end of 1st half and from then on McKiernan dominated him. Is Niall Donnelly not fit enough to play (if not why is he on the panel)

[whitegoodman]

To be fair, Down had the same lads in midfield in the 1st half and did well. They broke ball and worked like dogs to win the breaks. They didn't bring that same intensity to the 2nd half, for whatever reason.

A mixture of Cavan squeezing up and McKiernan wakening up was the difference.  Down don't have someone at 6 3 or 6 4 to do that .

[Smurfy123]

Down just don't have that physicality around the middle
Flynn
Poland
Mooney
Donnelly
Nothing else in the county
Time for cool heads around management
Kerr coming off was strange
Very strange
Johnstone only getting 3 minutes
The kickouts to the sideline?? What's that about
S J very inexperienced not to pass that ball for a clear goal
A game of 2 half's

[Dubh driocht]

Disappointed would be putting it mildly but glad to see posters aren't getting too personal here.
Every one of those lads did their best for the red and black at a challenging time in all our lives; they aren't paid, there are no supporters, you wouldn't put a dog out in those conditions.
Good luck to Cavan, they're going to need it

[guevara]

Any Team that allows a 10 point winning margin to be overturned is going nowhere. Very poor substitutions. Cavan were petrified of the pace of Kerr & Mooney in the first half, yet we took both off?

Our failure to convert simple, clear cut chances came back to bite us. Poland taking that pass away from Devlin, when waiting to bury it springs to mind.

McKiernon and Galligan cleaned us out at Midfield, yet neither Conor Poland nor Johnny Flynn had the sense to start breaking every kick out to try and gain some sort posession. How Poland managed to remain on the field baffled me.

Another story of hard luck, great first half etc, etc. We simply lack the game intelligence to ensure our shooters end up on the ball in the scoring zone. Good Teams ensure this is a basic tactic.

We badly need a Midfield or at least a tactic that allows us to compete in there. Because at the minute it is a major area of our downfall.

McKernan is not the answer at sweeper!

[Mourne Rover]

We unfortunately crumpled when the pressure was on and it's hard to understand how players who were outstanding in the first half lost their way so badly after the break. A little calmness with all those chances in the middle of the second half when we were still three or four in front would have stopped Cavan's momentum, and sadly our substitutions did not work at all. We have to hope that our younger players will learn from the experience today and can develop further in division two. However, realistically, it will take us a long time to get over today.

[Smurfy123]

The lads give it their best
It may be a while before we get a draw like this year
To avoid
Donegal
Tyrone
Monaghan
Armagh
Derry
May not happen for a while
It's a massive opportunity missed
At least we have division 2 next year which will help us

[Nanderson]

Division 2 next year with the likes of Mayo and Cork should help bring this Down team on massively. I know everyone will be disappointed today with management but look at the amount of players that Tally has brought in to the team and have given debuts to. This is a down team nearing the end of a transition phase and there looks to be 80% of a team there but its just finding those missing links