Div 1 Mayo v Down Official Thread

[stephenite]

I don't expect any man to be putting stellar 70 minutes at this stage of the season, it's the first game of the league and it was an encouraging improvement on the last appearance in a National competition. Plenty to work on, no more or less than I'd hoped for.

[Mayo4Sam]

Lar listened to Mid west on the way home, they seemed to forget about thefirst half or watch a different one to me, completely over the top review of the players, said varley was outstanding, average at best too the last 10

[AbbeySider]

Lar listened to Mid west on the way home, they seemed to forget about thefirst half or watch a different one to me, completely over the top review of the players, said varley was outstanding, average at best too the last 10

Mad West gives the craziest, most one-sided, biased, over the top, tripe rubbish when it comes to their review of players.

When picking man of the match they go through every player like they were a sensation. Pure yahoo stuff. 

[REDCOL]

Turned on Midwest at the start of the second half - Rob says to Billy Looks like Aidan O Se has gone in full forward  it happened 15 minutes earlier of course our Rob hadnt noticed Alan Freman making his way in from Centre Forward for his goal

[snoopdog]

Down were very poor on Saturday night. totally ran out of steam with 15 to go. If Mcveigh had the cop on to avoid the middle with his kick outs Down would have won the game.
They didnt look near match fit.
Hard to believe McKernan is an all star after that performance.
Could be a short summer, Down rarely put 2 good ones back to back.
But i will pass judgement when we get close to our best 15.
Sooner Ambrose is back and Big Dan is moved back to the middle the better.

[saffronandblue]

Enjoyed the game and am really looking forward to the next one.  Some good performances especially from Dillon and the ever present one.  Midfield were dominant which is just as well.  If Down had broken even in midfield we could have been beaten out the gate......

Don't know if people were looking at the same Mayo corner forwards as I was.......only one super point saved Varley from been as poor as Mark R.  Centre half forward remains a problem but at least the effort was there in abundance even from those who had poor games.

Fair play to the Down contingent, they showed up in good numbers and added to what was a great atmosphere.

[Brick Tamlin]

Mc Kernan isnt an allstar.
Yes they werent great in their first league game of the season away to Mayo on a rotten night but give them a break. Its a long year and its only just starting for them. Those misty-eyed supporters who think that Ambrose and Dan Gordon (or indeed Liam Doyle) are gonna magically solve all the problems need their heads read. Yes it wasnt a great performance, yes it was poor at times and yes they still have problems in different parts of the field but there is a hungry panel of players there, a decent management team and a system that worked last year (with a sprinklin of luck) and its up to them to come up with a solution or way around the problems that exist.

Wasnt greatly impressed with Mayo, though thought that Moran gave great leadership and didnt shirk responsibility. Always liked Mayo and would love to see them come strong again this year.

[Joe Umbrella (hey)]

Down were very poor on Saturday night. totally ran out of steam with 15 to go. If Mcveigh had the cop on to avoid the middle with his kick outs Down would have won the game.
They didnt look near match fit.
Hard to believe McKernan is an all star after that performance.
Could be a short summer, Down rarely put 2 good ones back to back.
But i will pass judgement when we get close to our best 15.
Sooner Ambrose is back and Big Dan is moved back to the middle the better.

Good post Snoopdawg!

Except for:

1. Down played some good stuff in the first half hence the lead? And they did'nt run out of steam in the last 15 - more a case of they couldnt win a ball around the middle in the 2nd half and could have snatched a late winner (as could Mayo of course)

2. McVeigh is an allstar - just let him do his thing.The lads out the field are just as accountable when it comes to not winning kickouts.

3. With regards players being match fit, its only February and in the end Down were as fit as Mayo.

4. McKernan is not an allstar. And the GPA one is null and void cos we don't recognise the GPA remember? Anyway McKernan had a great summer last year - everyone can have a bad game now and again.

5. "Could be a short summer, Down rarely put 2 good ones back to back.
     But I will pass judgement when we get back to our best 15 " And the award for supporter of the year goes to.........
     It's nice to see your not making any judgements (as per usual)

6. Yes it will be great to get Amrose back. But it will take time for him to recover from yet another serious injury and it may be next summer before he reaches the form of last year providing he makes a good recovery. And big Dan will stay in full back as in his short time there he has proved to be the best No.3 we have had for years. He has done well on some of the countries top forwards and also put an end to our problems with the high ball.

But apart from the above, good post Snoop.

[PAULD123]

We need to remember Down are a team that has just come up from Division 2. Mayo are a well established Division 1 team. We should be expecting Down to be playing Divsion 2 standard football and developing into a better team not expecting them to be going away from home and beating an established Division 1 side. I think it shows just how special this team is that they have raised our expectations so much. The quality of Down is fantastic in patches and they just need to learn to sustain it for longer periods. But getting an away point in Mayo was a superb result. Sure we finished poor but we had played some fanatsic stuff beforehand. Like many experienced people have said, it's only February and evey game is another learing stage. Lets praise the lads for how far they have come

[moysider]

Just watched a recording of the first half there before the missus evicted me from the room with sky plus! So the second half will have to wait. A few observations on the first half.

Crowd looked miserably small on tv, but entering the stand it looked a much bigger crowd. Not really good enough from the home support. 

The Setanta cameras were brilliant. I can see why people stay home because the glare of the lights and the distance from the pitch made the going tough. Failing peepers don t help either.

On commentary Mike Finnerty was disappointing. He didn't get to grips with the dynamic of what was happening at all. The excellent Ross Carr did his best Fr. Paul Stone  impersonation but knew what was happening. He tried to educate Mike in as an unobtrusive manner as possible. But he will be few people s flavour.

Those who have been hard on McGarrity were harsh. Very harsh. Easily the best midfielder on view in the first half. 2 massive kick passes to go with some good attacking of the ball and a few good fetches.

Richie Feeney should be picked on any team.

AOS picked up some good positions and was in twice if the pass was made. Everybody knows what is needed there. Lets move on.

The Ever Present, Dillon and Freeman were very good, even better than very good at times.

Our turn over from quick frees was appalling.Thankfully that is something that will have been noted and can be sorted easily in coaching.

11 of that Down team started v Cork in September. Fair play. They persist with their shape, tactics, players and management. When we lose AIs, everything goes. Management, most players, baby and bathwater.

[snoopdog]

Mc Kernan isnt an allstar.
Yes they werent great in their first league game of the season away to Mayo on a rotten night but give them a break. Its a long year and its only just starting for them. Those misty-eyed supporters who think that Ambrose and Dan Gordon (or indeed Liam Doyle) are gonna magically solve all the problems need their heads read. Yes it wasnt a great performance, yes it was poor at times and yes they still have problems in different parts of the field but there is a hungry panel of players there, a decent management team and a system that worked last year (with a sprinklin of luck) and its up to them to come up with a solution or way around the problems that exist.

Wasnt greatly impressed with Mayo, though thought that Moran gave great leadership and didnt shirk responsibility. Always liked Mayo and would love to see them come strong again this year.

your right he isnt, dont know why i thought he was.

[snoopdog]

Down were very poor on Saturday night. totally ran out of steam with 15 to go. If Mcveigh had the cop on to avoid the middle with his kick outs Down would have won the game.
They didnt look near match fit.
Hard to believe McKernan is an all star after that performance.
Could be a short summer, Down rarely put 2 good ones back to back.
But i will pass judgement when we get close to our best 15.
Sooner Ambrose is back and Big Dan is moved back to the middle the better.

Good post Snoopdawg!

Except for:

1. Down played some good stuff in the first half hence the lead? And they did'nt run out of steam in the last 15 - more a case of they couldnt win a ball around the middle in the 2nd half and could have snatched a late winner (as could Mayo of course)

2. McVeigh is an allstar - just let him do his thing.The lads out the field are just as accountable when it comes to not winning kickouts.

3. With regards players being match fit, its only February and in the end Down were as fit as Mayo.

4. McKernan is not an allstar. And the GPA one is null and void cos we don't recognise the GPA remember? Anyway McKernan had a great summer last year - everyone can have a bad game now and again.

5. "Could be a short summer, Down rarely put 2 good ones back to back.
     But I will pass judgement when we get back to our best 15 " And the award for supporter of the year goes to.........
     It's nice to see your not making any judgements (as per usual)

6. Yes it will be great to get Amrose back. But it will take time for him to recover from yet another serious injury and it may be next summer before he reaches the form of last year providing he makes a good recovery. And big Dan will stay in full back as in his short time there he has proved to be the best No.3 we have had for years. He has done well on some of the countries top forwards and also put an end to our problems with the high ball.

But apart from the above, good post Snoop.

just my opinion Joe

I do believe we would be better served with Dan in the middle though.
Yes he is great under the high ball, but i would say Peter Fitzpatrick or Kalum King would be just as effective at 3.
I feel a player of Dans class should be played in his best position and that is midfield.
If he had been moved up sooner in the AI final we may have got at least a replay.
But just my opinion.
I pray we have as good a summer as last year, An Ulster title would be nice.

[western exile]

...
I might just take the 15/2 offered by the bookies for the draw!

All was well in our part of South East Mayo at the weekend 

[AbbeySider]

I think Moran and especially Horan both hit the nail on the head with their comments about the match.

Andy Moran issues a reminder to Mayo fans

Moran issues a timely reminder

Mayo's man of the match focussed on the positive

ON a night when he turned in a man of the match display at wing-forward, Mayo's Andy Moran insisted that quality footballers are in the county as Mayo opened their National League campaign with a resilient draw against last year's All-Ireland finalists.
"We had trials there in January and there are footballers all over Mayo. You know, people like to tell us there's not. Listen, we're getting to Under 21 finals, Minor finals, League finals, if there's not footballers there . . . I don't know where this theory comes from.
"I think we let ourselves down last year. The competition . . . the boys know there are positions there and whoever has the 1-15 jerseys are the guys who are going to hold on to them if they play well enough," said Moran, who also singled out debutants Cathal Hallinan, Richie Feeney and Jason Gibbons for special mention.
His manager James Horan was in positive mood too after watching his side come from seven points down in the first half and from five points behind with twenty minutes to go.
"[It was] A good performance, [we] have to be happy. It was an exciting game towards the end. We probably could have snatched it with Peadar Gardiner's last chance but. .
"When you look back at the game and, where we were at the start, the soft goals we gave away and how Down were a confident team and started off very confidently, it took us a while to get to grips with them.
"But we stuck at it and built our way into the game and in the end we were the team dominating the game and, as I said, could have snatched it. But we'll take a point. There's a huge amount there for us to take away from that and to build on so I'd be very happy with the performance overall."
Horan singled out two of his most experienced players for praise but also admitted some others have to work at their fitness levels.
"Andy Moran and Alan Dillon, when we needed them, started to win the dirty ball, the breaking ball and kicked some outrageous scores, some great scores. But everyone, overall, really dug deep and gave everything they have.
"We've some guys at various levels of fitness, some of our guys aren't as fit as they could be, and on a wet pitch out there they might have struggled a little bit. But everyone kept trying, which is the main thing."
Horan conceded that his defence has stood off Down a little in the first half but that this was corrected after a half-time debriefing.
"Really, what happened in the first-half was their half-forward line were getting on an awful lot of ball. We weren't really going man-to-man, we were standing off maybe five or six yards and that was giving (Danny) Hughes and (Marty) Clarke too much time on the ball. "When we pushed up on those, and Ger Caff' in the second half did a fantastic job at that, and Kevin McLoughlin also, when we pushed up, we started winning the breaks at midfield and then the momentum went with us and it sort of changed the game a little bit."

[mannix]

Mayo are  25-1 WITH PADDYPOWER today, a tenner on them today will offset the citywest bill in september if the citywest is still operating. I know it sounds crazy but if all goes to all, we can just go to the Four Seasons in ballsbridge