Antrim Football Thread

[country bumpkin]

I do give up...................beaten again by Fermanagh................we are awful.

[Milltown Row2]

I do give up...................beaten again by Fermanagh................we are awful.

Why?? If Cargin was playing a division 3 club team, what would the result be??

[imtommygunn]

I don't think even bs could put a positive spin on that first half

Fermgael no need to gloat. We like to think wishfully sometimes.

Good win for the minors. Some good players on that team. Hope the corner forward quinn who had a great game isn't injured too badly.

[country bumpkin]

Because MR2,
I do remember when Fermanagh would not have been allowed on the same pitch as Antrim and now we are forced to tug the forelock to them.

[FermGael]

I don't think even bs could put a positive spin on that first half

Fermgael no need to gloat. We like to think wishfully sometimes.

Good win for the minors. Some good players on that team. Hope the corner forward quinn who had a great game isn't injured too badly.

It was not gloating.
I just think that the particular poster afforded Fermanagh no respect for what we have done over the past 3 years.

[imtommygunn]

Cb when was that? We didn't win a championship game for 17 years at one point and you could count on one hand how many championship games we have won since so how you can say anyone wouldn't be allowed on the same pitch as us is ludicrous.

In the meantime fermanagh were a replay away from an ai final, have got to a quarter final, got to an ulster final etc etc.

[BrendanAntrim]

We were dire in the first half, set up merely to keep the score down. We have some forwards who can be devastating if given good possession - why not play to our strengths? Playing 2 forwards against 6 defenders....isn't it obvious that we won't score playing like that?

[Farrandeelin]

Do Antrim enter the A or B side of the backdoor?

[Milltown Row2]

Because MR2,
I do remember when Fermanagh would not have been allowed on the same pitch as Antrim and now we are forced to tug the forelock to them.

I can go back to 90 took my dad down to Brewster park... Said we should win sunny day won minor game .... Bate in senior game...you got to get away from club scene and county scene... Totally different

[Gold]

We were dire in the first half, set up merely to keep the score down. We have some forwards who can be devastating if given good possession - why not play to our strengths? Playing 2 forwards against 6 defenders....isn't it obvious that we won't score playing like that?

We only had 1 forward most of the time...1 forward in their half....ffs

Hard to even talk about how bad it was

[theskull1]

Some people far too willing to believe the hype.
Antrim topped Div 4 .... a full 12 places below where Fermanagh ended up in Div2. Championships is Championship and all that, but come on gents. How sure are you that we 'should' be able to consistently put it up to the likes of teams like Fermanagh. Results wouldn't suggest that we should AFAICS. Very easy to look slick against Div4 teams. Div2 opposition will always be better drilled and put a Div4 team under pressure.

A lot of toys strewn around the place this evening for no good reason other than unrealistic expectations being set.

[curious]

1. pre match, Fermanagh players  put through drills, Antrim players kicking the ball around leisurely - bad omen before a ball kicked in anger
2. kickout strategies told a tale, Fermanagh guy looking for movement and space to aim at, Antrim keeper straight down the middle most of time, no outfield movement. Fermanagh got it moving fast, Antrim slow and methodical. Fermanagh won serious number of Antrim kickouts but it improved a bit in second half
3. Not only did Antrim have few forwards up, but they were peppered with high ball in, especially in first half. No chance against Fermanagh defence
4. Antrim half back line never got near going forward to support
5. Serious poor shooting in first half, got better in second half

no doubt Antrim players train, put the hours in and work as hard as any other county and its such a shame they get very little reward

[imtommygunn]

Some people far too willing to believe the hype.
Antrim topped Div 4 .... a full 12 places below where Fermanagh ended up in Div2. Championships is Championship and all that, but come on gents. How sure are you that we 'should' be able to consistently put it up to the likes of teams like Fermanagh. Results wouldn't suggest that we should AFAICS. Very easy to look slick against Div4 teams. Div2 opposition will always be better drilled and put a Div4 team under pressure.

A lot of toys strewn around the place this evening for no good reason other than unrealistic expectations being set.

I would agree some people are getting carried away but that first half performance was as bad as it gets. Fermanagh were always 6-8 points the favourites and were much the better team but you at least have to go for it. Being 4 to 5 points down in an ulster championship game from an early stage and sticking with one forward inside the opposition 45 marked by three defenders leaves you on a hiding to nothing. One forward who is a corner forward and should be playing off a big ball winner at that.

[AQMP]

Some people far too willing to believe the hype.
Antrim topped Div 4 .... a full 12 places below where Fermanagh ended up in Div2. Championships is Championship and all that, but come on gents. How sure are you that we 'should' be able to consistently put it up to the likes of teams like Fermanagh. Results wouldn't suggest that we should AFAICS. Very easy to look slick against Div4 teams. Div2 opposition will always be better drilled and put a Div4 team under pressure.

A lot of toys strewn around the place this evening for no good reason other than unrealistic expectations being set.

I posted a few times that Fermanagh would win this game by 6 - 8 points.  They should have been 10-12 points up by half time. At 0-9 to 0-1 after 30 odd mins Antrim were still playing one forward (Bam) and on the rare occasion when they got the ball into him it was a massive punt into the air that the had no chance with.  The set up reminded me of the day a few years ago when Frank Dawson sent the team out against Monaghan to try to win 1 point to nil. Surely if you send the team out to keep the score down and you're 7-1 down after 25 mins then the plan should change??

On reflection I wouldn't be too harsh on the players, they played the way they were told to play.  As others have said that's a harsh lesson on the difference between Div 2 and Div 4.  An example of the ills of modern football was seen with the Fermanagh goal.  Ryan Murray had his man beat about 30m from goal instead if driving straight and putting the ball over the bar to make it 12-10 he turns back looking for the pass (probably because he's been coached to do this), loses the ball and 5 secs later it's in the Antrim net.

Good win by the minors though.  Clearly the better team for most of the game.

[Points a Good Score]

Disappointing performance yesterday like a lot of our support yesterday I traveled with a genuine belief that we could get a result, although it has to be noted that I somewhat underestimated Fermanagh, they were extremely well organised in terms of their defensive structure and broke well from front to back.

In terms of Antrim i was slightly bemused by the kick out strategy or lack of it but in thinking I would imagine it was based around the ability of Niall McKeever to win clean ball around the middle and to late to work on anything else after his late withdrawal. In saying that John Carron battled manfully around the middle and got a hand to most kickouts, we did struggle with breaking ball however.

With Fermanaghs organised blanket defence we needed to come out of defence at break neck speed before they got organised but more often than not it was a laboured patient approach whilst not giving the ball away it made it very difficult to get into scoring positions. Dermott McAleese and Ryan Murray helped when then came on with a more direct style of play.

I was a little surprised that Antrim continued with a sweeper at the start of the second half when 7 down and thought they should definitely have went man to man sooner than they did, Fermanagh got at least 7 or 8 uncontested short kickouts at the start of the first half taking the pressure off their defence when we were starting to get the upper hand. Antrims best period in that game was certainly when they went 15 on 15, had bams goal chance gone in it would have made it very interesting, saying that Fermanagh were full value for the win.

Its easy sitting here on a Monday morning analyzing as well very different when your own the line in the middle of a championship game. Heres hoping for a good draw in the qualifiers and possibly a run.

Well done to the minors also few mistake which lead to scores but they are young lads overall a good performance with some great players on show.