Down Club Hurling & Football

[Lecale2]

Ballycran believing their own hype colonel?

Poor enough game with few scores from open play. The better team won but Ballycran have youth on their side and will be back. As for the final? Too close to call IMO.

[Maiden1]

Saint Johns beat Saint Pauls handy enough in a very poor game at Darragh Cross. Must say was disappointed at the Saint Pauls performance, expected a better showing from them.

The game was tight enough, St John's got a goal at the start and a goal at the very end of the match after a St Paul's player was sent off.  St Paul's could never get back level and it finished 2-5 to 0-7 I think.  St Paul's had a stone wall penalty turned down as well where the ref played the advantage possibly, it was a strange decision.  The Darragh pitch was like a ploughed field, everyone was slipping everywhere and it was really heavy going, it didn't help the football.  I think at this time of year where possible it might be better if championship matches where played on pitches like Ballykinlars, which are on sandy ground and the water drains away much better.

[Dannymcfella]

Any word on how the point and banbridge match went today?

Point won handy enough, we were terrible again (worst 2 performances of the season this week). Missed 4 14 yards frees!!!!

[down_head]

burren were beat tonight was a very bad game of football!! played on good conditions so that performance was oncall for!! bridge will walk the champ final!

[umpire]

Semi final's predictions league

4   downfanatic
4   eyeswideopen
4   General
4   Maiden 1
4   Minus15
4   Niall Quinn
4   off the laces
4   Passedit
4   Square Ball
4   SQUAREBALL
4   Statto-gael
4   Umpire
3   Amallon
3   Behind the wire
3   BRIDGE LAD
3   D45
3   Dulaney
3   dundrumite
2   Aristotle Flynn


Overall leaders in prediction league

27   downfanatic
27   Niall Quinn
25   off the laces
24   Umpire
23   Amallon
23   D45
23   dundrumite
22   General
20   Islandboy
20   Bridgegael
20   Minus15
19   Square Ball
18   thewobbler
17   Brick Tamlin
13   Centre 3/4
12   NO 1
11   BRIDGE LAD
10   Maiden 1
8   Aristotle Flynn
8   Passedit
8   Statto-gael
7   Blue Island
5   Stiff Breeze
4   SQUAREBALL
4   eyeswideopen
3   Behind the wire
3   Dulaney

[official]

Have to agree, Bridge will coast it!  Burren blew it. Bridge must now start preparing for how they will perform better in Ulster. Bridge need to sett their stall out for the Ulster Championship  and how they can adapt there game to cope with the step up in level from the Down Championship.

Should be somewhat different final but the bridge have all the ace cards.

[Pangurban]

Dont be counting your Chickens, the Blues could make you Blue

[islandboy]

official--- what game were you at? burren blew it? have you not school tomorrow? the best team won , no doubt about it. game should have been over but for two saves from the burren keeper. the conditions were poor throughout so playing football was going to be difficult. our first final since 1989, we will be underdogs but we will give the bridge a game of it.

[behind the wire]

that defensive performance from burren was one of the worst id ever seen at senior level. big magic johnson proved to be a real handful (even though he apparently had to have his eye stitched following the hurling match earlier in the day).

wasnt a very good game but at least its nice to see someone else getting to the final, hopefully it will be a good game.

[johnneycool]

Ballycran believing their own hype colonel?

Poor enough game with few scores from open play. The better team won but Ballycran have youth on their side and will be back. As for the final? Too close to call IMO.

It was a poor game that didn't really get going and I know HP was getting abuse for not letting it go but in some instances he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. I was disappointed that a few fairly decent shoulder charges were blown up and HP was fairly picky in this instance but he always was since I've known him. He did seem to miss some very obvious incidents with Gazza tripping Karl then blowing Karl up for over carrying, then Masterson picked the ball clean off the ground. I know the Ports around me were wanting a penalty for a tackle by Simon on Dule but a few seconds earlier they were whining about not letting it go when Dule was bearing down on goal.

As for the game I think the Crans made a few positional mistakes but some may of been forced upon them, I don't know. Big Deccy should have been between the sticks for his puck outs alone. Young mastersons were struggling to get to midfield and not reaching Mcgourty and Gazza in the first half. I wouldn't have put McGourty on the Ports best spoiling defender in Barry Coleman as he did just that. I can't understand either why Andy Bell was playing up the field as he's a fairly decent track record on Dule and barring a few forrays in the first few minutes didn't do an awful lot. With Zelda in at fullback for the Ports, he was for the taking, I'd of plumped Gazza in on top of him on the edge of the 6 yard area and given instructions to pump the ball in early and high. The Ports will be hoping the next two weeks are enough to get murph back as they were dodgy in there for long periods. The Crans problem being that they were getting cleaned out by the Portaferry midfield and half backs and couldn't get enough ball in there. They had a bit of joy at the start  of both halves as they used a good bit of ground hurling to turn the Ports half backs who've lost a bit of pace but they stopped doing that for some reason. I was disappointed with Stiffler as there's more hurling in him than he showed yesterday, maybe the easy wins in Div2 have slowed some of these lads progress as some didn't show the touch and pace they had last year. Gazza was done two years ago, its time for him to hang up the boots but Gazza would need to be shot to stop him togging out, its just the way he is.

The ports made a strange decison to start BA in the corner where he was very ineffectual as his game isn't about scoring, it's about getting possession and making passes for others and he's good at it. once they moved him out to the half forwards the ports forwards started to click as he was able to put the ball in space for dule who had a decent game but his theatrics are a side of his game which is pathetic to say the least, even the very picky HP on one instance waved him to get up after the slightest of touches. He really doesn't need to be at that shite. Even Eamon Adair had to think about going down when Gary Gordon took a swipe at him, Gary rightly got the line but Eamon didn't need to lie down.

With BA on board and McGarry on the wing the Ports will be favourites as Ballygalget found little out yesterday against the juniors. I'd say Gerard Monan will need to work out how to stop BA as he's the main orchestrator in chief for the ports. After that I think Magic can cause damage if given a roving role where he'd be harder to man mark or double up on, plus I think Ballygalget's supporting cast of forwards offer more threat than Portaferry's but some of them need to get their finger out. Dingy is as sharp as he's been in a while, the Clarkes and Spike need to start troubling the score board operator a bit more from open play that they have been.
Hopefully Magic's head won't be fully of sweety mice after getting to the football final as well yesterday!!!

We'll have to wait and see..

[amallon]

It will be one game at a time for the Bridge management, I can't see them looking passed the final and they will give Loughinisland the respect they deserve and try and get their homework done on them.

One thing that always concerns me when the Bridge play Loughinisland is the clash of colours even in the stands it is a little tough to differentiate the jerseys.  Its not a big deal for your average league game but this next game will be a little bit different.  Anyone else think the same?

[islandboy]

i understand there will be a toss of a coin to see who wears the away jersey

[supersub]

do both teams have away jerseys 

well done to the island for gettin to the final, fair play! yet another opportunity missed for us after losing in the first round to them! i'd say they'l put it up to the bridge  even more than the stone did in the first game last year! good tight unit this l'island team with a few real stars.

[amallon]

Seems like the fair thing to do IslandBoy.  I don't think the Bridge have such a thing as an away strip and can't see either club being too willing to have to pay out £500 for once off set of jerseys.  Maybe whoever looses the toss would play in the a set of county jerseys?

[supersub]

or it could also be used as an excuse for one of the teams to get a new set of jerseys with county final 2008 etc on them as a memoir! im sure they could get sponsorship. only a thought though, i was thinking about the county jersey scenario as well there.