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Utd looked jaded but also realistically players can only raise their game for so long. You can't expect to beat the elite with players such as fletcher , o'shea and brown on your team.

Still all is not lost for Utd. Still two trophies to play for and the FA cup with chelsea going out and probably losing the league takes on added significance.

Still think you're lacking a defensive midfielder. Easy to see why Gattuso was high on Fergie's priority list. Hargreaves would be effective for them there too IMO.

what's delargy got to do with anything?

He's full back some days, wing half forward the next, centre half back the next so your guess is as good as ours!!

I'd say the chances are slim that he'll be at full forward though!

Am I behind the times or are there plans to make hurling division 1, 2, 3,4 like the football?

Until this is done the winners of division 2 always get a  raw deal as it's a massive massive jump.

The only way for them to improve is for those structures I'd say.

St. Johns have been on the way down for a few years. They seem to be relying on the u21s and they didn't get past the first round so can't be that good.

Creggan gave Dunloy some whipping - what is going on with Dunloy?? Have they lost many from last year?

The u21s seems to be run off on a weekly basis gallsman. Could be finished by next week. They've even done replays mid week and still the winners have played on the friday night.

It's throwing up some interesting results although there isn't too much south west interest in it unfortunately! I'd expect it to be between gorts and galls although brigids with Loughrey on board might be one to watch.(Hope I'm wrong and Dunloy win though but canny see it)

You're more than welcome to him!

Don't get me wrong - very very good footballer and would definitely get on your team. However way more trouble than he's worth - a lot of talk and a lot less action. How many news articles has he been in now?? Must be a record for a GAA player!

What kind of team had Cushendall out?

Were they missing many?

Any new young boys to watch out for? That brick fella on the senior team yet?

GNM to beat Portglenone and Creggan Dunloy to be a lot tighter than people might think...

All others I would agree with.

Moneyglass and St Pauls have a bit of history so would expect that to be close and involve a few handbags!

First boots patrick followed by a pair of golas followed by a pair of mitres.

Ah, the memories.

Good win for Creggan.

Division 2 looks like it could be tight enough. The malone roaders maybe won't find they'll go through this division as handily as the other ones if they're drawing with St. Enda's.

Back to normality for Cargin. Portglenone must have gave St Galls their fill of it. Seems they've started ok.I thought they were going downhill -perhaps not.

Wouldn't have expected Ballymena to run Rasharkin so close either. Maybe the Logan's will have a big influence.

Interesting game yesterday.

Oops, edit...

Best team probably won.

From Donegal viewpoint I would be a wee bit concerned about full back line though. Paddy Campbell looked poor enough yesterday and the no.2 wasn't too hot. At the end though Donegal were dropping to injuries so they did well to hold on. Devenney coming back will make a big difference and I would expect Kavanagh to make the 15.

Mayo have some good footballers. Moran was superb.Keith HIggins is a good wee player. However where was Conor Mortimer? Gardiner as well?

As a unit the forward line didn't really perform. They seem to have four or five players playing for places who are all at the same level.

Who are Na fuiseoig?

Armoy ran the gorts a lot closer than I would have expected them to.

Ahoghill should still have a lot of fitness in there from their all ireland campaign so maybe a bit early to say rasharkin to go straight back down just yet. There's an imbalance in that division 2 though - the strong teams are actually decent(ish) hurling teams while the bottoms teams are actually quite poor. I think the divisions are split well enough though so I suppose not much can be done.

Are GNM in the senior championship?

I would put them as better than Portglenone or Rasharkin.

St Brigids - well they will likely be the worst team in it.

Cregann are a good wee side who have very good underage structures in place. They may claim a few scalps this season. In Antrim there are only really two good teams about. There's no reason why Creggan can't be as good as Lamh Dhearg who in my opnion are no world beaters and are very reliant on Cunningham's accuracy from placed balls and St Paul's also. By all accounts GNM could be up around the third best team too. There are a lot of average sides in senior in Antrim at present with two exceptional ones.

Leitrim were in croke last year for the tommy murphy cup final.

Would agree to a point with JJ.

We are now producing a quality calibre of player who can compete at Sigerson level etc. However on the other side of the coin an amount of this talent has come through Derry schools - McCann, Crozier etc. Brady and Madden came from Derry schools  Belfast schools are becoming increasingly competitive in the McLarnon cup though which can only be beneficial and in this years sigerson we had some of the best young players - Cunningham, Crozier etc. and not all of these boys came through Derry schools.

We need to be producing this calibre of players year in year out. I still think the standard of coaching we have may fall a wee bit short as I think sometimes you can see in our players a shortcoming with the "fundamentals". You can have certificates till you're blue in the face but I think a lot of the youth certifications are over-rated. I think the standards here can be improved.

We have a problem Derry and Tyrone haven't got so much. Realistically the primary game in Antrim is hurling - this splits attentions and leads to vast areas not playing the big ball game. The point about the attendances at championship games is a valid one however I just don't think we have the numbers in some clubs to generate huge attendances. Cargin aside there are no rural clubs in Antrim with significant playing or member population. In a lot of rural clubs the community revolves round the GAA but there just aren't enough numbers. You have an example of Creggan - Creggan is a small small place, Portglenone has a very small nationalist population, likewise Ahoghill, Ballymena and maybe to a lesser extent Rasharkin. Glenravel is small as is Moneyglass and to be honest I've touched on most of the non city clubs worth talking about in a football sense. The city clubs are another issue altogether. Derry can't really tackle the problem of city clubs. In the city it is harder to maintain interest among youth. You could play St Johns / St Pauls etc. and see a different team each year.  St Galls are different as they are now successful and "success breeds success" and all that.

We have problems in:
- not enough population
- split between football and hurling
- the city ships a lot of players to other sports and other influences.

I do think we are moving forward though but I still believe the standard of youth coaching needs to be improved.  The U21 and minor teams we have are of a much higher standard now than they were about ten years ago. That can only be good. In five or six years time I think we will have a team who would be a good bit better than division 4 status but I think we have a way to go to get there.

The championship is a one off and Derry are no world beaters either especially if you curb Paddy Bradley. Don't think we'll beat Derry but we'll give them a better game than some people think...