Ulster Semifinal- Derry v Tyrone 21/6/09 Casement Park

[Maguire01]

Can the Mexicans all clear off back to the free state.  I'd love to draw Monaghan again in the qualifiers.  Have ye's not got a sister to amuse yourselves on a Sunday or is that just for weeknights?

Ooooooh! Who's in a bad mood?!

[ExiledGael]

Just in from Casement. Can't say I agree with the criticism of the ref, he had a tough job and done OK for the most part.
Tyrone are absolute masters at winding up and it was impossible to see all the little niggling. Not on the same level as Monaghan game though. Ryan McMenamin should be ashamed of the way he reacted after Bradley was dispossessed. Tyrone broke up the field and scored, McMenamin was 20 yards at least from Bradley, still lying on the ground and he strided over celebrating and shouting in Paddy's face. Don't know how he didn't punch him as that's all he wanted. Eoin Bradley also dropped the knee on a Tyrone player in the same original incident.
I know the Tyrone fans will jump to his defence and he deserves all his awards, medals, can do what he wants blah, blah, blah.
There's just no need for that, it's not a part of the game or any game. It's not a major crime, but it's just terrible sportsmanship and an ugly side to the game. Tyrone are too good for that crap.
Can't say I seen much of what went on in the brawl.
Anyway on to the real game. I thought Joe Diver and Gerard O'Kane were the only reason Derry were even within ten points today. Brutal display, they just looked clueless. Sean Marty did ok on O'Neill though.
The Bradley's must have faced this sweeper system hundreds of times by now but they still have no real idea of how to play against it. Countless balls were pumped into an outnumbered forward but I suppose it also comes down to the lack of quality players to break tackles etc in the middle third. The half-back and half-forward lines contributed very little.
Tyrone were impressive (at football), Hughes actually can shoot and Penrose roasted McGuckin.
It will be overcomplicated here all week but the facts are Tyrone have vastly superior footballers to Derry, and every county in Ireland in my opinion.

[Schkite]

  You know how to annoy the Derry wans MS, a bit like Dick! Whats the odds Monaghan get either Derry or Kerry in round 2 of the qualifiers?(this is of course depending on the miracle that we actually win in the first round)

[Bainisteoir]

Went down to the game as a neutral.. First of all the stewards and security staff are a disgrace.. You ask them if the stand ticket you bought for £20 can get you into the covered stand was told no and to "move along"... Just complete ignorance.. I've heard the stories about casement before but now I'm believing them.. It's not too much to ask to be civil to patrons!!

On the game I have to say I was expectng Derry to give Tyrone a game of it for 55-60 mins. Is it just me or was cassidy found out today to a certain extent.. The amount of ball that was kicked down conor gormleys throat was scandelous and no change was made.. All this talk of the "system" they now adapt.. Where was it?.. I can't see them picking themselves up after that.. They wanted an ulster this year. Doohers some man.. I dunno how he does it.. He looks like a man of 70 running onto the pitch!!
 

[screenmachine]

Can't argue with much of that Exiled Gael.  Tyrone were vastly superior in my eyes.  Too many times Derry players got the ball within the Tyrone 45 and turned round in fear/cluelessness instead of trying to draw a foul although the Tyrone defence is very lean to be fair!
Skinner still looks for Paddy too much even with 3 men around him and other players one on one with their man.  It was all a bit predictable to be honest.  
McMenamin's a sc**bag, plain and simple.  If Bradley had landed one on him, he'd have been the worst in the world and he has to be commended for not raising a fist.  
Cork look like the only team which could give Tyrone a game at this stage of the year!    

[Archie Mitchell]

Brutal match. Happy with the victory though. Was a very subdued atmosphere throughout until the sending off. Tyrone were not at their best and still easily took care of Derry. So much for this new system of Derry's, seems to be the same old system that they have been using before by pumping the ball into the Bradleys. The rumours of his fitness worries before the game might have some truth as he didn't look his best. Probably the only Derry man that can come out of that game with any credit is Eoin Bradley. Very good player and better than Paddy IMO.

Does Cassidy have no faith in his team that he cant send them out to play football and relies more on stopping the opposition by any means? They have some talented footballers, so why not use them. For example Gerard O'Kane. He had a great game v Monaghan and was bringing the ball out of defense and attacking time and time again. Today, he was told to try and stop Cavanagh, it worked to an extent but Tyrone still have other players to do the damage, and Derry lost that attacking side of O'Kanes game.

Even without Derry's missing men I don't think that the result would have been much different as Tyrone have better players and play a system that is hard to stop. When you have the likes of Dooher, McGuigan, McCullagh, Sean O'Neill coming off the bench, you seem to be strengthening the team rather than weakening it.

Though McGuckin was harsh to get a straight red, but no need for shouldering Cavanagh after he scored the point and was running away. Not sure what happened in the Dooher incident but must have been serious as McGinley reacted very badly to it, and very rarely McGinley is involved.

Not too many Tyrone men had an off day but the stand out performers were Hughes and Penrose. Hughes just edged it for me for man of the match. He's probably in the best shape of his life at the minute and hopefully he keeps it up.

[ExiledGael]

Can anyone explain why Casement is devoid of any atmosphere?
This was before the game got so one-sided. The delayed throw in wouldn't have helped but there's something about the place that just invites silence.

[never kickt a ball]

[Archie Mitchell]

Gerry Kinneavy not wearing official referee shorts  Hope the book is thrown at him and gets a hefty fine.

[tyronefan]

cant believe how Gerald O Kane stayed on the field for the full match

He pulled and dragged at Sean Cavanagh for the whole match

[Carmen Stateside]

Looks like the ref was close enough to the incident to make up his own mind.

[Keyser soze]

Terrible game, thought Derry looked clueless. IMO we weren't set up to win the game, we needed to really attack this game using players such as McKaigue, Sean Leo and O'Kane to carry the game forward. As i suggested prior to the game playing Paul Murphy at MF was a complete no-no. Thought SML, McKaigue, O'Kane, Diver and Skinner were our best players. Our continued ploy of kicking ball to Gormley was not i imagine in the Cass gameplan, thiis has to be down to the players not executing instructions correctly.

Re the sending off, saw it on the telly there & it appeared to be minimal contact with a shoulder, in fact from what i seen it was Tommy McGuigan who knocked Cavanagh over by running into him after mcGuckin shouldered him, so i think it was a bit harsh tho K McG shouldn't have interfered with Cav at all.The rest of it was handbags, tho Penrose was throwing a shape.

Joe McMahon's injury resulted from him going down on the ball, think it was either Lynch or McGoldrick made contact but it appeared to be 2 men going for the ball. The Dooher injury resulted from a clash of heads with Barry McGuigan as they were shouldering each other, instigated by BmCG, after the ball had gone. BMcG also ended up with a gash high up on the side of his head from what i could see.


Can't see too many teams bricking it if they meet Derry in the qual's.

[Archie Mitchell]

When a rucus like that happens its hard for the referee to deal with. Does he give every player involved a yellow/red card depending on what he done? Or does he lay the blame soley on the person who instigated it? In this cames he seemed to think that McGuckin started it and gave him a red card. Was a harsh sending off IMO but someone needed to be sent off.

[orangeman]

cant believe how Gerald O Kane stayed on the field for the full match

He pulled and dragged at Sean Cavanagh for the whole match

The tactic of trying to negate Cavanagh probably worked against Derry today - O'Kane is one of Derry's better players and would have offered more going forward.

[mylestheslasher]

Cassidy should have sent out his team to play to their strengths instead of using all his energy to try and stop Tyrone. One of the worst games this year so far, especially when you consider the talent on display. Ulster football is starting to forget that its a simple enough game and half this tactical nonsence is doing nothing for the spectacle. I would expect Cavan or Antrim (not Antrim as the arrogant and hypocritcial Miltwon Row says) to throw caution to the wind and go at Tyrone and I would expect a closer game than this.