Fermanagh v Derry - Ulster Football Championship Quarter-Final, Sat 15th April

[5times5times]

Watching Gallagher again there on TSG, does he not trust his players to carry out his plans without his constant barking?

His goal celebrations were utter cringe and 100% for the camera. Couldn't like him if you reared him.

[tbrick18]

I don't get what Benny Heron adds to Derry or why Gallagher continues to share him or be the first sub in.
Conor Doherty was poor yesterday. As was Niall toner and Niall Loughlin.
Toner is too easy blocked and there isn't an end product for all Niall's endeavour.
McAvoy is a thoroughbred, class act.
Lynch was excellent yesterday but I still get nervous and think he will eventually get caught out.
Great to see Mccloskey getting a score. He's been brilliant and we can get more out of him as a scorer with his pace, especially fisted points.
Shane was excellent. A real threat.

Yes you can probably question the ability of those 3 up front to rack up big scores but one thing they give the team is a ferocious work rate.

Maybe Murray/McWilliams/O'Donnell can offer more of a scoring threat but will they put the work in to get up and down the pitch as is required by the Derry game plan?

Benny scored a few goals last year.
Nial Louglin would have taken frees but doesn't seem to be doing that this year so his scoring stats are low.
Toner racked up a few points during the league and did get on the scoresheet yesterday.
But as you say, their workrate is immense. Tactically it might make sense to have the work horses on for the the first 3/4s then bring on the score getters in the final quarter?

Worrying thing for me is that Monaghan racked up a score against Tyrone just 1 goal short of what we scored against Fermanagh. I feel we should have scored much more in this game. Or maybe, Tyrone's defence are just woeful.

[Walter Cronc]

Mckinless, Loughlin, Doherty (to a lesser extent) have all dropped off in form compared to last year. Thankfully tad had a good game. Still would like to see Murray start as he's a serious talent. Perhaps they are keeping him for u20s

[Mario]

Mckinless, Loughlin, Doherty (to a lesser extent) have all dropped off in form compared to last year. Thankfully tad had a good game. Still would like to see Murray start as he's a serious talent. Perhaps they are keeping him for u20s

I doubt Gallagher is keeping anyone for u20s. Agree about Murray's talent but outside of Dublin game in Celtic park he hasn't had a big impact on any game yet (he did score in AI semi but game was over). Maybe Gallagher thinks he isn't ready yet.

Disagree big time on Doherty, he has been excellent all year and was again on Sat. He's one of the best wing half forwards in the country. I'd say his only quiet game was the league final and i think he was played out of position in that one due to injuries. His change of direction to beat a man is brilliant and always picks the right pass.

Loughlin still worth his place but agree he hasn't been as good as last year - has missed a good few goal chances.

[screenexile]

Mckinless, Loughlin, Doherty (to a lesser extent) have all dropped off in form compared to last year. Thankfully tad had a good game. Still would like to see Murray start as he's a serious talent. Perhaps they are keeping him for u20s

I doubt Gallagher is keeping anyone for u20s. Agree about Murray's talent but outside of Dublin game in Celtic park he hasn't had a big impact on any game yet (he did score in AI semi but game was over). Maybe Gallagher thinks he isn't ready yet.

Disagree big time on Doherty, he has been excellent all year and was again on Sat. He's one of the best wing half forwards in the country. I'd say his only quiet game was the league final and i think he was played out of position in that one due to injuries. His change of direction to beat a man is brilliant and always picks the right pass.

Loughlin still worth his place but agree he hasn't been as good as last year - has missed a good few goal chances.

I would have said Conor Doherty hasn't played as well as he did last year. He's been steady but just not as good as last year.

Ethan has been excellent I've no problem with how he's been playing.

[NotedObserver]

Think a thing is too that other teams know plenty more about Derry and who to mark. I expect Derry to beat Monaghan as thought tyrone had a chances in first half for goals if they made an extra pass which Derry are v good at

[Walter Cronc]

Mckinless, Loughlin, Doherty (to a lesser extent) have all dropped off in form compared to last year. Thankfully tad had a good game. Still would like to see Murray start as he's a serious talent. Perhaps they are keeping him for u20s

I doubt Gallagher is keeping anyone for u20s. Agree about Murray's talent but outside of Dublin game in Celtic park he hasn't had a big impact on any game yet (he did score in AI semi but game was over). Maybe Gallagher thinks he isn't ready yet.

Disagree big time on Doherty, he has been excellent all year and was again on Sat. He's one of the best wing half forwards in the country. I'd say his only quiet game was the league final and i think he was played out of position in that one due to injuries. His change of direction to beat a man is brilliant and always picks the right pass.

Loughlin still worth his place but agree he hasn't been as good as last year - has missed a good few goal chances.

Ah jaysus Mario I'm on about Conor. Not Ethan. Never slag a fellow Watty

[Brick Tamlin]

Derry are on the road to nowhere unless they get McFaul back into that team soon.
Cant have a telented baller like that sitting scratching himself on the sideline. Doesnt make sense.

[Wildweasel74]

One of those forwards mentioned, watch the game and tell me how many times he actually touched the ball, Derry still need a couple of scoring forwards, look at Cavanan and, McCurry, McManus and McCarron to a lesser extend, they got scoring outlets, we nearly limited to high scores from McGuigan.

[jmcgdoire]

I was surprised we didnt see McFaul in action over the weekend.
A perfect opportunity to start him in a game that realistically we were always going to win. RG would get to see what shape hes in and also give Conor more time to recover from the hamstring.
Only reason i can see against it would be the message it sends to his other subs although i dont think Rory has ever been too bothered about that.

[Estimator]

One of those forwards mentioned, watch the game and tell me how many times he actually touched the ball, Derry still need a couple of scoring forwards, look at Cavanan and, McCurry, McManus and McCarron to a lesser extend, they got scoring outlets, we nearly limited to high scores from McGuigan.

Toner actually had a great league for Derry.  He scored 3-11 in total and maybe only a couple of them were frees. Outside of McGuigan, he was our main scoring threat in Division 2.  Comparing with the other two forwards mentioned earlier - Heron scored 0-6 and Loughlin 1-02 (1f) in the league. Out of those three I'd say Heron had the least time on the pitch.

But Gallagher values that work rate from the ff line, the tracking back, being a nuisance, doing a specific job.
The fact that Derry have had a great spread of scorers throughout the league and even against Fermanagh - 11 in total, slightly masks the fact that a lot is dependant on McGuigan.

Plus, the way that Derry are playing means that it is easier for those runners coming through, breaking the lines, to get scores.

[tbrick18]

One of those forwards mentioned, watch the game and tell me how many times he actually touched the ball, Derry still need a couple of scoring forwards, look at Cavanan and, McCurry, McManus and McCarron to a lesser extend, they got scoring outlets, we nearly limited to high scores from McGuigan.

Toner actually had a great league for Derry.  He scored 3-11 in total and maybe only a couple of them were frees. Outside of McGuigan, he was our main scoring threat in Division 2.  Comparing with the other two forwards mentioned earlier - Heron scored 0-6 and Loughlin 1-02 (1f) in the league. Out of those three I'd say Heron had the least time on the pitch.

But Gallagher values that work rate from the ff line, the tracking back, being a nuisance, doing a specific job.
The fact that Derry have had a great spread of scorers throughout the league and even against Fermanagh - 11 in total, slightly masks the fact that a lot is dependant on McGuigan.

Plus, the way that Derry are playing means that it is easier for those runners coming through, breaking the lines, to get scores.

Of course it would be great to have another high scoring forward like mcguigan, but we dont.
I still think the players we have are the best available for the type of game we play. The fermanagh game McGuigan didn't play his normal game where he was out the field a lot, he spent a lot more time closer to goals and that somewhat explains the high score rate. The penalty in the mix bumps it up too.
If we can get Nial/Toner/Heron/Murray chipping in with a few more scores we'd be in a great position as Cassidy and Ethan doherty will certainly privide scores from half forward. Even just a couple of points a game each from these guys would make a huge difference.
I still wouldnt be too worried about us not scoring enough at the moment, our main worry is conceding goals.

[Silver hill]

I was surprised we didnt see McFaul in action over the weekend.
A perfect opportunity to start him in a game that realistically we were always going to win. RG would get to see what shape hes in and also give Conor more time to recover from the hamstring.
Only reason i can see against it would be the message it sends to his other subs although i dont think Rory has ever been too bothered about that.

Think he actually had a slight quad twinge hence not risked.

[ck]

Watching Gallagher again there on TSG, does he not trust his players to carry out his plans without his constant barking?

His goal celebrations were utter cringe and 100% for the camera. Couldn't like him if you reared him.

Absolutely for the camera. Very disrespectful to his home county too.