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Antrim weren't as bad as the score line suggests for much of the first half, until Down got the goal.  The goal seemed to knock the heart out of them.  Down had to work real hard for a lot of the scores the got in the first half and the Antrim defence turned the ball over loads of times.  The problem was in the forwards, they missed too many chances and the Down defence turned the Antrim attack over too many other occasions.  The defence was always under pressure.  The game was up early in the second half and there wasn't much fight left in Antrim.

Antrim started off strong as amallon suggested. turing over downs attacks and crowding out midfiled and making the down players over carry the ball. this worked for about 10minutes then down seemed to drift away picking up points here and there. antrim where in desperate need of a score to keep in touch then just before half time the full back spilled a high ball and downs full forward capitalised. this goal ended the game. antrim came out the second half and started brightly, just like the first half, getting a few scores on the board but then again just like the first half faded out of it and down took control and finished the game off with mccomisky tapping scores over with ease.

apart from crowding out the midfield antrim didnt look like they had a serious game plan.

some very poor performances from the senior members of the team esp young McGourty and young McCann - expected more from him after his performances of late for Jordanstown.

Burke, Croizer and Murray tired hard

thanks for the posts lads

a bit more important than talkin about some fella and the clubs he played for--who cares!!

the important thing is how we perform on the field now and in the future--its worrying that we didnt seem to compete for the whole game last night especially after the shape of our minor team v derry in last years 1st round--granted Derry gor to the AIF but we want to start competing with other counties no matter who they are and it has to start with the youth

1. Sean McGreevy
2. Kieran McKeever
3. Barry Owens (Has had some great games such as v Armagh 2004)
4. Fay Devlin (like McKeever--made for corner back)
5. Martin McHugh (slipped him in there-im sure he could do a job flying up and down the wing)
6. Conor Gormley (tough choice, last person i picked on team--great player with maybe more to come)
7. Philip Jordan (hard to stop when flying and with two All-Irelands its hard to argue)
8. Anthony Tohill (The best)
9. Sean Cavanagh
10. Mickey Linden
11. Brian McGuigan
12. Dermot McCabe (awesome in late 90's at his peak)
13. Steven McDonnell
14. Ronan Clarke (at his best a la 2002, in the team to flick the ball down to the corner-men)
15. Peter Canavan

16. Mickey McVeigh
17. Stephen O'Neill
18. Paddy Bradley
19. Enda Gormley
20. Brian McGilligan
21. Henry Downey
22. Tony Scullion(didnt see him enough but 4 allstars says he makes the squad!)
23. Pascal Canavan (powerful workrate)
24. Greg Blaney (same as Scullion although only the 2 allstars i think?!)

You also don't appear to have a great understanding of the meaning of the word 'compete'.

Last time Antrim played Tyrone in a championship match (2003), a goal and a point in injury game gave Tyrone an ill-deserved 8 point win. In the qualifiers that year Antrim ran the reigning All-Ireland champions (then officially the best team in Ireland) to three points. I don't see the hurlers coming close to either result in the Championship against one of the top half dozen teams in the foreseeable future.

The last time Antrim played Kerry (NFL) it resulted in a nine point win for Kerry (1-14 to 0-8). I have included the Kerry team for your perusal.

D O' Keefe, M McCarthy, B O'Shea, K Burns; S Moynihan (0-1), M Hassett, T O Se; D O'Se (0-2), W Kirby; J Mc Glynn (0-2), L Hassett (0-1), D Daly; J Murphy (0-3), J Crowley (cpt, 1-2), D O' Cinneide (0-3). Subs: M Fitzgerald for L Hassett (41mins) J Ferriter for J Crowley (52mins), N Kennelly for D O'Se (58mins).

Multiple All-Ireland winners and All-Stars galore there, not like the Cork team sent up here at the weekend.

when did this Kerry v Antrim Match take place??

In what Division??--i dont believe it did take place--i thought the last time was a national league quarter final in the late 80's??

Who cares about Greenan or Quinn--what about our U-21 team last night?? What the hell happened--was anyone at it?  I couldnt make it due to work

Were Down unstoppable?

was anyone at it?

i couldnt make it

wot went wrong? who played well/badly?

Do Antrim still not have to play Waterford as well as London and Tipp?

Congrats to St Marys on the McClarnon--looked like a real struggle to hold on for the win from the BBC's highlights at halftime in the McCrory.

Will be tough to win the All-Ireland especially given they appear to not have any marquee forwards. You never know with a strong workmanlike team they may well get the two wins that La Salle couldnt a few years back.

Will St Marys go into the McCrory next year or has no decision been made yet?

Good win on sat--what do we need to do now to secure promotion? How many games are left and how many do we need to win to secure this?

does anyone have the league table??

O'Neill are you from Tyrone or whats the craic are u a LD man or sumthin?

Antrim didnt half kick some wides the other night

had enough chances to win 7 games.

i hate the hush amoung supporters that invariably occurs at the end of antrim games--we never go on and fuckin win a tight game

bit of an improvement though to be fair

Scullion is a flying machine but is headless, Terry O'?Neill got through a mountain of work and was brilliant at times in the 2nd half
Convery was not great when he came on and has plyed much better at full back before.
Kev Niblock got a lot of ball but seems afraid to shoot.
Magill scored a few nice points but faded out of the game.
Cunningham needs to contribute more from play

i think it will tight to beat Carlow and Tipp--a couple of early goals against us and we could be goosed

i think this Kilkenny game will be a waste of time

altho it may be good to give the second 15 a run out--we should still win as kilkenny got an awful tanking last week by Tipp

i hope kilkenny continue to play in the league but fear they'll throw the towel in if they keep gettin tankins.

They should give free entry to the game on saturday because it hurt payin anything to watch a team get slaughtered

[Enniskillen '06]

1. 10. You have to be prepared to get lashed on. Enniskillen '06, Casement'07, Today '08. It's a curse we have. Anytime An'rim play, it's like Jesus dying and it pours down.
Failte go hAontroim.

of all those days--Enniskillen was the worst

i nearly died of the wet that day sittin on a shitty soakin wooden bench soaked to the skin--jeans stickin to me soaked the whole way home
in 07 i was in the stand as the hurls were flyin!

never mention enniskillen 06 again!

From the bbc website:

Wicklow 1-8 1-13 Antrim 

who all scored and played ??

what subs came on??

Rossa from Belfast are also in Division 2 and also play Intermediate championship if they bother to turn up 4 the match

Poland Syndrome is the condition Jermey Beadle had.

Talbot Street has it too.

Feckin sure it does!

RIP Beadle

[Met a guy who brought his Missus to Prague in November and couldn't walk 20 yards through fear of freezing to death]

Met a guy today who told me that the weather in the next few days will be like 1963. He says that every year though, not that I can recall 1963. We really have it too easy here with that old tropical wind etc. Over on the continent or New York, now that is really cold at this moment. Met a guy who brought his Missus to Prague in November and couldn't walk 20 yards through fear of freezing to death. It's all balls here (warm ones) - we don't know what a winter is. The worst one I remember is 1979 .. football pools panel (who?) sitting every Saturday - matches postponed 30 times etc. They say we need a good old winter here to kill off them wasps / rats etc, but I don't think we're gonna get it this year. Can anyone recall the last decent snow we had here? (Please don't suggest that global warming bollix)

I was in Prague in the middle of November and didn't find it any colder than Ireland..
Coldest place i ever was,was at a match in St James Park in Newcastle,England one November,I thought i was never gonna get the feeling back into my feet or hands,And there was some hard bastard Geordie in front of me wearing flip flops and a short sleeved Newcastle jersey

If Newcastle is the coldest place you have ever been in you have not travelled much. Where I live the weather was a sunny 10 fareinheit yesterday and by midnight the temp had dropped to -10 with a wind chill of -20. To copmpare Newcastle with that kind of temperature is laughable.

By the way. Prague is far colder than Newcastle, London or any other place in Engerland.

Prague may well be colder i never said it wasn't but i didn't find it that cold when i was there,and that's all i said.Im not saying Newcastle is the coldest place on earth i just remember that being as cold as i have ever felt..
Where or when did i compare Newcastle to other city's or where you live I find it strange that you think it's laughable when i never made these comments,i was just giving a personal view of something i experienced..
And actually I  have travelled all over the world but mainly to hotter countries like Australia,Thailand,Vietnam,Singapore,Brazil,South Africa,Dubai,Egypt to name a few so less of the attitude please

i was in prague after christmas and i couldnt even begn to explain how cold it was

but i'll try!

the second i stepped out of the airport to get in a taxi i said to the woman--do u feel that--its strange but i thought my face was gonna be burnt off with the cold--its just like a wall of heat in spain or turkey etc in the summer hanging over you only its a wall of cold--i would have paid anyone 1million Krona for a pair of long johns--i had 5 layers on constantly but couldnt enjoy myself it was that cold--even during the day you could hardly shop or stroll round the sights

great city but cold to the bone--i could walk about in a t-shirt back here no bother all winter as its nothing compared to Prague--its hard to describe but my advice is never to go in that direction in winter!!

i just watched my Sam 2005 DVD after reading that article earlier

O'Neill was simply awesome as were tyrone on many occassions that year

O'Neills penalty v Dublin in the replay was leathal-ive never seen better

some of his scores from play were outrageous--i stuck the DVD on after watchin 15mins of the O'Byrne Cup Dubs Carlow game and my faith in the greatest game in the world is restored

O' Neill is a genius, sheer f**king genius and i would love to see him play again at the same level as he performed in that year

I also was dead level at head height on the Hogan Stand side with O'Neill when he scored that rocket against Mayo in 2004

What a player and what a loss to the game as there arnt many or enough with his natural ability