Maigh Eo -v- Doire, Ballina, 01.02.2009

[moysider]

I cant remember a worse Mayo display here, in what was always a banker venue for us. I was very disappointed.

 Hopefully that poor man will make a full recovery. Really he was fortunate. Unless that happened in a hospital it could nt have happened in a better place. Heard who it was but probably not right to say on here. Maybe the players were affected because we made a bright start and seemed to lose interest. Certainly the crowd seemed to be affected by it and never got into the game at all. Or maybe there s another reason because I ve never seen the place so quiet.

Could nt take many positives from that. Liam O Malley our best back. McGarrity could be good this year if those around him showed a bit of interest. Barry Moran had the winning of the game if we played him. The support was too slow getting to him as well. Do we have players that can follow a game plan? And a no.11 that can control the game and kick good ball in like Mc Guigan does and Blaney used to. Parsons has to be tried there as he appears to have the radar and skills necessary. No point playing a running, tackling , grafter there however good he is at those things. We did nt get out of our half in the start of the second half for 10 minutes. There was no outlet with BJP usually behind the ball and Dillon was curtailed. Dont think BJP was fit enough for the role he was asked to play today. I felt Kelly should be played at 6 with Cuniffe at 7 to carry ball. If we have a sweeping player we should be able to deploy our 5 and 7 as runners.
 Mikey Sweeney did ok. He won some hard ball but does nt seem to have the strength yet to go by a back and kept turning into the body of the defender. If the team is to be chosen from the same panel for next game this is the line- up I d like to see.

Clarke, O Malley, Caff, Vaughan, Gardiner, Kelly, Cuniffe, Mcgarrity, Harte, Dillon, Parsons, Andy Moran, Conor, Barry Moran, Trevor.

If we re to play a sweeping player I think we should sacrifice a corner forward because you ll have no shape like today if a half forward does so. Trevor is the man I d have playing that role and there is still a problem of getting support in  to Barry Moran. Dillon and Andy and maybe  a deep run from Harte will have to be worked on in this respect. As I see it most of our problems can be sorted by common sense coaching. What we need is not exactly rocket science. I saw Trevor launch a bit of a Garryowen today from a 55 metre free. What was that about? Who decided that? Everybody knows that Trevor is not a consistent kicker of the ball. He s great at some things but not that.  Personnel wise we re in decent enough shape . Conor will have to learn how to support a target man and that should keep the coaching staff busy for a while because the last time they played together Conor clearly was nt interested in being nominated  for a supporting role to anybody.

[muppet]

I'm not asking you to throw something out you don't want to. I'm saying you shouldn't hint at something which casts a slur and then say you don't want to give details because you don't want to post negative about a player, when you've already done that in the first place. Your initial comment was loose imho. I reckon it'd be better if you said nothing at all in the first place

Firstly what are you on about?What slur?

Secondly this is a National Board. I will say things to Mayo supporters that I wouldn't say outside the county. All I suggested about Moran was time to deliver and you seem to have jumped to his defense.

I think Barry has too many people like you around him.

[guy crouchback]

i was in the company  one of the doctors who attended the man who had the heart attack and he called the hospital after the game and was told the man was in a stable condition so hopefully he will be alright.
regarding the game it was a pretty dire performance lacking any real conviction or obvious game plan. as other posters have pointed out when they gave the ball to Barry Moran he did well but after the first 10 minutes they made no attempt to play him. the second half was all Derry and they should have won by more.

[Mayo4Sam]

Disappointing today

Clarke - Poor kickouts and dodgy fist out in 1st half
O'Malley/vaughan - ok nice mopping up, poor passing out
Caff - Beaten to the ball a lot but defended well after a first 5mins that looked like he would get wiped out
Kelly - Was just thinking that i hadn;t noticed him at all when he carrys into the tackle loses it and gives a goal away, for such a big lad lost the ball constantly in tackles, wouldn;t want to see him again
Cunniffe - solid, got a lot of ball and went forward well, impressed
Gardiner - nowhere defensively, like i said before the match not good enough
Parsons - Very poor, didn;t win ball or breaks and seemed slow to move into positions to catch kickouts, would put it down to early season
McG - won a lot of kickouts and broke a lot but cannot, at all pass the ball, this low on the ball shite sickens me, really poor and needs to work on it
BJP - had a good 1st half, won a lot of breaks and worked hard, was the only one able to kick the right ball into moran, a high dropping ball, seemed to tire and go out of the game
TMort - again worked hard but tired, good 1st half
Dillon - not great
AMoran - was it just me or does he just run around headless, on several occasions he ran in front of Bmoran, could be generous and maybe needs to time his run better and get there after the ball is sent into barry but for me ruins other players runs by making one across them
Bmoran - did great on anything that came into him, needed more to go into him
Sweeney - Won a lot of ball but carried into tackle and is too light for that
Harte - Did ok after he came on
CMort - won a free straight after he came on and blazed it over the bar, Why? Put the last free over the bar as well, Why?
Aiden O'Shea - Got a lot of physical attention from derry, for me a little lazy in tackling back, thought this in the minors last year and noticed it again today. Looks a big man even at this level

Seemed to die in the last 10, no reason why?
Passing was shocking today, hand passes not going to a man 2 yards away, 5 yard hand passing hitting the ground before getting there and putting us under pressure

Derry were poor and stayed in it cause we were doing nothing up front, got 1-3 from us losing the ball in the half backs and another point from the ref when he pulled back a quick kickout to take a sub. Fair play to derry they pulled it out in the last 5-10

Ref was very poor, yellow carded a derry lad for a foul on barry moran when i thought the free was harsh, let mort away with 4 fouls in the 1st half with no black, pulled o'shea for touching the ball on the ground when it was clear he lied on it, the ref was right beside this one. Poor but prob in favour of mayo

[MacDanger]

Very poor start to the league, we'll struggle to retain Div 1 status I'd say.

Very good start to the game but it all fell apart badly after the first ten minutes.

Our main problem was that we had no link between the backs and the half forward line in the second half. When the backs won the ball and looked up, there was nobody to give it to. They ended up short passing it around until they lost it (usually with a simple pass). The blame for this has to lie with the midfield and half forwards (and JOM for not remedying it).

Parsons was anonymous, should have been taken off earlier. Dillon was no better. McG tried hard and was the one who brought us back into it in the 2nd half but he lacks basic footballing skills, particularly poor passing - got a v good point though.

The backs were so-so considering the pressure they were under, an unreal amount of soft stray passes though. Cunniffe did well but he lost the ball softly for the Derry goal. A Moran improved when he moved out to the 40 but he needs to learn to let it off. B Moran must have been fairly p*ssed off, he won any good ball that went into him and won a couple of crap balls into him too. No point in having him in there if we're not going to use him - JOM has to take responsibility for this.

Need to improve big time in the next few matches but you might be overreacting Barney with calling for JOM's head! Sacking the manager after a 2 point loss to the reigning league champions despite the poor performance would make us a laughing stock. Who would you replace him with?

[SidelineKick]

Very glad to hear that the man who collapsed is in a stable condition, sorta put me off the game after seeing that.

Tame enough game but entertaining nonetheless.  Positive for derry considering we were missing Enda Muldoon, Paul Murphy, Mark Lynch, Niall McCusker, Kevin McGuckin, Kevin McCloy and Paddy Bradley (who came on for last 10).  Good to see a few others stepping up to take some of the responsibility.

[Tubberman]

I'd go along with the comments made so far - the match itself was overshadowed by the man who collapsed, it was very worrying to see CPR being performed on him. Glad to hear he's in a stable condition.
As has been said already Mayo made a bright start with Barry Moran winning all the ball that was played into him. It was a winning tactic that was then ignored for the rest of the match - made no sense (particularly when we had the wind in the first half).
I thought Cafferkey did fairly well. His man always seemed to be first to the ball, but Cafferkey defended well and didn't let him past too often. Liam O'Malley played well, Vaughan looked shaky but it was his first game so I wouldn't judge him too harshly.
I thought the half back line were falrly anonymous, provided little resistance to Derry when they were attacking in the second half.
McGarritty played well, Parsons made a couple of good bursts forward and got 1 or 2 points, but didn't win much ball in the middle. The more the match went on, the less influence we had in midfield.
In the half forwards, Dillon looked a bit off the pace and didn't really do anything of note apart from the frees. Trevor Mortimer looked like he hadn't touched a football at all this year. His handling was very poor and he seemed to be constantly tripping over himself and falling - very frustrating. In the second half he took a free from CHF position and send a garryowen down on top of Mikey Sweeney, the smallest player on the pitch. That would drive anyone mad, when Barry Moran at 6'5" or whatever height he is was in at FF. Billie Joe won a few balls but also faded out of the game. He'll always win possession and has a bit of drive about him so I'd keep him on the team.
Andy Moran did a lot of running and got on a fair amount of ball, but there was no end product. Once he had the ball, he ran with it but didn't seem to have any plan of where he was going. Barry Moran looks to have bulked up considerably and was a real threat, but ball stopped going into him (why JOM allowed this I don't know).
Mikey Sweeney was impressive. His handling was very good and he showed for a lot of ball in the first half, but his small stature is obviously a disadvantage. Definitely worth another couple of games though.
Conor Mort made a big difference when he came on - he really is the only consistent scoring forward we have, and has been for years.

To me, there seemed to be no intensity or even enthusiasm from Mayo which is worrying. The fact that they faded out of the game so badly could also suggest that we were one of the few counties that actually adhered to the ban on training in Nov and Dec. I'm hoping that is the case, and that we'll improve as the league progresses.

A poor start to the season, and if the performance level doesn't go up, we'll go down!
But there are positives to take from the overall sense of pessimism - Cafferkey made a fairly solid debut in FB, McGarritty looked to have some of his old form back, Mikey Sweeney looks lively and could nab a few scores. And the main one for me is that if it is drilled into the midfield and half forwards to let quick ball in high to Barry Moran, and the corner forwards have the sense to be available for the knock down, we have our own Donaghy.

[Maximus Marillius]

Very glad to hear that the man who collapsed is in a stable condition, sorta put me off the game after seeing that.

Tame enough game but entertaining nonetheless.  Positive for derry considering we were missing Enda Muldoon, Paul Murphy, Mark Lynch, Niall McCusker, Kevin McGuckin, Kevin McCloy and Paddy Bradley (who came on for last 10).  Good to see a few others stepping up to take some of the responsibility.

According to the Irish News Sean Lockhart and Kevin Mc Guckian were also missing due to family committments

[SidelineKick]

Very glad to hear that the man who collapsed is in a stable condition, sorta put me off the game after seeing that.

Tame enough game but entertaining nonetheless.  Positive for derry considering we were missing Enda Muldoon, Paul Murphy, Mark Lynch, Niall McCusker, Kevin McGuckin, Kevin McCloy and Paddy Bradley (who came on for last 10).  Good to see a few others stepping up to take some of the responsibility.

According to the Irish News Sean Lockhart and Kevin Mc Guckian were also missing due to family committments

Missed Sean Marty. Have Kevin, his wife had a wein.

[An Gaeilgoir]

So we are off to a bad start yet again in the league. It was very disapointing yesterday, worringly a lot of players didn't look to be that up for the game. Our back line is still a disaster area, is this back line really the best the county has to offer. Lets be under no illusions this Derry team we played yesterday are no world beaters by any strech. Most of the other posters have pretty much nailed each players performance. Mc Garrity almost dragged us back into contention in the second half, Andy Moran ran around like a headless chicken yet again, Aidan o Shea was totally off the pace of the game when he came on. Unfortunatly there were a lot more negatives than positives. We are still treading water as regards progress with this team.

[SidelineKick]

We are no world beaters that is true, but what is very positive for us is the new players coming in, missing 8 regular starters and still coming away with the points.  I'm quietly optimistic this year, Derry have had the players for this past 3 or 4 years but fail to produce the goods at the business end of the year.  I, along with most of Derry, would be satisfied with staying in Division 1 this year, and give Ulster a good rattle. We're in the tough side of the draw so therr will be no excuses, its all or nothing and we'll have to beat the big guns on the way if we are to win it.

[SidelineKick]

Sideline, Joe O'kane was FB from the start with Barry Mc Guigan starting at CHB.

Apologies Sonny Joe I was at the far end of the field so was unable to see the action properly in the first half, in terms of who was who.  Would agree with you that he'll be pushed out to half back.

[moysider]

Our back line is still a disaster area, is this back line really the best the county has to offer?

With likes of HigginsX2, Nallen, Howley and Heaney unavailable or gone it s probably as good as it gets as regards personnel. But the performance can be much better. Yesterday we could nt work the ball out and it shows how good Nallen and Heaney were at this aspect of the game down the years. Not all the backs fault because all links between defence and attack broke dowm second half. surely this can be sorted out for the next game?

[GalwayBayBoy]

The ref favoured Galway in this game.

I wish we had him then instead of your man in Mullingar.

[RedandGreenSniper]

Our back line is still a disaster area, is this back line really the best the county has to offer?

With likes of HigginsX2, Nallen, Howley and Heaney unavailable or gone it s probably as good as it gets as regards personnel. But the performance can be much better. Yesterday we could nt work the ball out and it shows how good Nallen and Heaney were at this aspect of the game down the years. Not all the backs fault because all links between defence and attack broke dowm second half. surely this can be sorted out for the next game?

The lack of ability of players working the ball out of defence was frightening. I suppose it might come with time but Nallen, Heaney and Keith Higgins are massive losses in this regard. Our shapeless half-forward line was a massive problem though. Trevor, positionally, was poor and Dillon had to be brought in centre-forward. He was Mayo's only outlet. But the likes of Vaughan, Gardiner hadn't the power to break the tackles, Cunniffe had moreso but still ran into difficulty on occasion. I guess we have to be optimistic and looking forward to the next game its hard to know what changes to recommend. Billy Joe needs to get fitter to play the role he was playing but he can play that role. Trevor will improve with match practice. Conor will prob replace Andy Moran. Barry Moran will wait at 14 and I think Mikey Sweeney deserves a few more goes at right-corner forward.
In defence I'd prefer to see Cunniffe on the wing, maybe a direct swop with Kelly while we wait for Trevor Howley to get back. Gardiner wasn't great at wing-back but I'd leave him there. In the full-back line O'Malley was very good, Ger Cafferkey too. I'm a big fan of Kevin McLoughlin and while Donal Vaughan didn't set the world alight, I think he deserves a few more run outs. In goal I hope it was injury that was the reason for David Clarke's poor kick outs because if it wasn't I'd be very nervous if I was him, looking over my shoulder at Robbie Hennely and Kenneth O'Malley.
I'd also see no harm in starting Harte at midfield instead of Parsons, just to let the young lad know nothing is certain about his place