Ulster championsip 1st... Donegal v Down

[mylestheslasher]

Great to get a win!! Tyrone will be a much tougher test out the next day!

McVeigh - Good kick outs & great hands when it counted. No chance with either goals

McArdle - Caught badly for the first goal but recovered well & shackled Murphy well

Rooney - Quiet day on his return but went about his business well

Rafferty - Down's best defender consistently this year. Another massive performance.

McKernan - Very poor in my opinion again. Lucky to remain on field as frustration boiled over again.

Colgan - His serious lack of pace invites opponents onto our defence & even in the sweeper role though he was poor.

Garvey - Average day, but always sticks to his task & tries to recover from his mistakes

Gordon - Definitely not back to his best & anyone claiming he is is foolish. Overshadowed by his midfield partner & struggled with Cassidy.

King - Massive preformance. Close runner to Benny in MOM. Dominated the middle & brute strength forced Donegal to rethink around the middle.

Hughes - Works himself into the ground on regular basis whether he is having a good game or not. Some great scores.

Poland - Tries very hard but at times he went missing. Need more of a scoring threat but should start against Tyrone.

McComiskey - Shockingly poor no matter what RTE said! Living off good performances against poorer teams like London. Didnt have any impact in forward line in my opinion & shouldve been replaced earlier.

Coulter - MOM. How he hasnt bagged an All Star yeat when his opposite number Lacey has 2?? Destroyed Donegal & looked sharper than ever.

Clarke - John had a hard day at the edge of the square. Always tries his hardest but just didnt go for him today.

Clarke - Media have hyped serious pressure on him & at the minute I think it weighs heavy on him. Kicked some sublime scores from tight angles but overall think he needs to have a greater influence on games in the future.

On the ref I thought he was very poor in the opening stages. How 3 Down players managed to get booked while Donegal in guys like Molloy managed to not even get ticked was very frustrating. Sense prevailed with the "Hand Pass" rule & think refs are now using their own common sense as opposed to the GAA's directive.

The ref obviously didn't see the Molloy elbow, which happened just after the ball had been released and in the middle of a bunch of players. Very unfair to dismiss his performance in the early part of the game as poor based on that. Molloy was very lucky though.

As for Lacey, his All Stars were thoroughly deserved, and bar top class performances in late August/September, they are not given out just because a player happens to give a previous All Star the runaround in one game. Perhaps Coulter has merited one in the past, but there are numerous players in the running in any particular season. Who should he have replaced?

Agree on the ref. McQuillan can be annoying sometimes but I thought he had a very good game, call the "new" handpass rule correct (and god knows there were a lot of handpasses). He missed Molloys challenge but so did 2 umpires and linesmen who you think would have seen it.

Down finally showed a bit of balls for a change and won a hard match. Still don't think they'll win the next day out but you never know. Donegal need to stop this slow hand pass crap, its putrid to watch and thankfully they are not winning games playing that way.

[Pangurban]

Guevara player assessments is spot on. First Championship game this year, a win is a win gratefully accepted, but big improvement required. At least we are still there

[ONeill]

A pleasure watching Coulter on that form. Some great fielding in the last 20 minutes.

[Carmen Stateside]

Im sure he will be dissappointed himself when he sees the chance in first half when he should have passed across the square instead of going himself, was some turn but.  He was head and shoulders above anyone else on the field today.

[Jinxy]

Which one of the Down defenders has the mullet?

[guevara]

Which one of the Down defenders has the mullet?

Mullet!!  Makes me think of Chris Waddle or Pat Sharp from ITV Programme Fun House every time!!

Probably Damien Rafferty your thinking of?
Down's best defender today & has pace to burn

[Cosmo Kramer]

I thought McQuillan had a very good game today, you can't expect him to see every off the ball incident and he can't be blamed for what he is or isn't told by the other officials. He contributed to easily the most entertaining game of the year so far.

Having said that Donegal really are painful to watch at times. They seem obsessed with taking two solos and running 20 yards before even considering kicking the ball. Every move seems to involve two passes more than it needs to, it gets a bit headwrecking after a while. Kevin Cassidy is a good athlete but his style of play will win very little, reminds me of Trevor Mortimer in that regard.

Down have too many average players to challenge for national honours. But what they do have is two excellent forwards who are great to watch. For that reason you'd always consider taking the time to watch a Down game when they're on, even though as a team overall, they're not the best.

Paul Durkans save near the end of normal time was as good a reflex stop as you will see all year in the Championship.

[Jinxy]

Which one of the Down defenders has the mullet?

Mullet!!  Makes me think of Chris Waddle or Pat Sharp from ITV Programme Fun House every time!!

Probably Damien Rafferty your thinking of?
Down's best defender today & has pace to burn

He'd be even faster without that mullet weighing him down. 

[Fear Boirche]

Which one of the Down defenders has the mullet?

Mullet!!  Makes me think of Chris Waddle or Pat Sharp from ITV Programme Fun House every time!!

Probably Damien Rafferty your thinking of?
Down's best defender today & has pace to burn

He'd be even faster without that mullet weighing him down. 

...or being elbowed in the face.

[Main Street]

I also thought McQuillan had a good game, he deserves the credit.

I hardly noticed Gordon when he was in midfield, I think Down would need him firing to have a chance in the SF.
Superb display from Coulter.

[done and dusted]

very disappointed, every time we got to the final third of the pitch we seemed to come to a dead end, a poor donegal performance against a poor down side apart from coulter, gordan and m clarke. John joe has to go now he's just not up to it,  time to see what mcguinnes can do!!!.....

[Jinxy]

Yet again I wasn't impressed with Clarke.
He's terribly one-sided.

[Highlander3]

Any news on how is Howards recovery going is he playing for Bryansford?, and how badly hurt is Carr

[Down South]

Any news on how is Howards recovery going is he playing for Bryansford?, and how badly hurt is Carr

Luke started Bryansfords last 2 games, came on as a second half sub in the 2 games before that.

[Highlander3]

Thats great to hear on Luke as i do think we still need to strengthen our back's even thou they played ok today