Antrim Football Thread

[glens abu]

A good win on Saturday. Our defence were superb, I thought. Brendy Herron was probably man of the match. He won everything and used well. Very good performance.

Carlow at home is a good draw.

Yeah good day all round,hurlers win was handy enough as well.Why did Cunningham not start? 

[AQMP]

Sean O'Neill appears to jack in Antrim in favour of Crusaders...

Antrim a bit stuck for a keeper now??  I believe the sub keeper agin' Westmeath was minor keeper Tiernan Hughes of Ard Eoin??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/northern_ireland/13940576.stm

[Glensman]

Shame O'Neill wouldn't be allowed to play in the next game. Likelihood of injury is minimal and 5 days is a long time.
However, unless O'Neill didn't make this clear all along to Bradley, I think the position is fair enough. As he has said Crusaders pay his wages.
Not sure of status re keepers - is Kerr away or was he just disillusioned?
Bradley could do worse than look at St Brigids keeper. Was up watching their match with St Galls and he kept them in the game and seemed to have a decent kick out. Think his name is McSorley.
Are there many other options about?


Not much commentary re the match.
We should have won by more.
Have to concede I arrived into the ground 4 mins in and we were 1-01 down...feared the worst but they came back very well.
Second half we took some seriously aimless shots when recycling the ball would have been the better option. The defensive system requires people catching up with the attack quickly and breaking the line. Scullion and Loughrey did this on a number of occasions but others didn't step up as much.
Gallagher did so for a well worked move that shoudl have been finished with a goal but this was a rare occasion when we saw sight of their goal.

Was interesting to see Cunningham dropped. Bar a couple of frees in the first half that would have been more suitable for a left footer (think Niblock/McCann may have missed a couple from that side) he wasn't really missed.
Gerard O'Boyle showed well but was blocked a couple of times...criminal to be blocked so easily - again recycle the ball and go again instead of taking the lazy option.
Tomas McCann can seriously strike a ball with ease...a bit of comfort that he will put 80% of 45s over is quite a good thing.
Niblock confuses me. Don't get me wrong he is a serious talent, good on the ball, hard to dispossess, can take a score but on the odd occasion he should be quicker to release to a man on the charge beside him instead of going sideways - if he was to release and then go again to pick up the return he would find himself in more space (all of this is in my humble opinion).
Justy picked up a fair bit of loss ball when played as sweeper.

All in all a solid performance and if they work out ways of maximising chances the could get a couple more wins, draw dependent.


Has Michael McCann ripped his hamstring badly then?

[Pat Mustard]

I think Kerr has left the panel and I don't blame him actually. Throwing a minor goalkeeper in is a big risk for next week, are there other options?

See what you mean re Niblock, but he is potentially a class player.. Gerard O'Boyle got a lot of praise in the Irish News yesterday, I actually thought he was quite poor. He was blocked a few times, hit a few wayward shots and his handling wasn't great.Being fair to him he never hid and kept showing,  but it clearly wasn't his day.

Carlow are very beatable, and who knows in the next round, the winners of London v Waterford would be nice. One step at a time though!

I see Cargin were well beaten by Rasharkin in the O'Cahan Cup, what happened there?

[Milltown Row2]

I think Kerr has left the panel and I don't blame him actually. Throwing a minor goalkeeper in is a big risk for next week, are there other options?

See what you mean re Niblock, but he is potentially a class player.. Gerard O'Boyle got a lot of praise in the Irish News yesterday, I actually thought he was quite poor. He was blocked a few times, hit a few wayward shots and his handling wasn't great.Being fair to him he never hid and kept showing,  but it clearly wasn't his day.

Carlow are very beatable, and who knows in the next round, the winners of London v Waterford would be nice. One step at a time though!

I see Cargin were well beaten by Rasharkin in the O'Cahan Cup, what happened there?

Trying not to be baised but Niblock won every ball that was thrown into him, scored and won frees that were scored, laid off ball that was also converted. Sometimes i wonder were any posters at the game??

Yes he could have done more as some of the other players but christ man, he'd be one of Antrim's main players.

In truth Westmeath were terrible, and when the big midfielder went off injured in the first half it became even easier. Antrim should have won by more and should beat a crap Carlow team. Westmeath played crap and failed to get the ball into their main player who was decent when on the ball.

[Pat Mustard]

I think Kerr has left the panel and I don't blame him actually. Throwing a minor goalkeeper in is a big risk for next week, are there other options?

See what you mean re Niblock, but he is potentially a class player.. Gerard O'Boyle got a lot of praise in the Irish News yesterday, I actually thought he was quite poor. He was blocked a few times, hit a few wayward shots and his handling wasn't great.Being fair to him he never hid and kept showing,  but it clearly wasn't his day.

Carlow are very beatable, and who knows in the next round, the winners of London v Waterford would be nice. One step at a time though!

I see Cargin were well beaten by Rasharkin in the O'Cahan Cup, what happened there?

Trying not to be baised but Niblock won every ball that was thrown into him, scored and won frees that were scored, laid off ball that was also converted. Sometimes i wonder were any posters at the game??

Yes he could have done more as some of the other players but christ man, he'd be one of Antrim's main players.

In truth Westmeath were terrible, and when the big midfielder went off injured in the first half it became even easier. Antrim should have won by more and should beat a crap Carlow team. Westmeath played crap and failed to get the ball into their main player who was decent when on the ball.

Not sure if you meant to quote me but I agree with you. Niblock is our best ball-winner, and a lot of our scores came off his work the other day. Sometimes he tends to over-do it as I think the other poster said, he sometimes maybe gets swallowed up when he tries to do a bit too much. Little evidnce of that on Saturday though.

[imtommygunn]

Niblock without doubt an excellent player but he does a while bit of f**king around which can be frustrating. He's very strong and has got more mobile.

Good draw against Carlow though doubt they'll be afraid of us either.

They look to have a colossal guy Murphy in midfield and can't be too bad if they reached a Leinster semi either so it's far from a given. I'd like to think if we play to our potential we'll win mind.

[Glensman]

I think Kerr has left the panel and I don't blame him actually. Throwing a minor goalkeeper in is a big risk for next week, are there other options?

See what you mean re Niblock, but he is potentially a class player.. Gerard O'Boyle got a lot of praise in the Irish News yesterday, I actually thought he was quite poor. He was blocked a few times, hit a few wayward shots and his handling wasn't great.Being fair to him he never hid and kept showing,  but it clearly wasn't his day.

Carlow are very beatable, and who knows in the next round, the winners of London v Waterford would be nice. One step at a time though!

I see Cargin were well beaten by Rasharkin in the O'Cahan Cup, what happened there?

Trying not to be baised but Niblock won every ball that was thrown into him, scored and won frees that were scored, laid off ball that was also converted. Sometimes i wonder were any posters at the game??

Yes he could have done more as some of the other players but christ man, he'd be one of Antrim's main players.

In truth Westmeath were terrible, and when the big midfielder went off injured in the first half it became even easier. Antrim should have won by more and should beat a crap Carlow team. Westmeath played crap and failed to get the ball into their main player who was decent when on the ball.

Not sure if you meant to quote me but I agree with you. Niblock is our best ball-winner, and a lot of our scores came off his work the other day. Sometimes he tends to over-do it as I think the other poster said, he sometimes maybe gets swallowed up when he tries to do a bit too much. Little evidnce of that on Saturday though.

Niblock is in our top three players. Apologies if it sounded that I was being seriously critical - just think with refinement he could be great. He is seriously on the cusp at the moment. Alot of traffic goes through him and he used it 90% well. Sometimes he tries to do too much though.
I was at the game and stand by that on a couple of occasions in the second half (at least) he could and should have pop passed off to onrushing players.
As I say only a small point and trying not to labour it as he was one of our best players on Saturday.
I think he would benefit from it as well.

Agree re O'Boyle getting blocked but he did repeatedly show, which is something our corner forwards over the last few years have not been great at.

[bloodybreakball]

Milltown, i dont think that glensman was being overly-critical of niblock, nobody could deny that he is one of our very best players. for my money i think if he moves across the field with the ball its because hes trying to find himself a bit if space for a long delivery into the inside line or is waiting for the irght pass / run to be made and i think he can do that if he wants because he is the main playmaker. also in his defence, if he didnt pop the ball off, i think he might have been told to look for the long ball when in possession. if gerard o boyle's in the inside line and showing sourely you should try and use him, its good to see a good bal-winner in the full-forward line.
very impressed with sean burke, mark dougan to start against carlow becasue he's and out and out forward and brwnden murphy will take serious watching. did thomas walsh transfer back to carlow, do any of you's remember walsh playing for wicklow against antrim in the tommy murphy cup final

[Glensman]

Milltown, i dont think that glensman was being overly-critical of niblock, nobody could deny that he is one of our very best players. for my money i think if he moves across the field with the ball its because hes trying to find himself a bit if space for a long delivery into the inside line or is waiting for the irght pass / run to be made and i think he can do that if he wants because he is the main playmaker. also in his defence, if he didnt pop the ball off, i think he might have been told to look for the long ball when in possession. if gerard o boyle's in the inside line and showing sourely you should try and use him, its good to see a good bal-winner in the full-forward line.
very impressed with sean burke, mark dougan to start against carlow becasue he's and out and out forward and brwnden murphy will take serious watching. did thomas walsh transfer back to carlow, do any of you's remember walsh playing for wicklow against antrim in the tommy murphy cup final

Cheers BBB! Agree - when he was able to make time and space he can play the killer passes however the defensive system we play means there are less bodies in that forward line to win clean/break ball so sometimes better to run through defences, breaking the line. St Galls are magic at it, with Kelly being a great exponent of taking a pop pass and breaking the line.

If I'm not mistaken I thought I saw Dougan doing water boy on the terrace side - is he injured?

[Glensman]

Ah, the penny drops!

[OverThePostsAWide]

If I'm not mistaken I thought I saw Dougan doing water boy on the terrace side - is he injured?

Suspended after his elbow in Ballybofey?

Hmmm. Contravention of his suspension surely or was he doing water boy from the stands?

Who do Antrim think they are, Tyrone? 

[Two Hands FFS]

How long did he get? If he got a month that would have been up but do you miss your next match as well? Or would he miss the next match in the Ulster Championship( next year)??

[CentreHalfBack]

Who's looking after Sarsfields this year?

Looking at the Div 2 league there. They have 2 points after 10 games, won 0, drew 2 and lost 8.

Not looking great for them.....

[Milltown Row2]

Steve Wonder!! I know the two lads looking after them. Good guys shite results!!