UC 2010: Aontroim vs Tír Eoghain 23rd May, Páirc Mhic Asmaint

[OverThePostsAWide]

and the high lites were sh1t too

didnt show stevies first point or the square ball

i was standing behind the goal and it was a square ball all day, called it as the ball hung in the air.

McEneany would have blown it as soon as Hub contested the ball with Finucane then. No, Hub chased the ball in (it bounced outside the square afterall - what was Finucane doing?). The square ball was given (correctly) because Cavanagh was in the square when it came back in to him when he finished it to the net. It's clear on the TV replays.

[ardmhachaabu]

Paddy Cunningham has no shortage of muscle about him loughshorelad

[imtommygunn]

Cunningham did alright I thought. A lot of the time Tyrone had a man in front of that line and it was hard to get the ball into him.

Antrim were poor at the back. struggled at midfield until McGourty came on and they have no target man in FF which is a big downfall.

McLean might steady the FB line, McGourty in from the start, a bit of jiggery pokery in the HF line and that will help a lot. We have no FF and that's the long and the short of it though.

Team for next day:
Finucane(though he should be emptying boys)
Brady
McLean
O'Boyle
Scullion
Crozier
Kelly
McGourty
Gallagher
McCann
Niblock
Loughrey
McGourty
McCann
Cunningham

In fact even Kevin McGourty would be worth a punt in FF. We are badly lacking for not having a good target man in there.

[Mr. Nakata]

Great day out. Always enjoy Casement. The mantovani was excellent, sunshine always brings the best out. Serious amounts of good looking blirge from both counties. The game was watched with johnston permanently at half mast. Joe McMahon dictated the play in the first half. Niblock was excellent. Plenty of food for thought. Tyrone need to improve. Hope Down beat Tir Connell and the semi final is in west belfast.

[ONeill]

What was wrong with Sean Kelly?

[tyssam5]

Game was too much like last year for my liking, what happened to the ruthlessness that used to be there when Tyrone had a lead up?

[OverThePostsAWide]

Paddy Cunningham has no shortage of muscle about him loughshorelad

Friend of yours Ardmhachaabu? He maybe has muscles for the beach but not for the football today. He was physically dominated and was literally shoved off the ball on a number of occasions. Back to the worst of his "can't win his own ball" reputation. Scored one great point early on when he danced away from his marker, but did he do anything else worthy of a marquee forward? It wasn't even as if he was double-teamed or had Tyrone's most experienced defenders on him.

[ONeill]

Completely forgot it was World Turtle Day.

[tyroneman]

Baker doing well In his post match analysis to keep the Antrim heads up - ref was against us / shouldve been a draw / mugsys goal shouldve been a free out. Great gamesmanship and leaves the Antrim boys thinking they still are the dogs ball@x. now they will feel hard down by and prob give have a good qualifier rub.

While no-one will want to draw Antrim let's not overstate their game today.

Pat gave them a lot of soft frees throughout and maybe the couple at the end for Tyrone was a bit of guilt creeping in.

Let's also not forget Dooher and SON had no decent football leading up to this game and Colm Cav conspired to give the ball away several times under no pressure.

Tyrone and Antrim will both learn a lot from today 

[tyroneman]

And you can bet yr bottom dollar Antrim and Derry will meet in the backdoor!!!

[give her dixie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLposShsDIo
Eoin Mulligan interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onBxFkA_ETk
Pat McEneaney interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Su_cjoq3GE
Joe McMahon interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCUVKE1mYN0
And a bit of craic at Casement..................

All videoes by Jerome Quinn

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

A good win, in the circumstances. A massive step-up in application and performance levels from the Dublin debacle of a League capitulation.

No patronising comments on how Antrim could have and should have et cetera, though no team will fancy them in the Qualifiers.

A curate's egg of a performance (again) from Mc Enaney, though he's most definitely afflicted with the current in vogue HQ-inspired infection of blowing up for no discernible or consistent reason, other than to secure a positive tick on his assessor's tick-sheet. An attractive sporting spectacle it doth not make.

Good job the Mc Gourtys didn't start.

[OverThePostsAWide]

Heron was dreadful today and I don't know why he was left on so long (he wasn't even changed at halftime  ). It was a shame for him because he has been playing very well to date by all accounts. He was so off the pace, physically and mentally, I wouldn't be surprised to hear later this week that he has contracted the virus that was reported in the camp.

More worryingly for Antrim, Colin Brady continued his recent run of poor form. If you had told me that he was the 34 year old just back from a 9 month layoff and a catalogue of career ending injuries I would have nodded sympathetically. On another day he might have been lucky enough to get a free for Mulligan's tug on the front of his jersey on his way to the goal but that would have been on a technicality. Candy and babies spring to mind.

Even allowing for the genius that SON is, Douglas looked out of his depth. I never thought of SON as so big and strong, but he (and others) made Douglas look like one the of minors that played at 2 O'Clock. But even when he wasn't being tormented by SON, he was poor. Mulligan just sailed past him for the second goal.

Terry O'Neill might be a fine club player but he is not of county standard in my opinion. He was flattered last year by two games where he found himself the free "sweeper" in a defence swamped by poorly directed ball. He added nothing today.

Paddy Cunningham was disappointing. When the going gets tough it's your marquee forward that you look to. Maybe just an off day...

Mick McCann played in fits and starts. Tomas didn't really turn up.

Scullion did some really good things and some really bad things in equal measure. So no change there then 

Similarly for Crozier and CJ, although maybe not quite to the extremes of Scullion.

Kevin Brady is not (above Div 3) county class anymore and added no more than he has done the last half-dozen times he was brought on (i.e. very little). Time to blood one of the younger subs? And I don't mean Gerard O'Boyle who brought nothing to the mix.

The other 3 Kevins (Niblock, O'Boyle, and McGourty) were superb today. Gallagher put in a mountain of work, but didn't win enough ball at midfield.

Loughrey made a reasonable contribution despite himself and whatever self doubts have suddenly crept in. His shooting was poor and there was a number of times when he could have continued his searing runs to really pressure Tyrone but checked at the slightest resistance and laid it off, often backwards 

McGreevy would have saved the first goal. Why do Gaelic keepers so often lead with their feet and make themselves as small as possible in one-on-one situations? And it wouldn't even have got to a square ball...

What happened Kelly? The tackle was untidy but not particularly forceful - I've looked at the replay several times and Kelly seemed to "go with" the foul in the way that small men do when they feel a hand on their shoulder going past big awkward ones  . He seemed to pull a hamstring judging by the location of the icepack?

Worryingly for Antrim, that's 4 defeats in the last 5 matches. Baker has disrupted his winning team with changes that have only worked 50%. I hope for Antrim's sake he changes the right 50% the next time...

[stibhan]

Baker doing well In his post match analysis to keep the Antrim heads up - ref was against us / shouldve been a draw / mugsys goal shouldve been a free out. Great gamesmanship and leaves the Antrim boys thinking they still are the dogs ball@x. now they will feel hard down by and prob give have a good qualifier rub.

While no-one will want to draw Antrim let's not overstate their game today.

Pat gave them a lot of soft frees throughout and maybe the couple at the end for Tyrone was a bit of guilt creeping in.

Let's also not forget Dooher and SON had no decent football leading up to this game and Colm Cav conspired to give the ball away several times under no pressure.

Tyrone and Antrim will both learn a lot from today

Not only did Tyrone score a point from what should have been a hop ball and was given as an advantage, Tyrone got 4 of the softest frees I've ever seen in my life at the end of the game. Moreover, whilst I think Tyrone's reputation for diving is way overstated, Colm Cavanagh was at it today almost everytime he was touched. To act as if McEnaney was good for Antrim today is a disgrace, he was by far favouring Tyrone and every decision went their way. Even at that, there only looked like one team winning.

[Siggy]

From a red hand perspective Antrim had us rattled  in the second half. Forget all this talk of taking the foot of the gas. Antrim were damn decent in the second half just a pity for them that they have to be 6 -8 points down before they start to play against Tyrone.
Relieved is my overiding emotion today.