Longford v Tyrone - Qualifiers Round 2 - 9 July 2011

[ONeill]

A most encouraging evening. Mickey answered the majority's prayers and performed major surgery on the side after the Donegal game. In came the likes of Coney, Colm Cavanagh, Justin McMahon and Aidan Cassidy with Dooher, Swift, Harte, O'Neill, Mugsy and Hub sitting it out. It was uplifting to see new faces and ideas for once in the championship.

Coney started well and on another day, with a bit more game time, could have ended up with 0-4. He's almost the complete opposite to Donnelly. Coney exudes confidence and is willing to shoot from all angles, sometimes taking the greedier option although you'd forgive him for that at this stage. Donnelly, despite 1-2, is still reluctant to be the no.14. You get the impression his first thought is to pass the ball no matter how close he is to goal. He had another chance after his goal and it seemed that having a shot was his nuclear option. O'Neill or Mugsy would have no such doubts. I'd like to see him being more selfish. Still, 1-2 is a decent return.

What can you say about Peter Harte's performance? It was a pleasure to witness that 0-6 from play and his general game. I thought he played well against Donegal too. I'm sure The Irish News will say this game passed him by also. Peter might be a natural successor to Brian McGuigan who struggled to get into the game. Cassidy's fielding was sublime and the thing now is to follow that up with another good performance. Colm Cavanagh was energetic and always available - barely put a foot wrong.

Jordan was the pick of the HBs - constantly driving at Longford in the second half. Joe had some battle and I think he broke even enough. Started shakily put had periods of dominance over Kavanagh too. It was a good battle. Gormley looks like he can barely walk but still does his job.

Longford's shooting was very impressive. They're a tidy outfit and should do well in division three. They gave Tyrone some test for 55 mins but ran out of steam.

[GTB]

Thanks for the excellent summary ONeill - it sounded like a great game of football on the radio!

[sandwiches_in_the_boot]

Anyone know the story with Hub? Unless I'm mistaken, there was no sign of him at all yesterday after being named in the starting 15.

[snippets]

Very pleased to hear the reports coming back. Sounds like mickey played a stormer and blended his ingredients well.  Credit to longford proud football men wouldn't expect anything less.  An excellent full forward line. Midfield sounded energetic, we have 2 excellent no 11s. Coney sean o neill, mc carron all got game time, excellent.  What about damian  mc caul guys _  he appears to have been discarded since an impressive league campaign  . Ruthless decisions considering the lads fight against career threatening injuries and the amount of defenders he has used ahead of him. He impressed me against o hara and o rourke in the league

   

[Muzz]

Anyone know the story with Hub? Unless I'm mistaken, there was no sign of him at all yesterday after being named in the starting 15.

Seen him after the game in tracksuit and kit bag.  Didn't travel home on the team bus but with few other lads.  Wouldn't read too much into it.

[tyroneman]

Anyone know the story with Hub? Unless I'm mistaken, there was no sign of him at all yesterday after being named in the starting 15.

Hamstring injury, liike SoN, as far as I was aware. Didn't clear up in time.

Nothing sinister.

The question will be...are we ready for the likes of Kildare next?

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

A great night in Longford, with great people (stayed out in Clondra, which is somewhat off the beaten track, but a lovely spot right on the very end of the Royal Canal).

A very encouraging performance from our lads overall, against a very committed and tenacious Longford team that has a decent quota of pure class footballers. Particularly promising in that the newer lads stepped up, with Peter Harte and Aidan Cassidy producing a couple of storming performances, with the older dependables like Jordan and Ricey doing the valiant necessary. 

Bring on Meath! 

[Main Street]

Mickey won't make the same mistake of leaving Dooher on the bench until 1/2 time.
He must be kicking himself for allowing the criticism to get inside his head.

[Redhand Santa]

Decent performance and goood to get the win. Good displays from Ricey,Jordan,Cassidy,Colm Cavanagh (were have his critics from last year gone??) and Harte. Not convinced with Carlin and definately don't think Coney is ready to start. Penrose must have lost out on 5 or 6 balls trying to stand behind his man waiting on the ball.

Brian McGuigan looks of the pace again, could find himself being used as an impact sub. The draw is crucial now. I've no doubt the team can build from there and continue to improve. Still not convinced they're close to fully fit and the likes of Justy McMahon needs game time. However, the draw is key. Would be worried at this stage if we had to go to Kildare at this stage. Would like an easier game to bring a lot of the guys on.

[ONeill]

Penrose fairly pulled the socks up though in the second half. He burned their defence repeatedly for 15 mins.

[panc56]

Great game where two teams went at it hammer and tongs. Well done Tyrone , you earned the win.

LD must push on now and get out of Div3. Playing the big guns mote often will bring on the talented underage teams coming through.

[Rossfan]

stayed out in Clondra, which is somewhat off the beaten track, )

How dare you 
Sure it's almost in Ros. Hopefully you crossed over to lovely Tarmonbarry 

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

stayed out in Clondra, which is somewhat off the beaten track, )

How dare you 
Sure it's almost in Ros. Hopefully you crossed over to lovely Tarmonbarry 

Well, it's off the main road! 

Not Tarmonbarry this time, but will  at some point I hope (passed through it many times).

[ONeill]

A great night in Longford, with great people (stayed out in Clondra, which is somewhat off the beaten track, but a lovely spot right on the very end of the Royal Canal).

Regretted not thinking about a B&B - looked like it was heading towards a good night's craic.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Regretted not thinking about a B&B - looked like it was heading towards a good night's craic.

It ended up being a right night - we had the troubadours in tow to guarantee such.