An Dún v An Mhí______Páirc an Iúir, 7:00, Dé Sathairn, 13, Feabhra

[AFS]

Ventured into enemy territory for this, wish I hadn't. A crap match; the freezing cold; and some fat, mint chomping, Down idiot with no concept of personal space made for a shit enough night.

Thought Meath were absolutely brutal. It's embarrassing that we lost to them last week. The only reason they weren't annihilated is because they were up against a completely ineffective Down midfield. It seems wee James was watching Setanta last Saturday, because Down nullified the threat of Queeney very well by dropping Colgan back to double marking him.

Down were alright, but should've won by a lot more. They squandered a lot of chances in the second half, kicking at least 4 or 5 balls into the Meath keeper's hands. Was interested in seeing Marty Clarke in the flesh for the first time, but wasn't overly impressed. He'd a few good touches in the first half, but was anonymous in the second. He looked shattered though, probably should've been taken off. His brother was the pick of the Don forwards for me. Maybe it was just tonight, but Down seem to be play a fairly defensive brand of football - twelve men behind the ball with two inside forwards and a man on the forty. That, and their crap midfield, reminded me a bit of ourselves the last few years. They need Dan Gordon back soon.

[Jinxy]

Sounded like a brutal Meath performance.
The harsh reality is that we are a poorly coached team.
The problems we have are blatantly obvious i.e. we constantly have trouble coming out of defence with the ball, we have good forwards that do not function as a unit and we hoof far too much high ball into our FF line.
A fit Anthony Moyles would help solve some if not all of these problems but it's not rocket science in fairness.
It's like watching a club side sometimes.
Lads running around in a big clump, instead of trying to make space for each other.

[AFS]

Sounded like a brutal Meath performance.
The harsh reality is that we are a poorly coached team.
The problems we have are blatantly obvious i.e. we constantly have trouble coming out of defence with the ball, we have good forwards that do not function as a unit and we hoof far too much high ball into our FF line.
A fit Anthony Moyles would help solve some if not all of these problems but it's not rocket science in fairness.
It's like watching a club side sometimes.
Lads running around in a big clump, instead of trying to make space for each other.

Hardly did that at all tonight. Lots of sideways handpassing, going nowhere, until someone fucked up and gifted the ball to the opposition. Meath supporters were screaming at their players just to hit the ball in.

[Trevor Hill]

Downs first score came from a McComiskey free on 6 minutes after Meath had scored early on. A Martin Clarke free 10 minutes later put Down 2-1 ahead, a lead that they would not relinquish. John Clarke added his first of the game on 17 minutes before Marty added another. Ambrose then got on the end of a move that he started to leave the score at 5-1  after 23 minutes and it look ed like it was going to be all one way traffic from then. But Down lost their way after that and wasted chance after chance. Meath pulled a point back after Kevin McKernan had been replaced by Aidan Brannigan on 25 minutes. McKernan took a knock after playing the ball out of defence. One of many incidents that the referee decided to ignore. A McComiskey free on 28 minutes left it 6-2 in favour of Down, before Meath enjoyed their best spell of the game adding on 3 points before half time to leave the minimum between the sides, 6-5 at the break.
The second half started as badly as the first finished. It took 11 minutes before John Clarke opened the scoring.  Ambrose added another 3 minutes later and a McComiskey free on 55 minutes put Down 3 ahead 9-6. Meath pulled one back before John Clarke and a well taken score by Maginn made it 11-7. The teams swapped points in the closing stages. McComiskey getting Downs last point 3 minutes from the end.
Meath controlled this game at midfield, Mark Ward was the stand out player on the pitch. Down simply had no answer to him.  Up front it was a very different story from last week, they just didn't click. At times taking too much out of the ball, going for goal when a simple point would have pt more daylight between the sides. At least half a dozen balls were dropped into the Meath keepers hands from very scoreable positions. Strangely for Down, it is the defence that is the talking point these days and not in a negative way for a change. Down are now playing with a defensive strategy, everyone has a job to do from corner forward back. The 6 defenders are playing well together, with James Colgan being the pick of the bunch. He is mopping up a lot of ball in front of the full back line and can carry the ball out of defence with ease. How he had been ignored over the last 3 years is anyones guess.
This wasn't a perfect performance, but they dug deep and got the 2 points which is all that matters, sometimes its better to win ugly. Down haven't been able to win these tight scrappy games for a generation. James and co have brought a tenacity back to the team. We always knew we could score, but we knew we were weak at the back. Personally I would prefer to see McKernan at full back, but McArdle hasn't really put a foot wrong. McVeigh had a slightly busier 70 minutes and probably should have been beaten, but the Meath forward blasted the ball over the bar with the goal at his mercy. Relegation is a word you wont hear in Down this year. Full time score 12-8.

Down scorers. P. McComiskey 4 (3f), M. Clarke 2 (1f), J. Clarke 3, A. Rodgers 2, Maginn 1. 

[Mourne Rover]

I'm not sure what game AFS was at, but the match I saw was a tight, hard-hitting affair which Down won well without ever reaching the heights seen in Kildare last week. In many ways, it should have brought us on much more than the first round when we were never really under any pressure. We were squeezed on either side of half time tonight, but finished the much stronger side.

McVeigh was solid in goals, apart from the awkward one which dropped off the crossbar, his place kicking was fine and his distribution from play was excellent.

The big bonus was the full back line, which is starting to look the part. McArdle had nothing to do last week, but there were plenty of long balls dropping down tonight and he barely gave Queeney, who has a decent reputation, a kick.  Rafferty had another solid display, and, to the surprise of many of us, McCartan did well again in the other corner. Ward only got away from him once, to hit a point which probably should have been a goal in the second half, but otherwise McCartan had him in his pocket.

Colgan was a possible MoM last week, but he was even better tonight and was imperious under pressure throughout. It is astonishing that it was only his second league game for us, even though he is 23, and that Ross thought he was not up to the mark over the last couple of seasons. He took a couiple of great catches, found a colleague with every pass and was a physical barrier down the middle at all times. Garvey was as decent as ever,while McKiernan went off fairly  early after his opponent seemed to drop the knees on him during a tackle. Brannigan replaced him, and was enthusiastic but limited on the ball.

AFS says we were poor at midfield, but he must have missed the two outstanding points from play which Ambrose scored. That's five in two games now, and the second was another peach. He was not as prominent as last week admittedly, but Meath had two giants there who took a fair amount of handling. King was solid, and got his tackles in well, but ran out of steam and should probably have been replaced earlier.

Marty Clarke played well within himself for long stages, but his kicked passes were outstanding and he can pick out his big brother with his eyes closed. Maginnn was the star of the half-forward line, constantly supporting the play and got up and down the pitch effortlessly. Hughes, after a bright start, had one of those nights which he has from time to time when nothing goes right, and it was a surprise that he stayed on so long as well.

McComiskey was excellent in flashes, and deadly from frees, while Benny got steadily better after an uncertain opening and was in full cry towards the end. John Clarke was simply superb, won every ball, passed intelligently and took his scores without any bother. Again, it is ludicrous that he was off the squad last year.

Laverty made a couple of clever sprints when he replaced Hughes, while Kearney and Fitzpatrick come on too late to make any difference, but Down were not in any trouble in the final quarter anyway. Not too many of us expected back to back promotions, but, if we win our three remaining home games and get anything on the road, we will be very close to it.

While we have to keep everything in perspective, James and his fellow coaches have got off to a flier so far.  The trip to Donegal in round four will be a big one, but we are up and running.

[Jinxy]

Sounded like a brutal Meath performance.
The harsh reality is that we are a poorly coached team.
The problems we have are blatantly obvious i.e. we constantly have trouble coming out of defence with the ball, we have good forwards that do not function as a unit and we hoof far too much high ball into our FF line.
A fit Anthony Moyles would help solve some if not all of these problems but it's not rocket science in fairness.
It's like watching a club side sometimes.
Lads running around in a big clump, instead of trying to make space for each other.

Hardly did that at all tonight. Lots of sideways handpassing, going nowhere, until someone fucked up and gifted the ball to the opposition. Meath supporters were screaming at their players just to hit the ball in.

Well that bit sounds familiar anyway. 

[Trevor Hill]

I'm not sure what game AFS was at, but the match I saw was a tight, hard-hitting affair which Down won well without ever reaching the heights seen in Kildare last week.

In fairness it must be difficult for a green eyed monster to watch a game as a nuetral and then give an unbiased opinion afterwards. Nice of him to come along, there were a few of his ilk in the crowd tonight.

[AFS]

I'm not sure what game AFS was at, but the match I saw was a tight, hard-hitting affair which Down won well without ever reaching the heights seen in Kildare last week.

In fairness it must be difficult for a green eyed monster to watch a game as a nuetral and then give an unbiased opinion afterwards. Nice of him to come along, there were a few of his ilk in the crowd tonight.

What parts of what I said do you disagree with?

'Tight and hard hitting' is GAA parlance for scappy, error strewn football, which is exactly what that match was. Meath were abysmal, could hardly string two passes together, with not one forward playing well. Despite this, they were still in the game until 7 or 8 minutes from the end before Down knocked over 2 or 3 quick points, one of which coming straight from some comical Meath handpassing in front of their goalmouth.

AFS says we were poor at midfield, but he must have missed the two outstanding points from play which Ambrose scored.

Aye they were lovely points. But that doesn't change the fact that Meath won about 75% of the kickouts. While kicking points is great, midfielders are there to win primary possession. It should also be noted that the Meath midfield chipped over a few points of their own.

[downredblack]

Mark  Ward is a massive man and is going to win his share of ball off any midfielder in the country, that said winning ball in the middle doesn't necessarily win you matches . Down won by four and as you said yourself should of won by more . So 2 wins out of two , we will take that and look forward to the next game . Good luck tomorrow 

[waitingforsam]

Great we got another win this eve in Newry.... lets put it all into perspective, we are 4 points better off than we could have hoped for, 4 valuable points for the battle to stay in Division 2.... our bubble will be burst, that said Im enjoying the hype!!!


PS cant help but feel the irish news, brndan crossan, paddy heaney wan to see us failll..   imo

[Mourne Rover]

AFS, where I disagree with you is your claim that it was a poor match. It was not of the highest standard, but it was tense and physical throughout, and the result was an important one for Down. We were certainly up against a big and strong midfield, but we stopped the dellivery to their attack very effectively. A highly regarded forward line was held to, I think, two points from play. Ambrose got two back  by himself, so our midfield did their job. Marty Clarke has never played senior championship football for Down and has a total of 2 NFL games for us in his career after coming home from Melbourne. Please feel free to write him off, and the rest of us will judge him at the end of the season.

[AFS]

AFS, where I disagree with you is your claim that it was a poor match. It was not of the highest standard, but it was tense and physical throughout, and the result was an important one for Down. We were certainly up against a big and strong midfield, but we stopped the dellivery to their attack very effectively. A highly regarded forward line was held to, I think, two points from play. Ambrose got two back  by himself, so our midfield did their job. Marty Clarke has never played senior championship football for Down and has a total of 2 NFL games for us in his career after coming home from Melbourne. Please feel free to write him off, and the rest of us will judge him at the end of the season.

It wasn't my intention for my post to read like that. To be more specific: I thought he was decent in the first half, spraying a couple of nice passes about, but faded a lot in the second and didn't really look fit. I've no doubt he'll get better as he goes on, but I don't think he made much of an impact tonight. I also probably neglected to mention that the Down defence looked a lot tighter than I've seen in a while, but give me a break, it's not easy to write nice things about yous bollixs 

[Brick Tamlin]

im gonna have to agree with AFS on this one folks. We had that Meath team there for the taking right from the off. Our defence was sound and dealt with a paltry Meath attack that played as a bunch of individuals for most of the game, our midfield didnt perform to carry out its most important role of gaining primary possession and feeding good ball to the forward line and our attack whilst sharp just didnt take enough of their chances and kill the game.

Dont get me wrong, its another win, another good workout for some of the less experienced players and its not to be sniffed at but personally id still have a few worries. Its great that the defence is playing well and not giving away much and there does seem to be a new level of workrate throughout the team of hassling and chasing men until the ball is turned over etc. I didnt rate this Meath team at all and again maybe thats harsh but i feel we definitley should have had them dead and buried inside first 10 of 2nd half.

[yellowcard]

Was at the game last night and it was a very poor game of football. I wasn't impressed at all with Down at all and 12 points was a poor return against a fairly average Meath side. Colgan was probably the best player on the field but I was expecting more from Down they badly need Gordon back at midfield

[bridgegael]

Was at the game last night and it was a very poor game of football. I wasn't impressed at all with Down at all and 12 points was a poor return against a fairly average Meath side. Colgan was probably the best player on the field but I was expecting more from Down they badly need Gordon back at midfield

why were you expecting more from them??