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Tony, you should receive an email on the friday before each game confirming which stile to use.

I am quite happy with the season ticket system though there was no scanner or even a log of who attended in Longford last week. Also there are no reserved seats in Newry for season ticket holders.

Some posters who say that it is the worst game Down have played under current management must not have been at Carrick-on-Shannon last year 

I was in Carrick last year and I still think that the first 50 minutes of yesterdays game was as bad as I have ever seen.
Why did the management wait until the 34th minute yesterday to make a change when Down were second best in nearly every position on the pitch? Why are we using players who are clearly out of their depth at this level and why are so many players who should be first choice players not even on the squad?
Also it is clear to even the most clueless supporter that Down have very few good defenders, why then are we playing entire games with a 2 man forward line and having 13 players camped in our own half. We don't have players who can man mark or tackle, we should be playing to our strengths which is our forwards. We beat Tyrone last year by out scoring them, if we had camped in our own half like we have done for most of the league, Tyrone would have destroyed us. Is the Tyrone game a one off or can Down perform like this on a regular basis? If we are to perform like this regularly we need our strongest team on the field week after week, not sitting at home or watching from the stand.

[NOT]

This has got to be Down`s worst performance under Ross Carr, or was today Ross Carr`s worst performance as manager, I simply cannot make up my mind, but todays performance was woeful. Dan Gordon didn't start today and Down were getting cleaned out in the middle of the field for most of the first half. Kearney battled away, but I doubt that Joe Ireland touched the ball once in the first half. At one stage Kearney caught a ball on the Limerick 65 and he passed the ball backwards to Boyle, he in turn ran towards his own goal and passed to McKernan who was behind the Down 45 metre line, when they weren't playing the ball backwards they were playing across the field without making any progress and usually losing possession. The team lacked a game plan, direction and spirit until the last 15 minutes of the game when they were seven points behind.
I really hate having a go at amateur players, but today was terrible, very few if any of the Down squad can walk away with their heads held high after that. Paul Murphy, who has shown that he is a great player in the half back line, he made Dooher look anonymous last year, is NOT a full back. He isn't comfortable there, he cant read the game from there and he cost Down dearly today, he was roasted. Can Ross not see this? With Dan Gordon not playing today was a game that was made for Jack Lynch. Limerick had a big physical pairing in midfield and Lynch would have had a field day, he may not have caught every ball cleanly, but he would have let the Limerick midfielders know he was there and they wouldn't have gone for most balls unchallenged. Ross put Joe Ireland on instead. Other than McKernan the half back line and the half forward line were indistinguishable. None of them seem to know what position they are playing and in truth none of them seemed to know what direction they were playing for the first 50 minutes of the game.
Down were all over the place in the first half and five points adrift, yet Ross didn't think of making a change until the 34th minute, when Aidan Carr came on for Hugh Davey. Joe Ireland was replaced by Declan Rooney at half time and Coulter came on for Jamie O`Reilly. Down had two promising attacks in the first few minutes of the second half, two clear cut goal chances were wasted due to players taking too much out of the ball or others not wanting to take responsibility of shooting and Limerick went straight up the field and scored a point from long range, something that Down were unable to do all day.
Ronan Murtagh seems to have a knack for getting a ball in space and running into defenders instead of running at them. On at least half a dozen occasions today he got possession within 30 metres of the Limerick goal and ran himself into trouble. If players cannot shoot from 30 metres at this level then serious questions have to be asked all round.
Down got themselves back into the game with a goal which was carbon copy of last weeks disallowed goal against Longford and a few points, but Limerick scored a 45 with the last kick of the game for a deserved two points. Down used a series of different place kickers today who all failed to score from a similar distance. Down also had numerous wides, I gave up counting after Limericks second goal, which came direct from a free kick 40 metres from goal.
Down were dire today and the management looked on like uninterested spectators. The normally vocal/volatile DJ did not open his mouth once. I still cant decide wether this is a good thing or not. It looks like Down will spend another year in Division 3, which is no more than they deserve on todays performance. If that is the case, then a lot of people need to take a long hard look at themselves, it seems that there are a lot more than the players and management getting a free trip to Limerick.

BC1 what are the older players on the team going to do? The likes of Oisin, the McEntees and Francie, will they hang up the boots now and give the younger lads a go or will they come back again?
Of all the players on this team, I think Oisin is going to be hardest of all to replace. Deadly accurate from either a placed ball or open play and always seems to be on the end of an attack. Definitely one of the greatest forwards ever and will be a big loss whenever he decides to go.
It is too early to be writing obituaries yet, even after yesterday Cross are still one of the top sides in the country.

The old saying "take your points and the goals will come" doesn't seem to have been heeded by the current Down team. They were guilty of going for goal too many times today when a point was the easier and more sensible option, but then again some of the long range kicking options leaves a lot to be desired.
Down raced into a 2 point lead inside the first five minutes with points from Hughes and Murtagh and it looked like Down would have it all their own way, but Longford hit back with 3 points  and Down seemed to lose their way for a while. John Fegan took over the free taking duties from the injured* Aidan Carr and two frees from Fegan with a point from Daniel Hughes left Down 0-05-0-03 ahead after 25 minutes. Longford hit back with a couple of points, before Jamie O`Reilly nudged Down ahead with a point . Paul Murphy was then  yellow carded and Longford equalised from the free before Fegan put Down ahead again with another free to leave Down ahead by a point. Declan Rooney replaced Murphy on the stroke of half time with the score at 0-07 – 0-06.
Down had the ball in the net within a minute of the restart, but the referee who had a very poor game, wrongly ruled the goal out for a "square ball", when in fact Paul McComiskey was well outside the square. A John Fegan free and a point from O`Reilly kept Down ahead by 2. Luke Howard, who had been replaced by D Rafferty in the first half (blood sub), then came on for McGovern. Down wrapped up the game with scores from Fegan, Boyle who had a pretty good game, Hughes and Kearney. Cathal Magee and Brendan McArdle replaced Murtagh and Fegan in the dying minutes.
This was a very disjointed performance from Down. Although  they lorded it at midfield with good displays from both Kearney and especially Gordon in the second half they squandered a lot of possession and quite a few scoring chances. (11 wides in total) McComiskey showed well for the ball, but he needs the likes of Coulter playing alongside him to punish opposing defences. Definitely not a great game, despite what you will read in tomorrows Irish News. At times Down were playing with a 2 man forward line which seems strange when we have better forwards than defenders.
The starting team was McVeigh, McGovern, Murphy, Howard, Davey, McKernan, Garvey, Gordon, Kearney, O`Reilly , Boyle, Fegan, Murtagh, Hughes, McComiskey.

5FM - I have never heard worse.  His co-commentator has to tell him who has the ball on nearly every occassion.

Agreed, this is hard to listen to. Is he even watching the game or does he know what is going on. He is obviously an Armagh supporter, but he really should not be allowed to commentate on a game. He is awful.
Armagh 2 up according to "Martin", only for Martin we would not know what is happening.

The co-commentator on Q102 is spoiling this for me by letting the Fermanagh supporter in him to come out.

You should try listening to the game on 5FM. They must have run a competition in the Gateway club in Newry to find this clown.

The Down team for the Longford game is as follows:
1. Brendan McVeigh
2. C. McGovern
3. P. Murphy
4. D. Rafferty
5. C. Garvery
6. K. McKernan
7. H. Davey
8. D. Gordon
9. S. Kearney
10. J. Fegan
11. C. Maginn
12. J. O`Reilly
13. D. Hughes
14. R. Murtagh
15. P. McComiskey

I am in no way condoning McMenamins actions but I think a lot of people have made a meal out of the whole incident. It could hardly be considered as an assault as there was minimal if any contact.
There is an element of Down support who seem to attend games to hurl abuse at Jack Lynch and at times a few others. I wish these people would either shut up or stay at home. Most of them didn't even do P.E. at school never mind play inter-county football, but they feel they are entitle to abuse players who they feel aren't up to scratch.

Some programmes may be unavailable in the north because another broadcaster may have the rights for that area. The tyrone game was available on TG4.ie

Down 1-13 Louth 1-12
Limerick 0-14 Roscommon 1-10

Down were well worth their 4 point lead at half time, in fact it could and should have been a 7 point lead if the referee hadn't wrongly adjudged Benny Coulter to be in the square when he beat the Louth keeper to a high ball mid way through the first half. Brendan McArdle had Downs first score, with Coulter and Aidan Carr free and another McArdle point before Coulter had a goal disallowed, Lout hit the crossbar shortly after this before Coulter, Hughes (2) and two fine frees from Carr left the score 0-09 -  0-05 in favour of Down at the break. Louth had two men yellow carded in the closing stages of the first half, the second of which looked a bit unfair, though Goss can have no complaints.
Louth started the second half well and other than a point from Coulter Louth were beginning to take control of the game, they were winning the 50/50 balls around the middle of the park that they weren't getting in the first half. The Louth goal could have finished things for Down, bt credit were credit is due they kept plugging away with points from Kearney and Fegan before Coulter put Daniel Hughes through for what proved to be the winning score.
McVeigh had a good game, he was beaten on two occasions  but thankfully from a Down perspective the crossbar saved us once, although well beaten for the Louth goal he produced a fine save from the penalty, the resulting 45 was put wide which was a big bonus.
The much maligned defence had one of its better days, they limited the Louth attack to 5 points in the first half, both corner backs had pretty good games and in Luke Howard we have a defender that is every bit as promising as McComiskey is in the forward line. Paul Murphy though is not the answer at full back and looked much more comfortable late in the game when he came out the field.
The star of the night for me was Aidan Carr, he is very comfortable on the ball and has his fathers eye from frees, he scored some points from frees this evening. McKernan was ok, nothing more, nothing less though D Raff looked sharp and comfortable on the ball when he replaced McKernan who was yellow carded. Garvey had his best game for the senior team tonight, he worked hard and covered plenty of ground.
Midfield was even enough, Down shaded the first half, Louth the second, though it was great to see Dan back in action. Jackie wasted a lot of possession, but as someone else said Ross has him there for a reason, he puts himself about and Louth don't like that.
The wing half forwards covered a lot of ground, mostly in a defensive role, but both were more than worthy of their starting place. Maginn was replaced by Boyle who had a good game when introduced.
The full forward line was the difference in the end, any team with an in form Coulter is always going to be hard to beat. The louth full back line were terrified of him, he took his scores well and put Hughes in for the goal, which yo knew Daniel was going to put away. Daniel couldn't buy a free from the ref and should have had a bit more protection. It was also great to see Paul McComiskey return to action tonight, he is a big prospect and hopefully if he stays fit will be a regular in the full forward line with Coulter and Hughes.
Credit must go to Ross and Co who made the right changes at the right times and didn't panic when Louth looked like they might nick it at the end. In all fairness Louth probably deserved something from tonight's game, they missed a lot of scoreable frees and had a lot of possession in the second half. I have a feeling these two teams will meet again before the league is over. Hopefully we will get a better ref who doesn't look like he had his life savings on a Louth win.

MF, with Down's ff so prolific, I doubt Benny did well? Did he have a poor one?

He didn't start the game, he was replaced by Goss, though he came on as a replacement for one of the players shown a yellow card.

Seems like a good performance and great to get a win but some of the same old problems -

I thought it was a very poor performance, very scrappy and no flow to the game at all. It was like a schools game, full of simple mistakes. Down should be blowing the likes of Tipperary out of the water, not struggling for long periods of the game.
Tipperary had players warming up all through the game, if they needed a replacement there was a man ready for action. Down received 3 yellows. On each occasion everyone on the Down bench just looked at each other, in fact Down were down to 14 men for the last few minutes of the first half and conceded 2 points. They didn't make a change until the start of the second half. I know they are only small things, but if Down are serious about promotion, they need to get everything right. It was only Tipperary today, much bigger game in 2 weeks.

Louth are on a bit of a roll, unbeaten in 2009, Down lost their last two McKenna cup games to Monaghan and Queens and were hammered by Meath in Newry last Sunday. If Louth had anyone watching Down today they wont be losing any sleep between now an Valentines day.