Tyrone v Down USFC Semi Final Sat 19th June

[thewobbler]

OverThePostsAWide, in my book nothing says "sort yourselves the f**k out" to a midfield combination like a goalkeeper refusing to kick then ball out on top of them.

[OverThePostsAWide]

Sandwiches. That for that vid, it lifted my drooping spirits.

Shame is Down now need to follow the strategic tactics of boring football that the modern game has become because Down's style of free flowing game no longer works at inter county level.

I think Wee James is taking us there bit by bit but it will take a few seasons yet as it doesn't come naturally to us.

Playing football brought Down dividends, retreating into the 'modern game' made them look woeful.  The 2nd half was painful to watch after proably the best first half of football this championship.

Agree Benny. First 25 minutes were brilliant and Tyrone were on the rack (where did we hear that before?). The rest was complete sh*te as a football spectacle. It was like Down had a frontal lobe labotamy at half time and Tyrone just reeled them in

[Main Street]

Turning point. http://www.youtube.com/user/UlsterGAA//
Big Pascal proved his worth, as he did when he came in at the last minute in the 2008 AIF and saved late on.

To be fair, he shot it straight at him - the keeper had nothing much to do.

Don't agree Maguire. I was in line with the shot and I thought McConnell got an outstretched (diving) hand to it. It was a very good save.
His first half save looked like a classic (good) goalkeeper's block where he instinctively closed the forward down.

The one hander save, late in 2nd half, was top drawer goalkeeping, no doubt.

Tyrone went berry picking in the 2nd half, or have they lost their game killing instinct?

[orangeman]

Down got off to an almost incredible start with Tyrone players chasing shadows but after their wonderful start, Tyrone just took over and from there to the end, it was as Brolly talked about in this week's Gaelic Life, Miller time only instead of Miller time it was Penrose, Cavanagh, Mc Guigan, Doohertime !

It will be sad day when we see Dooher, Mc Guigan and these lads leave the stage for good.

Long may they reign.


Harte in the ned got the tactics right to totally frustrate Down.

[OverThePostsAWide]

OverThePostsAWide, in my book nothing says "sort yourselves the f**k out" to a midfield combination like a goalkeeper refusing to kick then ball out on top of them.

And do what? Stand over the ball looking menacingly at them?

Don't think the half-backs or half-forwards wanted to know about kickouts. I didn't see one run a la Tyrone. Even Dooher caught a kickout clean in the middle surrounded by Down men!

If they were dropping on the 45 and being picked up by advancing Tyrone men I would see your point. If there was a fault, it was as much, if not more, with the receiving men. Plenty of good ball that should have been won, but wasn't.

[thewobbler]

It's a two way street though. If you don't look to vary, then players don't look for it.

McVeigh has got a pretty accurate kickout on him. If just wasn't utilised today in any way. Maybe he (and his half back line) were under specific instructions to pump it long every time, but I'd expect experienced players to stop, hold back and re-assess if things aren't working.

When looking at they were up against a middle 8 including Dooher, McGuigan, Harte, Penrose and Jordan today, Down surely had better options than lumping the ball up into the land of Hub and Cavanagh every time.

[Minder]

I heard a Down supporter behind me today telling his mate that Casement was bigger than a rugby pitch and that the ref was "really old" but he couldn't remember his name..........

[OverThePostsAWide]

It will be sad day when we see Dooher, Mc Guigan and these lads leave the stage for good. Long may they reign.

Agree whole heartedly Orangeman and I am full of admiration but I think it will come sooner than most Tyrone supporters will admit.

There was a time when they provided the platform for Tyrone to dominate. I think it will increasingly be the other way round - a dominating Tyrone team will provide the platform for them to display some of their undoubted talents again, but only in glimpses. I think with the harder battles ahead they, in particular, will find it harder to bring their influence to bear. Which will not be good news for Tyrone. I wasn't impressed with Tyrone today.

[orangeman]

BBC report - incredible stat in bold

Tyrone weathered an early Down onslaught to win by four points at Casement Park and reach their sixth Ulster Championship final in 10 years.

Mickey Harte's experienced side trailed eight points to four but then reeled off six points without reply to lead by two at half-time.

Down went 47 minutes without a score from play and were denied a goal when Pascal McConnell saved from Dan Hughes.

Monaghan play Fermanagh in the other semi-final at Breffni Park on 27 June.

Down will be disappointed to have fallen short again after their impressive start to the match.

Mark Poland, skipper Ambrose Rogers and Dan Gordon got early points with man-of-the-match Martin Penrose registering for the Red Hands.

Poland and Rogers scored again and Martin Clarke landed two frees in an impressive spell for the Mourne men.


Match photos: Tyrone v Down

Tyrone suffered an injury setback when star forward Stephen O'Neill limped off.

Skipper Brian Dooher from play and a Sean Cavanagh free added to Tyrone's score but a Daniel Hughes score from play had Down eight point to four up.

Tyrone then took over and got six points in 10 minutes through Penrose (2), Joe McMahon, Cavanagh (2) and Dermot Carlin.

Down needed a good start to the second half but their firepower failed them.

Penrose got another couple of points for the holders with Colm Cavanagh and Owen Mulligan also chipping in.

Down got a free from Paul McComiskey and, when Clarke scored in the 65th minute, it was their first score from play since the 18th.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tyrone: P McConnell, M Swift, Justin McMahon, D Carlin, P Harte, C Gormley, P Jordan, C Cavanagh, K Hughes, B Dooher, S Cavanagh, Joe McMahon, M Penrose, S O'Neill, O Mulligan.

Down: B McVeigh, D Rooney, B McArdle, D Rafferty, K McKernan, J Colgan, C Garvey, A Rogers, K King, D Hughes, M Poland, B Coulter, C Maginn, D Gordon, M Clarke.

[ONeill]

Some good but a lot of bad for Down today.

The full-back line was the real positive. Rafferty had his best Championship outing yet and probably still has blond hairs in his pocket. McArdle showed a bit of class and a bit of intelligence that has been so often lacking in our converted full-backs of recent years. Rooney had a decent game.

Beyond them, only Maginn threw in good solid hour.

The whole lot were excellent for those first 15 minutes, but there was a serious lack of character thereafter. King and Rogers blew up badly. Gordon was off the pace and ponderous. Clarke was miles off it, and for the first time watching him, he appeared confused by his role, and too frantic to force play when he did get involved. Ditto Coulter, except we've seen it before. Colgan disappeared. McKernan was shocking and Garvey had too much edge.

For me, McVeigh had an absolute stinker with his kickouts. It was so reminiscent of his predecessor and namesake (a keeper who I had so much time for) in that his answer to getting cleaned out by kicking the ball up the middle was to try kicking it longer up the middle. We had a height advantage in most areas of the field, had an athletic team, and were calling out for variation. I imagine though the statistics in the Irish News on Monday about our kickout retention will be horrifiic.

I did kind of feel sorry for our forwards in the second half. Midfield was destroyed which meant we never put back-to-back possession together, and when we did it almost invariably ended with a hoke rather than a pass. Maybe they weren't running the right lines, but I don't think so - instead I think it was a case of the midfield and half-backs trying to play Hollywood football.

Which, given the ease at which we opened Tyrone up in the first quarter with simple fist passes and short kickpasses, it is quite staggering that we reverted to this sort of game.

Management aren't getting off with the blame. Pete Fitzpatrick is not a better answer than King with first phase possession, and that's where the game was lost. Jason Brown simply had no entitlement to come onto the field ahead of fellas who worked their bollocks off through the league campaign -  especially when we were crying out for full-forward ball-winners. And quite why they allowed McVeigh to continually kick long, and their attacking ploy to consist of booting the ball in aimlessly, is beyond me. Lastly, the constant roundabout going on between the forward line (plus Gordon) was bizarre. It's one thing to keep the opposition, but it's another when your players don't know if, why, how long and when they'll be in a certain position.


As for Tyrone, congratulations on another victory where experience, intelligence and no small amount of graft where the determining factors.

Packie McConnell was outstanding today, both for his saves and his kickouts. Justin Mc once again proved that full-back isn't that difficult if you're a natural. Peter Harte showed energy and commonsense throughout. Hub and Cavanagh both gave up playing football and just did the dirty work required, and then some. Penrose was outstanding, and never put a foot wrong. Dooher was given largely a free role, and he punished Down for it. Cavanagh, as usual, did enough for most other players to win a man of the match award. Special praise though for Brian McGuigan. Before he arrived, Tyrone were aimless and unsure. Almost by virtue of his presence, they seemed to all understand their roles again. They were no longer hurried, but precise. And credit to Micky Harte too. When O'Neill went off, he made the big switch, and didn't f**k around with it.

So much wrong with this analysis it's impossible to know where to start.

[sandwiches_in_the_boot]

Job done.

Thanks BBC 

[Radioulster]

would agree with most of what has been written here . very good first half and very poor second half. Was watching down closely and think they are not sure whether to play or become more 'modern by packing their defence. My own opinion is that they are poor defensively so they would be better to focus on all out attack. they didnt commit enough bodies forward in the second half to do any damage. would not be too harsh on them, there is room for improvement. Great to see Mcguigan back in form, conducted the orchestra in the 2nd half.

[RadioGAAGAA]

There is a bit of a science to winning breaking ball, yet for all the coaches with their drills, they don't seem to teach it.

90% of contested broken ball will go straight back to where it came from or run straight through behind.


If you get two players to time their runs to be 5 yards directly infront and 5 yards directly behind the aerial contest when the ball hits the ground, and you'll win most of the broken ball.


Try to watch out for it in the next game you view.

[Lamh Dhearg Alba]

How did Martin Clarke do?

The suggestion that somebody made that he was going to show up old man Conor Gormley (who is 29) was certainly off the mark .

Good win for Tyrone although still plenty to work on. The way they turned it around in the first half after a poor start bodes well and they were comfortable enough in the second half. Ideally should have got more scores after the break given the amount of possesion, 0-4 was a poor return really.

Great to see McGuigan coming on and playing so well and perhaps he can still play that role for 70 minutes. Really improved the Tyrone performace. Penrose was excellent but a few wayward kick passes at times. We'll need more from Mugsy and especially if SON is going to be out. Job done but will need further improvement the next day. Not sure many would pay in to watch Benny on that display

[DickyRock]

Any word on stevie?

Never made it to the match today, but it was strange to see a team try to defend a deficit like Down did in the second half!