Connacht U-21 Championship 2009

[mayo51]

mayo   2.06        galway 0.10 . 2 min to go

[mayo51]

mayo  2.06        galway 0.11  f.t concannon missed chance at the end to draw level.kevin mclaughlin m.o.m. excellent win against a highly rated galway team.

[Zulu]

Would that be seen as a disappointing performance from Mayo considering the Galway injuries?

[mayo51]

Would that be seen as a disappointing performance from Mayo considering the Galway injuries?

not really .winning the game is all thats required in the early rounds of the championship  and even tho galway had alot of injuries it still gives me great satisfaction  in    beating our great rivals.

[Farrandeelin]

I agree with mayo51, however Mayo's performance wasn't that bad. Should be more in front at half time I thought. I also think that Mayo's attack could have scored more but the wind or bad judgement took the ball away from the posts and wide. I'm delighted Kevin McLoughlin got motm, he did break down a lot of the Galway attacks I thought and maybe O'Shea at centrefield gave him a run for money. Anyway it's lovely to beat Galway by a point. Roscommon next up next week, won't be easy as their minor team from 06 will be u-21 for the last time and will want to win and make an impression I'm sure. Charlestown beckons again next Saturday...

[moysider]

Would that be seen as a disappointing performance from Mayo considering the Galway injuries?

Not really. Not sure about the extent of the Galway injury crisis. The selected Galway team did nt start and the ended up with a monster full-forward line and not the midgets we were led to expect. We were much smaller than them. But generally faster and more skilful. How they continually produce big players who can play a bit while we re usually smaller is something I dont understand.

In reality mayo should have wrapped up this match with plenty to spare but our legendary disposition to benevolence was in evidence and we left Galway in the game and nearly paid the price.

We settled slowly and dominating possession were utterly wasteful. The fullforward line did not function as a unit and as individuals in fits and starts. We kicked some awful wides and should have had at least 1 more goal in first half ( a weak shot by Vaughan after a great run). Also a bizarre decision by referee Hunt to disallow a goal for no apparent reason. The ref was iffy to say the least and the man could hardly be blamed for thinking Roscommon might have a better chance playing Galway than Mayo on the evidence of most of this match. If Galway had won today where would the Ros v Galway semi have been? Apart from McEnaney and yer man that was in charge of the U21 final a few years ago v Cork who rode us for the first 20 mins, I usually dont mind refs much at inter-county level. Actually when the crowd started laughing  that day in Ennis, about his obviously biased decisions he switched and the game changed. It was amazing. Things went  beyond booing and people watching on tv could hear the crowd laughing about the decisions given against us.  But today did nt feel right at times. I dont think a Connacht referee should be refereeing Connacht matches at championship level in any grade. Smart refs can change the course of a game with a few well judged borderline calls.

No freetaker which cost us 3 relatively easy points.

We faded badly in last 10 and the sideline did little to help. When O Sé was moved to 11 in first half when we had the wind we ended up with a total  mismatch in midfield with height. In fairness to Cathal Carolan he put in a great hour s work about the field. When their giant sub -fullforward was isolated 1 on 1 inside on Keane no attempt was made to pull a man back to help cover and but for the grace of God it could have been a disaster. Like a lot of Mayo teams this is a running passing team without an obvious targetman. It just cant afford the luxury of 3 men hanging around hands on hip inside waiting for ball to come in. There s no space either and they just run accross one another. Just as well we had a 10 and 12 with a propensity for hard work.

We had lots of good performances and nobody stank the place out. For me our best were Vaughan, Keegan, McLoughlin, Parsons, O Sé, Carolan, Freeman and Sweeney in flashes. I would have given MOM to Freeman. Worked hard, passed well, found the space. He is the real deal and should be promoted to senior panel sooner than later.But I m delighted that Kevin McLoughlin got MOM and of course again he was as good as I expected him to be.

Next week its Ros in Charlestown. If it was up to me I d have brought them to Knockmore or Crossmolina and give them a bit of Kiltoom. Charlestown is a fine pitch but the crowd always seems to be too polite and civilised.

Oh, and it was I dunno, interesting to see that we used the full forward formation that M&M brought to proceedings some years ago. Brolly called it the 'nut' I think and everybody had a laugh. Great idea but did nt work too well. Unlikely it will be called the 'nut' in this week' s locals. Unlikely many noticed.

[Rossfan]

The ref was iffy to say the least and the man could hardly be blamed for thinking Roscommon might have a better chance playing Galway than Mayo 

Charlestown is a fine pitch but the crowd always seems to be too polite and civilised.

Well it is reasonably near Roscommon after all 

By the way who was  the big bad bold ref who "was awful to ye"    yesterday?

[Tatler Jack]

Charlestown is a fine pitch but the crowd always seems to be too polite and civilised.

Thats because of its proximity to Sligo and Ros Further west if you want an uncivilised crowd!!!

[moysider]

The ref was iffy to say the least and the man could hardly be blamed for thinking Roscommon might have a better chance playing Galway than Mayo 

Charlestown is a fine pitch but the crowd always seems to be too polite and civilised.

Well it is reasonably near Roscommon after all 

By the way who was  the big bad bold ref who "was awful to ye"    yesterday?

Did nt say he was awful, iffy was the expression I used. His name I already mentioned. I m sure he s a decent ref. Never saw him before. Just dont like Connacht referees for these matches. A couple of his decisions were dodgy yesterday.

[RedandGreenSniper]

Would that be seen as a disappointing performance from Mayo considering the Galway injuries?

Not really. Not sure about the extent of the Galway injury crisis. The selected Galway team did nt start and the ended up with a monster full-forward line and not the midgets we were led to expect. We were much smaller than them. But generally faster and more skilful. How they continually produce big players who can play a bit while we re usually smaller is something I dont understand.

In reality mayo should have wrapped up this match with plenty to spare but our legendary disposition to benevolence was in evidence and we left Galway in the game and nearly paid the price.

We settled slowly and dominating possession were utterly wasteful. The fullforward line did not function as a unit and as individuals in fits and starts. We kicked some awful wides and should have had at least 1 more goal in first half ( a weak shot by Vaughan after a great run). Also a bizarre decision by referee Hunt to disallow a goal for no apparent reason. The ref was iffy to say the least and the man could hardly be blamed for thinking Roscommon might have a better chance playing Galway than Mayo on the evidence of most of this match. If Galway had won today where would the Ros v Galway semi have been? Apart from McEnaney and yer man that was in charge of the U21 final a few years ago v Cork who rode us for the first 20 mins, I usually dont mind refs much at inter-county level. Actually when the crowd started laughing  that day in Ennis, about his obviously biased decisions he switched and the game changed. It was amazing. Things went  beyond booing and people watching on tv could hear the crowd laughing about the decisions given against us.  But today did nt feel right at times. I dont think a Connacht referee should be refereeing Connacht matches at championship level in any grade. Smart refs can change the course of a game with a few well judged borderline calls.

No freetaker which cost us 3 relatively easy points.

We faded badly in last 10 and the sideline did little to help. When O Sé was moved to 11 in first half when we had the wind we ended up with a total  mismatch in midfield with height. In fairness to Cathal Carolan he put in a great hour s work about the field. When their giant sub -fullforward was isolated 1 on 1 inside on Keane no attempt was made to pull a man back to help cover and but for the grace of God it could have been a disaster. Like a lot of Mayo teams this is a running passing team without an obvious targetman. It just cant afford the luxury of 3 men hanging around hands on hip inside waiting for ball to come in. There s no space either and they just run accross one another. Just as well we had a 10 and 12 with a propensity for hard work.

We had lots of good performances and nobody stank the place out. For me our best were Vaughan, Keegan, McLoughlin, Parsons, O Sé, Carolan, Freeman and Sweeney in flashes. I would have given MOM to Freeman. Worked hard, passed well, found the space. He is the real deal and should be promoted to senior panel sooner than later.But I m delighted that Kevin McLoughlin got MOM and of course again he was as good as I expected him to be.

Next week its Ros in Charlestown. If it was up to me I d have brought them to Knockmore or Crossmolina and give them a bit of Kiltoom. Charlestown is a fine pitch but the crowd always seems to be too polite and civilised.

Oh, and it was I dunno, interesting to see that we used the full forward formation that M&M brought to proceedings some years ago. Brolly called it the 'nut' I think and everybody had a laugh. Great idea but did nt work too well. Unlikely it will be called the 'nut' in this week' s locals. Unlikely many noticed.

Good analysis Moysider but I'd argue with ya on a couple of things. I thought putting Carolan midfield was a great call. Their second midfielder, Michael O'Brien, was useless and we were able to dominate midfield with Parsons roasting Conroy (a great achievement) and Carolan getting through a lot of work beside him. This freed up O'Shea to go to centre-half forward so we had a more balanced team.
On the full-forward line I reckon they showed well but none of them could seem to take on their man. If we could survive without him out the field, I'd like to see O'Shea full-forward and that way it will give us a target and Sweeney and Doherty would feed well off that, instead of winning the ball 30 or 40 yards out with their backs to goal.
We've two of the best wing-backs going in Vaughan and McLoughlin but Lee Keegan wasn't brilliant at centre-half back. He was inclined to leave gaps but did get forward well. Perhaps switch him and McLoughlin would be a prudent move.
Freeman was very good too, he has what it takes to be a top class inter-county wing-forward.
Its just worrying we made such hard work of beating a clearly inferior team. We won't get away with that against the Rossies. Speaking of which, they're very quiet on this site! Planning an ambush  I'd say

[GalwayBayBoy]

Would that be seen as a disappointing performance from Mayo considering the Galway injuries?

Not really. Not sure about the extent of the Galway injury crisis. The selected Galway team did nt start and the ended up with a monster full-forward line and not the midgets we were led to expect. We were much smaller than them. But generally faster and more skilful. How they continually produce big players who can play a bit while we re usually smaller is something I dont understand.

In reality mayo should have wrapped up this match with plenty to spare but our legendary disposition to benevolence was in evidence and we left Galway in the game and nearly paid the price.

We settled slowly and dominating possession were utterly wasteful. The fullforward line did not function as a unit and as individuals in fits and starts. We kicked some awful wides and should have had at least 1 more goal in first half ( a weak shot by Vaughan after a great run). Also a bizarre decision by referee Hunt to disallow a goal for no apparent reason. The ref was iffy to say the least and the man could hardly be blamed for thinking Roscommon might have a better chance playing Galway than Mayo on the evidence of most of this match. If Galway had won today where would the Ros v Galway semi have been? Apart from McEnaney and yer man that was in charge of the U21 final a few years ago v Cork who rode us for the first 20 mins, I usually dont mind refs much at inter-county level. Actually when the crowd started laughing  that day in Ennis, about his obviously biased decisions he switched and the game changed. It was amazing. Things went  beyond booing and people watching on tv could hear the crowd laughing about the decisions given against us.  But today did nt feel right at times. I dont think a Connacht referee should be refereeing Connacht matches at championship level in any grade. Smart refs can change the course of a game with a few well judged borderline calls.

No freetaker which cost us 3 relatively easy points.

We faded badly in last 10 and the sideline did little to help. When O Sé was moved to 11 in first half when we had the wind we ended up with a total  mismatch in midfield with height. In fairness to Cathal Carolan he put in a great hour s work about the field. When their giant sub -fullforward was isolated 1 on 1 inside on Keane no attempt was made to pull a man back to help cover and but for the grace of God it could have been a disaster. Like a lot of Mayo teams this is a running passing team without an obvious targetman. It just cant afford the luxury of 3 men hanging around hands on hip inside waiting for ball to come in. There s no space either and they just run accross one another. Just as well we had a 10 and 12 with a propensity for hard work.

We had lots of good performances and nobody stank the place out. For me our best were Vaughan, Keegan, McLoughlin, Parsons, O Sé, Carolan, Freeman and Sweeney in flashes. I would have given MOM to Freeman. Worked hard, passed well, found the space. He is the real deal and should be promoted to senior panel sooner than later.But I m delighted that Kevin McLoughlin got MOM and of course again he was as good as I expected him to be.

Next week its Ros in Charlestown. If it was up to me I d have brought them to Knockmore or Crossmolina and give them a bit of Kiltoom. Charlestown is a fine pitch but the crowd always seems to be too polite and civilised.

Oh, and it was I dunno, interesting to see that we used the full forward formation that M&M brought to proceedings some years ago. Brolly called it the 'nut' I think and everybody had a laugh. Great idea but did nt work too well. Unlikely it will be called the 'nut' in this week' s locals. Unlikely many noticed.

Freeman was very good too, he has what it takes to be a top class inter-county wing-forward.
Its just worrying we made such hard work of beating a clearly inferior team. We won't get away with that against the Rossies. Speaking of which, they're very quiet on this site! Planning an ambush  I'd say

Good win for ye alright but should probably be tempered by the fact that Galway had the guts of just under half a team out injured including the full-back, centre-back, centre-forward and assorted others. I think most of us were actually shocked that we nearly ended up getting a draw out of it.

[RedandGreenSniper]

I'm aware of that GBB. That's my point - ye were a much inferior team to us the last day and we still struggled to beat ye.

[Rossfan]

We won't get away with that against the Rossies. Speaking of which, they're very quiet on this site! Planning an ambush  I'd say

No we're just too nervous and worried about it so dont want to say anything that might be used in slagging against us
I agree with the lads about not fair having a Ros ref seeing that we were to play the winners. Easier to bring one of the many Longford refs in.....I know they arent great but at least no one would accuse them of having axes to grind.

[RedandGreenSniper]

We won't get away with that against the Rossies. Speaking of which, they're very quiet on this site! Planning an ambush  I'd say

No we're just too nervous and worried about it so dont want to say anything that might be used in slagging against us

Sounds like the Rossies have been getting lessons in cute hoorism!

[Rossfan]

No nothing like that...just that teams who were up there with us at Minor in 2006 havent exactly set the world alight this year at U 21 - Offaly and Meanth gone in Leinster and poor with it while Kerry who we bet in the  Final( batin Kerry in Finals eh  - an oul Rossie habit that doesnt seem to travel to the West of us too well  ) got the mother and father of a hidin by Cork.
So we're afraid it might be our turn now...
Anyway I suppose we'll see ye all in Charlestown Saturday ?