Donegal v Fermanagh - Sunday 12th June 2016

[Rufus T Firefly]

Donegal have done poorly against Fermanagh before, in 2004 they changed the course of the championship when Fermanagh beat them in the qualifiers. Fermanagh went on to beat Armagh who were complacent on the day. Armagh might have won the AI if Donegal had won that day, as they would not have been playing Donegal and would not have been at all complacent against other opponents like Dublin.

You Armagh lads have some ego. Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe Fermanagh deserved to beat that Armagh team? Or have you been telling yourself that Armagh were "just complacent on the day" to convince yourself that the greatest Armagh side of all time weren't just a pack of 1 AI wonders?

Funny, Jack O'Se said on more than one occasion in his Sunday Times' column that that defeat cost Armagh the second All Ireland we so desperately craved. On that basis, Jacko has an ego about Armagh!?!?   

You'd think after 3 All Irelands and about four thousand National League titles, you'd have got over the bitterness felt after the torpedoing of the good ship Tommy Lyons, but clearly not.

[the goal was on]

Donegal looked decent, upped it when needed. On another point ryan mc Hugh likes a bit of playacting. Goes down handy and by God he stays down

[FermGael]

Very disappointed leaving Ballybofey today because that was a very poor second half display.
We created 3 good goal scoring chances including the penalty and failed to convert any of them. Donegal created two and buried both and that was the difference. We lacked composure on the occasions when the game was still in the mix.
Eoin was outstanding today and at times was taking the game to Donegal on his own. One of the best midfielders in Ireland at the moment.
For me McGee's was a straight red. The referee had no option. We left the sweeper in place after this and it played into the Donegal game plan. They were expecting us to do this. If we would have pushed the sweeper further up the field it might have put more pressure on Donegal. Instead we made it easy for them and basically didn't exploit our extra man.

E Mchugh was excellent for Donegal as was McGlynn and McBreatty and  MacNiallais. Murphy was clearly not fit. The main issue for Donegal would be in goals. Although the keeper made some excellent saves, when Fermanagh pushed up on his kickouts he either kicked them over the sideline or straight down the middle. I am sure Monaghan will look to exploit this.
Wexford away on Saturday week awaits.  Glad this game is 2 weeks away and not next Saturday. Will be a hard place to go but hopefully we can regroup and get a run going again through the back door.

[Conallach]

Logged in to post in this thread, but FermGael has covered most of it already, especially on the kickouts.

Fermanagh's attack was a wee bit shapeless, but I'm not sure that the backs would get away with such poor tackling again.

Good luck in Wexford! They're quite poor at present so I'd magine yous will come through.

[J70]

Very disappointed leaving Ballybofey today because that was a very poor second half display.
We created 3 good goal scoring chances including the penalty and failed to convert any of them. Donegal created two and buried both and that was the difference. We lacked composure on the occasions when the game was still in the mix.
Eoin was outstanding today and at times was taking the game to Donegal on his own. One of the best midfielders in Ireland at the moment.
For me McGee's was a straight red. The referee had no option. We left the sweeper in place after this and it played into the Donegal game plan. They were expecting us to do this. If we would have pushed the sweeper further up the field it might have put more pressure on Donegal. Instead we made it easy for them and basically didn't exploit our extra man.

E Mchugh was excellent for Donegal as was McGlynn and McBreatty and  MacNiallais. Murphy was clearly not fit. The main issue for Donegal would be in goals. Although the keeper made some excellent saves, when Fermanagh pushed up on his kickouts he either kicked them over the sideline or straight down the middle. I am sure Monaghan will look to exploit this.
Wexford away on Saturday week awaits.  Glad this game is 2 weeks away and not next Saturday. Will be a hard place to go but hopefully we can regroup and get a run going again through the back door.

Donegal had two additional excellent goal chances: the one O'Reilly fisted over, and the one the keeper saved from McBrearty.

Agree about our kick out issues.

[haranguerer]

Square ball for that goal. Already in square before pass.

I thought they changed the rule a few years back where the square ball rule was only in effect from a free or a 45??

Seems most thought that, including refs, umpires, and analysts. From open play changed from can't be in it til ball is in it, to can't be in it til player has hit pass.

[haranguerer]

Donegal have done poorly against Fermanagh before, in 2004 they changed the course of the championship when Fermanagh beat them in the qualifiers. Fermanagh went on to beat Armagh who were complacent on the day. Armagh might have won the AI if Donegal had won that day, as they would not have been playing Donegal and would not have been at all complacent against other opponents like Dublin.

You Armagh lads have some ego. Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe Fermanagh deserved to beat that Armagh team? Or have you been telling yourself that Armagh were "just complacent on the day" to convince yourself that the greatest Armagh side of all time weren't just a pack of 1 AI wonders?

Funny, Jack O'Se said on more than one occasion in his Sunday Times' column that that defeat cost Armagh the second All Ireland we so desperately craved. On that basis, Jacko has an ego about Armagh!?!?   

You'd think after 3 All Irelands and about four thousand National League titles, you'd have got over the bitterness felt after the torpedoing of the good ship Tommy Lyons, but clearly not.

It was a joke of an initial comment, and southdublinbro right to laugh at it. If your auntie had balls she'd be your uncle.

[skeog]

wee pete mc grath highly critical of donegals gamesmanship during the game

[winghalfun]

Who was our resident grass watcher from last week?

Thon turf on MacCumhaill Park looked very long.


Fermanagh gave it their best but I sense that Donegal had a lot more gears to go up if needed.

Would love to see a Tyrone v Donegal rematch in the final.

Not much between them and it would be good to get the excitement levels up.

[thebuzz]

Who was our resident grass watcher from last week?

Thon turf on MacCumhaill Park looked very long.


Fermanagh gave it their best but I sense that Donegal had a lot more gears to go up if needed.

Would love to see a Tyrone v Donegal rematch in the final.

Not much between them and it would be good to get the excitement levels up.

I think Tyrone will get past Cavan easier than Donegal will get past Monaghan.

[armaghniac]

Donegal have done poorly against Fermanagh before, in 2004 they changed the course of the championship when Fermanagh beat them in the qualifiers. Fermanagh went on to beat Armagh who were complacent on the day. Armagh might have won the AI if Donegal had won that day, as they would not have been playing Donegal and would not have been at all complacent against other opponents like Dublin.

You Armagh lads have some ego. Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe Fermanagh deserved to beat that Armagh team? Or have you been telling yourself that Armagh were "just complacent on the day" to convince yourself that the greatest Armagh side of all time weren't just a pack of 1 AI wonders?

Funny, Jack O'Se said on more than one occasion in his Sunday Times' column that that defeat cost Armagh the second All Ireland we so desperately craved. On that basis, Jacko has an ego about Armagh!?!?   

You'd think after 3 All Irelands and about four thousand National League titles, you'd have got over the bitterness felt after the torpedoing of the good ship Tommy Lyons, but clearly not.

It was a joke of an initial comment, and southdublinbro right to laugh at it. If your auntie had balls she'd be your uncle.

There are a couple of joke comments here and the initial one isn't in that set. This is a forum where people talk about the impact on games of  players missing, chances missed, referees, even the effect of the wind! Then you always get someone whom the discussion doesn't suit who reckons that the outcome tells all, in which case you wouldn't need a forum.

[heffo]

Donegal have done poorly against Fermanagh before, in 2004 they changed the course of the championship when Fermanagh beat them in the qualifiers. Fermanagh went on to beat Armagh who were complacent on the day. Armagh might have won the AI if Donegal had won that day, as they would not have been playing Donegal and would not have been at all complacent against other opponents like Dublin.

You Armagh lads have some ego. Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe Fermanagh deserved to beat that Armagh team? Or have you been telling yourself that Armagh were "just complacent on the day" to convince yourself that the greatest Armagh side of all time weren't just a pack of 1 AI wonders?

Funny, Jack O'Se said on more than one occasion in his Sunday Times' column that that defeat cost Armagh the second All Ireland we so desperately craved. On that basis, Jacko has an ego about Armagh!?!?   

The same Jack O'Se who described Ciaran Kilkenny as a Junior Footballer?

I know where I'll rank his judgement

[Fuzzman]

I didn't see the game live yesterday and just saw some of the highlights last night.

I see Pete McGrath is giving out a bit about Donegal's gamesmanship and reading this report from the Indo it sounds like Donegal were indeed using all their old tricks that we experienced with them last few years.

Just wondering what did any of ye think who were at the match or watched it live?
After the Tyrone v Donegal game last year there was a lot written about how it was such a bad tempered game and a lot of spite has built up between the teams and a few asking why is it always Tyrone.
The Ulster championship has been quite low key with not much incident this year so far so I was just wondering was it very different yesterday?

With Neil McGee out for the Monaghan match and Murphy looking like he's struggling I wonder will Monaghan see their chance of doing two in a row. You would expect it to be another feisty affair with discipline again to the fore.
by Declan Bogue.

It wasn't quite trickery to rival Houdini, but Donegal left themselves chained into a box at the bottom of River Finn before systematically escaping their binds to comfortably dismiss Fermanagh from the Ulster Championship.
At the stroke of half-time, Fermanagh had weathered a scoring blitz by the home side to leave two points between the sides. Running out of ideas in attack, Aidan Breen floated a hopeful ball across the face of goal that Sean Quigley fetched.
Although he was tripped, referee Maurice Deegan passed on the penalty appeal. However, he couldn't ignore the blatant forearm smash by Neil McGee on Ruairi Corrigan, which earned the Gweedore man a straight red card.

This prompted an extended period of faux outrage and appeals. Donegal men surrounded Deegan. While he made his deliberations, goalkeeper Mark Anthony McGinley conducted a close-up conversation with Fermanagh penalty-taker Quigley.
The Roslea man's penalty wasn't hit with conviction or placed well. McGinley batted it away and the ref immediately called for half-time. McGee sprinted on to confront Deegan and Donegal manager Rory Gallagher made his point also with the half-time score Donegal 1-6 Fermanagh 0-7.

Pete McGrath was not happy with several elements of what he termed Donegal's "gamesmanship", and said of Deegan's delay between offence and penalty kick, "For him to allow that amount of time to elapse [more than two minutes] and the penalty being taken, I mean that's unacceptable. It's unacceptable."
Gallagher's take on it was quite different. "I thought I heard a whistle for a free out and Neil is adamant that he heard a whistle for a free out and then he kind of shrugged his man off," he said.

Still, when Eamonn McGee dragged Sean Quigley down by the arm - perilously close to the penalty area - and Tomás Corrigan tapped over, it left one point in the game and McGrath's men up a man.
From then on, they froze. Call it a case of not truly believing in themselves, but when Donegal put together a rapid-fire sequence of handpasses through the excellent and probing Frank McGlynn and Martin McElhinney, they opened up a scoring chance for Martin O'Reilly. Instead of kicking his point, he spotted Odhrán MacNiallais on the edge of the square, slipped it to him and MacNiallais palmed to the net - Fermanagh then crumbled.

That score opened a five-point gap. It was the second goal for MacNiallais. In the first half McGlynn played a quick give-and-go with McElhinney to give the stylish MacNiallais a sight on goal - he went high and hard past Fermanagh goalkeeper Chris Snow.
MacNiallais was the star turn here, followed closely by McGlynn, who operated at centre-forward and showed calmness on the ball. Once the second goal went in, it was time to drain the life from the game. Twenty-one minutes were sandwiched between Corrigan free-kicks - Fermanagh's first and second scores of the half.

From that point on, the game grew more predictable. Fermanagh had failed to take advantage of the great position they had put themselves in. For the last 10 minutes of the first half, they pushed up on the Donegal kickouts, prompting McGinley to put two of them over the sideline.
Asked to explain how they re-jigged things at half-time, McGrath commented, "I think there were too many individual battles lost in certain areas of the field in the second half to make the extra man a benefit.

"Too often in the second half we were on the back foot, and they were winning a lot of individual battles, they were showing composure. They were sucking us towards them and popping the ball and that type of thing and the seminal moment of the second half was the Donegal second goal, which gave them all the energy and all the momentum to keep us on the back foot."
Donegal's familiarity with the confines and their own play was writ large on an impressive second half. They fed Fermanagh attackers Tomás Corrigan and Quigley on very strict rations and showed their mean face on a few occasions.

When Quigley had a long-range free in the first-half, Donegal players surrounded him in a tight semi-circle, employing some mind games. As the second half progressed, players went down easily - "feigning injury", McGrath said - leaving little time to fashion a recovery.
O'Reilly followed the goal with a point that required dogged persistence. The marking was getting looser when Paddy McBrearty posted a point and by McElhinney's solitary score, they had demoralised their opponents.

And all this with a Michael Murphy who was operating at around half of his normal capacity and of course, no Karl Lacey.

"We had seven or eight lads who were not there in 2012 and I suppose there is a wee bit of a transition from that point of view," said Gallagher in the post-match briefing.
"We still feel that we have a really good team and we can be a match for anyone."

After an eight-week lay-off going into this game, they now have a mere 13 days to get themselves ready for a grudge match, an Ulster semi-final against Monaghan, a repeat of the last three Ulster finals, in Kingspan Breffni Park on June 25.

"The recovery process starts now. Bodies will be sore, we picked up a few knocks during the game and a lot of wee, small things went against us," added Gallagher.

[skeog]

bogue not a good judge being a fermanagh man with rose tinted glasses

[J70]

Did McGrath highlight any specific incidents of supposed play acting?