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But the thing is that it is widely reconised that Dublin have placed one of their worse games of the year and they beat a Derry team playing at their best! would you agree?

We were not at our best for the 2nd half... Lynch had a shocker McGuckin having his first game back from injury struggled where usually he wouldn't and we were missing Murphy for the entire 2nd half. We'll see over the next 2 years if that was us at our best and I can safely say that we can do better!

I havent seen any All - Stars in the Derry team, but they pick up a pitty one!

If Dublin don't get past Kerry they'll be lucky to get 2 Alstars!!!

I picked Henry, Cullen, Whelan and Keaney for Allstars before the Derry game... did any of them do anything to justify this on Saturday??

Possibly Cluxton has pushed himself closer but that would be it IMO!

Hang on, who were the nominations for MOTM?

Well from the game I saw Derry had the outstanding performers in P. Bradley, Doherty, and McCloy. After that you had Murphy who was another outstanding performer in the first half who took a probable all star winner in Cullen to the absolute cleaners.

From the Dublin team B. Brogan was good in the first half but faded in the 2nd. Alan Brogan had a decent game without being overly spectacular which is indicative of the DUblin team. In short Dublin have more players playing to a consistently good level whereas Derry have 4/5 outstanding performers but maybe 3/4 of the team play poorly.

Barely beating a Derry team who lost their best player from the 1st half is hardly a level above us!!!

If ye'd lost Brogan for the 2nd half it could just as easily have been the other way around.

Anyway nobody said that Derry would definitely win the game, in fact pretty much everyone agreed that the Dubs would win as they had been together longer... were better prepared... etc. and that is exactly how it panned out. To say that Dublin are 'a level if not 2 above Derry' is nonsense!

Also it was evident from yesterdays match that indeed Derry have better footballers than Dublin, but as a team Dublin perform better.

Very very diasppointed with the match today... I think we'll never have a better chance to beat them!

Personally I think that starting McGuckin was maybe a mistake (hindsight's a great thing eh?). It disrupted our line slightly and he was defintiely a but rusty. McCloy was an absolute collusus... the man was simply immense today. Lockhart struggled, but it was clear to see that he was trying his best and to be fair A. Brogan is a quality player. I thought G. O'Kane played pretty well and was good on the break. McGoldrick at CHF was OK but I think he would have been better utilised in the corner. Francis McEldowney also struggled with Brogan and to be fair (with hindsight again) I thin kB. Brogan mightn't have done as well if Hinphey had 'saftnened' him early on as he likes to do.

Midfield, Doherty was simply immense. Against CIaran Whelan, your side down 5 points, to take a one handed catch like that is just courage and skill of the highest order. He was my man of the match. Conway struggled on Whelan in the first half and then Ryan in the 2nd half. Diver could have came on earlier IMO.

Half forward line, Lynch had a stinker, Murphy was awesome in the first half, and unfortunately Muldoon went a but missing at crucial stages although he did win some good primary possession at times. Full forward line were very good, Bradley and Devlin when they got ball looked very dangerous but we didn't get enough good ball into them. Gilligan was excellent first half but struggled 2nd half.

As for our subs well i think all has been said about E. Bradley. His introduction IMO disrupted the flow of the team. I thought we left it a bit late to bring Diver also.

All in all I enjoyed the game and the better team definitely won. The referee was dodgy for us in the 1st half with Devlin's apparent 'double bounce' and that push over the line for Vaughan's 45 at the end of the first half.

For DUblin, I'd be very worried as we showed up a lot of weaknesses which were being argues over the past week on here. Cluxton kept them in the game and whenyour goalkeeper is your best player you're in a bit of trouble. However the Dubs can still win the All Ireland and it will be an interesting last few games from now on in... anyway Derry have a good foundation there and if Muldoon and Lockhart can be persuaded to stay on we have a definite chance next year... Monaghan for SAM!!!!!

Good man Superhans, sure I might see you about!

As for all the crap both sides have been spouting all week wll it doesn't matter a damn anymore! Bring it on... best of luck to everyone and hope you all enjoy the match and the weekend.

Here's to a Derry victory!!!

'Mon the Leafers!!!

"He scores one, he scores 2, Enda's gonna score a few with a knick knack paddy whack give a dog a bone, send those jackeen knackers home!!!"

Here does anyone have an IN account?

There's a great article about Derry in 1993 and about them breaking from the march before they came to the hill... will we see a repeat of this audacious move tomorrow?

Great line from Scullion too

"A lot of people say things about the Dublin supporters. I would say they are great. They are tremendous. When we came out at half-time we were defending the Hill. I had moved back to mark Vinny [Murphy].

You could hear the supporters on the Hill shouting 'Come on Vinny, Come on Vinny'. But inside of me I was saying to myself 'By God if I can help it boy, you'll not be gettin' her!'. It was great. It was fearsome."

Think it's something along the lines of "Why are you talking about the 6 counties? There are 9 counties in Ulster... god I hate all you Tyrone hoors with your Britishness and always saying that we're from Londonderry and all! Pack of hateful jealous hoors youse the lot of ye I reckon!"

Derry's entire FB line, Doc, Muldoon, Bradley, Kevin McGuckin and going on current form I'd say Paul Murphy as well probably!

OK so there seems to be a good bit of evidence there that Bonds has been taking steroids but the whole Armstrong thing kind of pisses me off as the lad has never tested postive for drugs or transfusions whereas there have been a huge amount of Cyclists caught in the past 10 year's... anything said about Armstrong is speculation and declaring the man guilty while he has been proven innocent time and time again is just cynicism of the worst kind!

As for him speaking out about drug use all the time, he strikes me as being a fairly intelligent fella so it wouldn't make much sense for him to go around berating people for taking drugs if he's doing it himself and given his persona if he were to be caught it would completely ruin the man's reputation and credibility forever... too big a risk I would say!

[Division 1]

Division Placings for 2008 Season

Division 1

Mayo | Donegal | Laois | Kerry | Derry | Kildare | Tyrone | Galway

Division 2

Armagh | Dublin | Cork | Westmeath | Monaghan | Roscommon | Cavan | Meath

Division 3

Limerick | Fermanagh | Louth | Down | Longford | Leitrim | Wexford | Sligo

Division 4

Antrim | Offaly | Clare | Carlow | London | Tipperary | Waterford | Wicklow

Have a spare ticket for the match if anyone needs one send me a PM.

I am glad that Dublin have hte approach that if your looking to win the All-Ireland you should look to be the best in your own province first....

What county doesn't try and win their Provincial cship??? It's the easiest route to an All Ireland so obviously most teams try and do this.

I think the point that SF is trying to make is that you would trade your provincial cship to make it into the semi finals of the AI with a chance for the big prize... it would be stupid not to!

Maybe it's just me but I would have thought hitting a home run in baseball is more about timing and technique rather than actual brute strength. For this reason I am not that annoyed about Bonds breaking the record last nite.

Personally I wouldn't see steroids in Baseball as bad as say Ben Johnson cheating an Olympic gold or that dumbass Floyd Landis last year cheating a Tour de France!

[anyone]

Do you really believe that Derry will win?

Certainly do! We wouldn't have gotten this far if we didn't have the talent to beat Dublin. Whether we carry it through or not is a different story. As I have said before on our day we are capable of beating anyone, whether we do or not is a different story. Same to be true of Dublin, on their best day they are capable of beating Kerry, would it happen? Probably not but that's the beauty of the game.

At the end of the day even you would have to admit that the match is by no means a foregone conclusion and that Derry do have the potential to cause an upset.