Derry Club Football & Hurling original

[restorepride]

Disappointing today with a good crowd there to support but we just never got a foothold in the game to give them the opportunity to get behind the team. Gaillimh have some great footballers with pace, power and ability to finish. A Division 1 team - so maybe a timely reality check for Doire. Galway's early press worked perfectly for them but some of it was self-inflicted and another ref may have given 2 frees out which instead led to goals. Very disappointing for the players but they tried hard in the second half and will learn from the first one. We clearly don't have a cutting edge up front against the better teams, which we knew anyway, but the gaps in defence today would be the most worrying. Anyhow, we are where we are and have still made good progress in the last two years. Have we reached a ceiling?

[Champion The Wonder Horse]

Disappointing today with a good crowd there to support but we just never got a foothold in the game to give them the opportunity to get behind the team. Gaillimh have some great footballers with pace, power and ability to finish. A Division 1 team - so maybe a timely reality check for Doire. Galway's early press worked perfectly for them but some of it was self-inflicted and another ref may have given 2 frees out which instead led to goals. Very disappointing for the players but they tried hard in the second half and will learn from the first one. We clearly don't have a cutting edge up front against the better teams, which we knew anyway, but the gaps in defence today would be the most worrying. Anyhow, we are where we are and have still made good progress in the last two years. Have we reached a ceiling?

Aye, progressed from div 4 where we never should have been to where we were five years ago. You're normally a very sensible poster. Not on this occasion.

[JoG2]

Bad day at the office and we leave it at that. Just too many things malfunctioned all at the same time. Galway will play there reserve team against Roscommon to rest them for league final plus Mayo Early in April. Still nice to finish on a high and beat Meath.

Still progress has been made, Shane McGuigan might have got another few points there today to take bad look off it

Has progress been made though? What do we know now that we didn't seven weeks ago? Are we any closer to competing with Tyrone in the championship than we were this time last year?

IMHO the answer are no, nothing and no. Gallagher's a charlatan.

We were lucky down and cork were both at their lowest ebb ever and Offaly and Clare were poor for div 2. Another short summer awaits.

Of course it has, to suggest otherwise is nonsense.

[Champion The Wonder Horse]

Bad day at the office and we leave it at that. Just too many things malfunctioned all at the same time. Galway will play there reserve team against Roscommon to rest them for league final plus Mayo Early in April. Still nice to finish on a high and beat Meath.

Still progress has been made, Shane McGuigan might have got another few points there today to take bad look off it

Has progress been made though? What do we know now that we didn't seven weeks ago? Are we any closer to competing with Tyrone in the championship than we were this time last year?

IMHO the answer are no, nothing and no. Gallagher's a charlatan.

We were lucky down and cork were both at their lowest ebb ever and Offaly and Clare were poor for div 2. Another short summer awaits.

Of course it has, to suggest otherwise is nonsense.

I would be happy for you to expand on that.

[restorepride]

Bad day at the office and we leave it at that. Just too many things malfunctioned all at the same time. Galway will play there reserve team against Roscommon to rest them for league final plus Mayo Early in April. Still nice to finish on a high and beat Meath.

Still progress has been made, Shane McGuigan might have got another few points there today to take bad look off it

Has progress been made though? What do we know now that we didn't seven weeks ago? Are we any closer to competing with Tyrone in the championship than we were this time last year?

IMHO the answer are no, nothing and no. Gallagher's a charlatan.

We were lucky down and cork were both at their lowest ebb ever and Offaly and Clare were poor for div 2. Another short summer awaits.

Harsh on the players and management. If you expected us to be at a level to beat the All Ireland Champions this year, you're delusional. We don't have enough quality players but progress has been made, no doubt about that - and Gallagher has played his part.

[JoG2]

Bad day at the office and we leave it at that. Just too many things malfunctioned all at the same time. Galway will play there reserve team against Roscommon to rest them for league final plus Mayo Early in April. Still nice to finish on a high and beat Meath.

Still progress has been made, Shane McGuigan might have got another few points there today to take bad look off it

Has progress been made though? What do we know now that we didn't seven weeks ago? Are we any closer to competing with Tyrone in the championship than we were this time last year?

IMHO the answer are no, nothing and no. Gallagher's a charlatan.

We were lucky down and cork were both at their lowest ebb ever and Offaly and Clare were poor for div 2. Another short summer awaits.

Of course it has, to suggest otherwise is nonsense.

I would be happy for you to expand on that.

I've more to be at than explaining what's obvious to literally every other Derry man / woman who's been attending games the last lock of years.

[restorepride]

Bad day at the office and we leave it at that. Just too many things malfunctioned all at the same time. Galway will play there reserve team against Roscommon to rest them for league final plus Mayo Early in April. Still nice to finish on a high and beat Meath.

Still progress has been made, Shane McGuigan might have got another few points there today to take bad look off it

Has progress been made though? What do we know now that we didn't seven weeks ago? Are we any closer to competing with Tyrone in the championship than we were this time last year?

IMHO the answer are no, nothing and no. Gallagher's a charlatan.

We were lucky down and cork were both at their lowest ebb ever and Offaly and Clare were poor for div 2. Another short summer awaits.

Of course it has, to suggest otherwise is nonsense.

Correct.

[Wildweasel74]

I don't know what people want, if you haven't got the scoring power you can only go so far, We see we're Monaghan go when McManus, Retires, when Murphy goes Donegal will slide too, but still have McBrearty, Brennans, and a few other scorers. We haven't got scorers in the county, maybe Bell but he's been there before, Last time in Division 2 Derry had alot more scorers plus more Midfield options. We been beat by Donegal and, Armagh by slim margins in ulster but they got alot more scoring options. Until the mentality changes at underage from u14:up to promote attacking football we never get potential good Forwards as it be long trained out of them.

[restorepride]

Bad day at the office and we leave it at that. Just too many things malfunctioned all at the same time. Galway will play there reserve team against Roscommon to rest them for league final plus Mayo Early in April. Still nice to finish on a high and beat Meath.

Still progress has been made, Shane McGuigan might have got another few points there today to take bad look off it

Has progress been made though? What do we know now that we didn't seven weeks ago? Are we any closer to competing with Tyrone in the championship than we were this time last year?

IMHO the answer are no, nothing and no. Gallagher's a charlatan.

We were lucky down and cork were both at their lowest ebb ever and Offaly and Clare were poor for div 2. Another short summer awaits.

Of course it has, to suggest otherwise is nonsense.

I would be happy for you to expand on that.
[/quote
I'll expand for you soon but boys have landed in to play cards of a Sunday!

[Champion The Wonder Horse]

Bad day at the office and we leave it at that. Just too many things malfunctioned all at the same time. Galway will play there reserve team against Roscommon to rest them for league final plus Mayo Early in April. Still nice to finish on a high and beat Meath.

Still progress has been made, Shane McGuigan might have got another few points there today to take bad look off it

Has progress been made though? What do we know now that we didn't seven weeks ago? Are we any closer to competing with Tyrone in the championship than we were this time last year?

IMHO the answer are no, nothing and no. Gallagher's a charlatan.

We were lucky down and cork were both at their lowest ebb ever and Offaly and Clare were poor for div 2. Another short summer awaits.

Harsh on the players and management. If you expected us to be at a level to beat the All Ireland Champions this year, you're delusional. We don't have enough quality players but progress has been made, no doubt about that - and Gallagher has played his part.

Not harsh on the players, no, and that was neither intended nor implied. We are back to where we should be with that squad.

[Champion The Wonder Horse]

Bad day at the office and we leave it at that. Just too many things malfunctioned all at the same time. Galway will play there reserve team against Roscommon to rest them for league final plus Mayo Early in April. Still nice to finish on a high and beat Meath.

Still progress has been made, Shane McGuigan might have got another few points there today to take bad look off it

Has progress been made though? What do we know now that we didn't seven weeks ago? Are we any closer to competing with Tyrone in the championship than we were this time last year?

IMHO the answer are no, nothing and no. Gallagher's a charlatan.

We were lucky down and cork were both at their lowest ebb ever and Offaly and Clare were poor for div 2. Another short summer awaits.

Of course it has, to suggest otherwise is nonsense.

I would be happy for you to expand on that.

I've more to be at than explaining what's obvious to literally every other Derry man / woman who's been attending games the last lock of years.

Good point, well made. But getting back to where we were a lock of years ago and where we should never have dipped below isn't progress.

[JohnDenver]

What did McKinless do to get the red card?

I think the game was very much beyond us at that point, but would have been interesting to see how a Derry goal would have affected proceedings. There was a bit of life in the crowd after a few of the excellent long range scores when Galway were down to 13 men.  I thought we actually threatened more of a goal chance in the first half, but couldn't get the final pass or support runner.

[Blowitupref]

What did McKinless do to get the red card?

Appears to be eye gouging and depending on the refs match report he could be facing a long ban.

[Derry Optimist]

Before commenting on the heavy defeat to Galway yesterday let us get rid of some of the more self inflicted negative characteristics of the woeful performance by Derry yesterday.First and foremost,except sometimes when you are playing a lesser team,no team should EVER give up an advantage if they win the toss to play with a very strong wind as was the case yesterday.

To do so against a side of Galway's calibre and potential was a cardinal error in the extreme.It reminded me of the 2017 All Ireland minor final against Kerry when Derry management decided to mark David Clifford as if he were just an ordinary player. Since that time circumstances have constantly proven the fallacy of that tactic.

So, yesterday's decision to play against the wind was also totally unfair on the whole Derry team,especially the goalkeeper and the defenders.That fateful decision was compounded when two normally reliable defenders made uncharacreistic individual errors which led to two opportunist goals.Admittedly the concession of the third goal was rather fortuitous  but the net result was that the game was over at half time.

Psychologically the team was destroyed because they had not experienced such a first half pummelling in any of the other games and understandably found it difficult, despite their best efforts, to make any real inroads into the deficit during the second half.

Another growing characteristic of this Derry team is the indiscipline amongst some of the more experienced players.Most of the team are very disciplined but the real test of discipline is how you react when you are  losing or beaten fairly to the ball.Sadly two of our best players fell by the wayside in this regard yesterday.Both of them have earned a reputation for getting booked regularly and this is not good for the morale of the vast majority who always adhere to the rules.If Derry is to make meaningful progress all their best players have to be always on the field of play and available at all times.

As Michael Wilson stated accurately in the Derry Journal this indiscipline yesterday had no bearing on the result but it could have in subsequent games if Management do not address this with a sense of immediate urgency as we do not want to see other players being dragged into this mire of unnecessary sideshows.

None of us really expected Derry to win yesterday but most of us expected a Rory Gallager led team to be at the least very competitive, if not able to sneak a victory.However, even if the team had played with the wind in the first half all the evidence is that Galway have a lot more quality footballers than we have at present.Galway in terms of ability have always had a first Division material team but for a variety of reasons they have been very inconsistent.Unfortunately, we came up against a side at their brilliant best yesterday. Admittedly  our "wind" decision helped them considerably to show that undoubted brilliance.

Nevertheless, despite this heavy loss, we must remember that Galway performance set the benchmark for First Division Football and showed that Derry are essentially a mid division Two football side at present.The challenge for Rory and the Management is how to bridge that gap between the top tier and ourselves.Hopefully, when all the promising young players fully develop, Derry will achieve that.In the meantime, it is vitally important that Management and players get together immmediately to learn the lessons of yesterday,both sides admit their mistakes and mutually  plot their future strategy for success.

A good win against Meath would restore any flagging morale and prepare us for the Ulster Championship.If Tyrone can recover from what happened against Kerry in their League game last year by winning the All Ireland, Derry can  at least make their mark in the Ulster Championship!

[Champion The Wonder Horse]

Mal reporting that Oisin McWilliams has a broken jaw.