Fermanagh Football & Hurling

[ExiledGael]

Anyone see the Herald or Impartial this week, according to both Ryan McCluskey and Eamon Maguire have both returned to the county squad this week and are in contention to play on Sunday. Has to be good news, with any luck Marty will get some game time too. Need all the good news we can get.

[unitedireland]

Will the under 21's win on Wednesday and lift the gloom on fermanagh football?

[Emmett]

Just back from the game and my disappointment has not faded one bit. We were totally dominated and outclassed from start to finish. A totally disheartening performance! The only positives were the return of the 3 players and the effort of Ciaran Flaherty. Martin OBrien did ok after a shaky start and looks to have potential. Hopefully when Blobby and the Gallaghers return we should improve    For whats its worth here are my ratings...........

Stephen Jackson 4 - Poor kickouts and indecisive with ball in hand. Gifted 2 points 2 Louth and almost a goal as well
Niall Bogue 5 - Nowhere near tight enough on his man and was caught in possession a few times
Martin OBrien 6.5 - Struggled with his man and the high ball early on but grew into the game and was decent overall
Peter Sherry 5 - Unusually for Peter he was very loose in his marking. This could be down to lack of game time. Looks to have bulked up a bit
Barry Mulrone 5.5 - Tried hard but was very slow to release the ball and ran into too many cul-de-sacs
Ryan McCluskey 6 - Great to see him back and although he did nothing wrong we will still be expecting much better later in the year
Tommy McElroy 6.5 - Mr Consistent in this team. Always good for a point and would be a massive loss if he got injured
James Sherry 6 - James was the pick of our midfielders but didn't win a clean ball until the 55 minute
Martin McGrath 5.5 - Seemed to be trying too hard, hopefully he will be more relaxed next time out. Would have walked if the ref got the right man
Ciaran Flaherty 7 - Tireless worker and hard to shrug off the ball. Perhaps he runs the ball too often and should shoot more
Matty Keenan 6 - Scored a few handy frees but never really got in the game in open play
Kevin Cosgrove 5 - Again tried hard and got a good fisted point. However it is clear that he is only a stop gap at this stage
Eamonn Maguire 6 - Got a nice point from play. It was obvious that his lack of match practice was impeding him and he will improve
Aidan McCarron 4 - Innocuous. Perhaps he didn't get the service but he was not showing for the ball enough either
Ciaran McElroy 5 - Didn't work hard enough and hesitant when in possession. Unlucky to be sent off for a second booking as ref got the wrong man

Subs

Paul Ward 6 - Looked dangerous and almost got in for a goal but didn't get the run of the ball
Daniel Ward - Not on long enough to be rated. Not County standard though
Ryan Keenan 5.5 - Tried to get the boys going but by the time he came on we were down to 14 and the heads were down
Niall McGover - Not on long enough to be rated

[FermPundit]

Disappointing result today, especially after the performance against Antrim last week. There wasn't much improvement to be honest. We now face an uphill battle to stay up and its hard to see where our next victory will come from. It looks like there is zero confidence in the team. Decision making is poor and decent players are making silly errors on a frequent basis.

Our best performers today were Ryan McCluskey, Tommy McElroy and Ciaran Flaherty. It was good to see Marty and Eamon back. They didn't have their best games today, but we need to give them time to get their match fitness back. 

Our defence today was as loose as I can ever remember. The Louth forwards won every ball that came their way. I was surprised that O'Rourke didn't introduce Shane Goan or Shane Lyons at a early stage. Surely both of these players would give the full back line much needed experience?

The chances of success against Wexford next weekend looks very remote so the home game against Sligo will probably decide our fate. We should have the Gallaghers back then and the players who have just returned will have an extra game under their belts.

On current form we probably derserve to be relegated but we need to keep fighting for our Division 3 lives. Division 4 football will do us no favours next year. Hopefully Malachy O'Rourke can lift the spirits and motivate the boys for what will be an important few weeks for Fermanagh football.

[DirtyDozen12]

Where is Mark Little?  Is he not playing for Fermanagh the year?

[FermPundit]

Does anyone know when Blooby returns from suspension? Am I right in saying that he returns for the last game against Cavan?

[ExiledGael]

Not sure about Blobby.
It looks like the fields of Waterford, Carlow, Leitrim, London and Kilkenny await.
Even two wins against Sligo and in Cavan might not be enough.
Didn't hear much today but a second half Bradley goal killed us, Rory Gallagher scored about six points and James Sherry was sent off. We must have the worst disciplinary record in the league. And maybe the worst team in it at the minute too.

[haranguerer]

Malachy is the right man for the job in my opinion, and I'd be happy to see him at the hilt for another few years at least. I'm thinking though that he might have learnt an awful lot from this league campaign, about management, himself. I'm going to assume the worst, just to get the post mortem in early, and it seems to me those McKenna cup wins were a bad thing - at the time I couldnt believe we were winning with the teams that were being put out, obviously though, I was delighted to see it.

Now I wonder however if it gave us all, especially Malachy, a little too much faith in unproven players. There has, of course, been a lot of players unavailable, but there were experienced players such as Shane Lyons and Shane Goan, who were available, but werent played. Instead there were vastly inexperienced teams put out, and unfortunately exposed. One or two players can have a big impact on games. With inexperience, when things go wrong,heads drop easier, and its harder to turn defeats round; it seems this is what is happening. Probably too late, we have players available, and our strongest team out, but I have to say I think Malachy displayed bad judgement in his selections earleir in the league.

Thoughts?

[unitedireland]

Ulster U21FC: Goals see Derry through
25 March 2010
Derry 5-9
Fermanagh 2-12
Late goals from Benny Heron and Aaron Kerrigan were enough to see Derry through to the semi-finals of the Cadbury's Ulster Under 21 FC at the expense of a brave Fermanagh side last night at Celtic Park.

The visitors had fought back after two early goals from Derry, which saw Kerrigan netting inside the first two minutes and Lee Moore latching onto Caolan O'Boyle's pass and smashing in a wonderful finish.

Fermanagh responded with points from Daryl Keenan, Chris O'Brien (2) and Kevin Connelly to cut the gap to four points, before the O'Boyle-Moore combination struck again to leave the ball nestling in the Erne net and give Derry a 3-3 to 0-4 advantage.

On that score-line Derry looked to be cruising, but within five minutes of the second-half the Ernesiders struck for goal after a mix up at the back from the hosts allowed O'Brien to tuck the ball to the net.

Seven minutes later and Fermanagh were level when the lethal O'Brien collected a pass from Connelly, turned and buried the ball past the Derry goalkeeper to put the scores at 2-8 to 3-5.

Ryan Jones put them in front moments later with a point, but Derry had a big finish in them and in the last eight minutes they raised the green flag twice with Heron and then Kerrigan finally killing off the Fermanagh challenge.


Hogandstand

They sounderd like they played well enough. If the defence tightened up they may have won.

[unitedireland]

Many people think that a competitive club championship is the breading ground for a county team, because of the small numbers of teams in fermanagh should a donegal championship system be put in place.
Two legs and a third leg if teams win one game each. have straight semis and a final.
Your thoughts

[FermGael]

Was at the match last night. They just could not handle the Derry full forward line.  Foy did not look match fit at all and is not a natural full back. 
Cox played well at Center half back, as did young O'Brien from Newtown at WHB.
Midfield played well.
Fermanagh forwards were very lively and kicked some great scores. Did not have some of the hang ups that there senior colleagues seem to suffer from.
Chris O'Brien scored a great goal and needs to be given a chance with the senior team.
Tomas Corrigan also showed up well.  Keenan played well.
The team showed great heart. They were 8 or 9 points behind at half time but came back to lead by a point with 15 minutes to go.
Man getting sent off just left them with too much to do in the last 15.  Derry played the extra man very well and sprung some good men of the bench.  Fermanagh just did not have that depth in their panel
If they would have cut out the silly goals, they would have won.

[FermPundit]

That was painful to watch today. As a loyal Fermanagh supporter its hard to accept that we'll playing division 4 football next season. A National league division one semi final, an all Ireland semi final and an Ulster final appearance seem like a life time ago. Whether we want to accept it or not we deserve to be relegated. When was the last time that we conceded 3-15 at home? Our defence used to be the foundation on which we built our team, but this year we have been as poor as I can remember at the back. Our decision making at times is naive and we turn the ball over at crucial times, usually when we look like we're getting back into games.
Bar the Roscommon game, which was a robbery by the way, we haven't really looked like winning any game. The league table doesn't lie and unfortunately we've been the poorest team in this division. Injuries and retirements have hit us hard and too many inexperienced players have been thrown in at the same time.
Where do we go from here? I'm not really sure to be honest. Confidence is at an all time low and I don't have much hope for the Ulster Championship. Given that we play Cavan in June I still hope we go to Breffni Park in two weeks time and put in a spirited performance.
Fermanagh is a proud football county and as we enjoyed the days out in Croke Park we must continue to support the team in the next few years. I suppose if you are to rebuild a team, Division 4 is the place to do it.
Keep the faith. Fear Manach Abu!

[Emmett]

Absolutely shocking 1st half performance! All 6 backs were nowhere near close enough to the Sligo forwards; we couldn't win a ball in midfield and the forwards were almost completely static. It was hard to watch our best passer, Ryan McCluskey, receive the ball and then look up to play the ball forward but the forwards were justing standing looking back at him.The 2nd half was a bit of an improvement with the players at least showing a bit of heart. Rory Gallagher did well when moved to CHF and Sherry and Cosgrove competed better in midfield. At one stage we had battled back to 3 points behind but the game was killed off by a very soft goal and then a breakaway goal after we were cheaply dispossessed. Chris OBrien looks to have potential and should start next time out. It is essential that we put in a performance in the final game to at least lift the players spirits. Will Blobby be back? What was wrong with Marty today? How far is Barry Owens from recovery?

[FermPundit]

Absolutely shocking 1st half performance! All 6 backs were nowhere near close enough to the Sligo forwards; we couldn't win a ball in midfield and the forwards were almost completely static. It was hard to watch our best passer, Ryan McCluskey, receive the ball and then look up to play the ball forward but the forwards were justing standing looking back at him.The 2nd half was a bit of an improvement with the players at least showing a bit of heart. Rory Gallagher did well when moved to CHF and Sherry and Cosgrove competed better in midfield. At one stage we had battled back to 3 points behind but the game was killed off by a very soft goal and then a breakaway goal after we were cheaply dispossessed. Chris OBrien looks to have potential and should start next time out. It is essential that we put in a performance in the final game to at least lift the players spirits. Will Blobby be back? What was wrong with Marty today? How far is Barry Owens from recovery?

Blooby received a 4 week suspension against Antrim so he's available for the Cavan match. Who knows if he'll play. I suppose it all depends on how we approach the game. Malachy O'Rourke might as well put out the u21's

Marty McGrath was injured today. Not sure what was wrong with him.

I haven't a clue how Barry Owen's recovery is going, but I would be surprised if we see him in a green jersey this summer.

[unitedireland]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/northern_ireland/8592037.stm
O Rourke talking about fermanagh's relegation from D3