Antrim Hurling

[Guillem2]

Paddy Power

Loughgile 8/11
Cushendall 6/5 

Paddy Power must have taken a few quid for Cushendall. They now go Loughgiel 11/8 Draw 8/1  Ruairi Og 4/6.

Looking like a great day for hurling.
    

[milltown row]

Paddy Power

Loughgile 8/11
Cushendall 6/5 

Paddy Power must have taken a few quid for Cushendall. They now go Loughgiel 11/8 Draw 8/1  Ruairi Og 4/6.

aye, think i'll head down, weathers great, still be cold at the 'towns' pitch but sure

Looking like a great day for hurling.
   

[milltown row]

heard Cushendall beat Loughgiel (even money  ) anyone at the match?

got called to play a div 4 football match v Ballymena at Milltown Row. christ the heat was unreal on the pitch. heads burnt off me

[the colonel]

We won by 5 points. Was tight in first half. We were a Point up.we went up to 8 points after a Monty goal but the shamrocks pulled one back. Mick Monty got the line for dunno what.was off the ball.no Johnny Campbell. w**ker appeared in second half to give Them a Lift. No Joey Scullion. Anyone an idea what was up there? Sean d was my man of match. Some great sweeping and tackles.

[anailís]

Congratulations to Cushendall today, beat us by five in the end. Joey S has broken foot (Rossa), James Campbell has broken thumb and Johnny Campbell is coming back from a broken ankle.
Things were tight in first half, possibly Loughgiel should have went in ahead at half time, but made some costly errors/wides. Cushendall made a change at half time (?) and aerially dominated first ten mins of second half, winning the breaks, hitting three or else four unanswered points, before Loughgiel could find their range. Then Loughgiel conceded what looked like a soft goal, and things started to slide, uncharacteristic mistakes, fumbling, nerves, poor passes and decision making when the pressure was on. Cushendall benefitted then Mickey Monty got the line for something off the ball, on umpire's recommendation. Watson had come on at this stage, but failed to establish any major presence even with Cushendall a man lighter. McManus being moved back helped the Dall, and Graffin was outstanding, and have to agree with Colonel, SD also had a very good game.
It was a bridge to far for Loughgiel without their 3 starters, maybe a year out of the final might help?
No other option but to go on, for this team.
Good luck to the dall, hopefully be a good final in a fortnights time against Dunloy.

[slow corner back]

I thought it was a scrappy enough game on a perfect day for hurling. The first half in particular was very flat. Loughgiel had at least two goal chances in the first half and failed to take them as well as missing some free/65s. When CDall upped it for the first ten minutes of the second half there was only one winner. Mick Monty struck with the stick off the ball, bound to miss the final. Shane McNaugten was easily the best forward on view. Loughgiels forwards made little impression on a strong Dall back line mainly relying on Barney McAuley frees and to a lesser extent Ding Gillan. Cdall looked comfortable throughout the second half even when down to 14 men.

[theskull1]

The Dall knew how to go deep and condense their defense once they got that good lead and just drop their clearances into acres of space to pick off just a few more scores. It was 11/12 men back and 4/3 up front for the last 20 minutes which gave LG no real chance to claw back what they needed to. Made for poor viewing but they I'm sure won't give a fiddlers about that. Loughgiel looked like a side who were missing important players (because they were) and never really looked like contenders at any stage IMO.

[takeyourpoint]

Cushendall defence was dominant the majority of the game.Once McManus was moved to midfield at start of second half Cushendall turned the screw.They didn't play out of their skins but just took their scores when presented to them.Loughgiel looked exactly what they are,an average enough side admittedly missing a couple of their better players.Thought Shane McNaughton's 2nd half performance was excellent.

[Queenie]

Ok, Ok I put my hands up, I got it wrong!  Maybe it was wishful thinking on my part that Loughgeil would win. Sure, there is always next year.  Was at the match and honestly thought it was crap, a very poor display of hurling.  Having been at last Sundays All Ireland Final and then watching todays performance, jeasus boys, seriously though,  we are light years behind.

The Dall got this one easy with so many key men for Loughgeil missing.  The Dall will have it all to do against Dunloy, some of them Dall fellas cant take a hit at all.  I thought the physicality of Loughgeil was far greater but a pity they could not convert this to scores.  I reckon our boys would have taken Cushendal on todays performance.  Us St Johns people can take a bit of stick yeah know and we are even better at dishing out.

I really am convinced we will make the Final next year, I think we have the makings of a half decent team and will contend for major hurling honours next season.  I really do think we are the only team in Belfast who are making in roads with hurling and in a position to challenge the North Antrim Teams.  This really depends on how the referees will react to our physicality and robust style of play.  Most referees in the county I really do think have it in for our senior hurling team, just look at that bollocks Garret Duffy, he sent three of our guys off in the 1/4 final at Cushendall.  That boy Mathews and Elliott seem to always have it in for us also.  Out of the three of them though, I would probably prefer Duffy.  He is more likely to let it run a bit more than the other two boys.  Elliott and Mathews, very quick to blow on technical stuff. But sure we will wait and see what happens next year.  Well we only have the County Senior Final to look forward to now.  No way am I going to the Intermediate Final to watch St. Galls and The Lamhs, most likely to be a load of shit!  The Lamhs I think will capture this one and I really do hope so. Those St. Galls feckers would be hard to stick also if the won a hurling title.

[BallBuster]

How do you use this fecking thing,  whats it all about?

[SaffronArmy]

Sorry Queenie but if anything, St Johns are going drastically downhill, when was the last time they captured a hurling trophy? Their fortunes don't look like changing any time soon.

[takeyourpoint]

St Johns in next years final?Ffs mate pour the rest of the bottle down the sink and go to bed.

[Nemo]

well done cushendall, they didnt play well except for a 15 min spell but im sure they arent to bothered about that. i thought it was a poor scappy game, ref had a bad one IMO and seemed to favour loughgiel on most decisions, as for the sending off - i saw it and IMO it wasnt a red card, did the ref / umpire watch last weeks game. imagine if it had off been an antrim ref and umpires last week, jeez it would have ended 5 a side.

anyway, both teams know they need to improve for the final, i just hope its a good game as im out a damn fortune and still havent seen a good game yet.

queenie stay off the wacky big man.   

[NAG1]

Yeah I would agree that Cushendall cantered to the final. I wouldnt have said that it was a poor match essentially, very little more and it would have been tense and close up to the finish. If Barney had of put his effort form 8 yards out below the cross bar or Eddie McC would have kept his feet it could have been a completely different story. I knows these are 'ifs' but it just shows you how the game could have been different.
Cushendall had all the class though and when it was needed they did go through the gears, wouldnt expect them ever to be hitting big scores as it doesnt seem to be in their make up but they can be so adept at closing the space down for other teams that makes it very difficult to score against them.
Thought the sending off was very harsh considering that it will mean missing a county final over, thought the ref could have used a bit of common sense, a yellow would have done at that stage.

(Queenie, sure the championship might be on next year when some of your fella's are away on a stag party so they likely wont make the match anyway)

[Minder]

Nag you can't referee games like that, if a ref deems a challenge/incident a red card he has to go regardless of what stage the championship is at. We would be the first ones crying about lack of consistency if refs don't apply the rules. A red card offence is a red card offence regardless of it being a Div 3 league game in November or a senior championship semi final.