Mayo v Down - March 11th

[moysider]

One defeat and all is wrong with the world. Enda Varley not good enough? Presumably you weren't in Portlaoise? There he scored two savage points from play when brought on in the last ten minutes. You probably weren't in Armagh either where he started and kicked four points from play? But because he doesn't score today he must be dropped off the panel? He was fouled for what should have been a penalty, won any ball that came his way but like someone said, any time Mayo attacked, they had numerous Down defenders to cope with.

I wouldn't be too hard on Robbie Hennelly either. A bad day today but he's capable of better and it was his first game in a while. Don't think many goalkeepers would have saved that goal, certainly not Clarke either who wouldn't be out half as quick. Clarke is in better form at the minute though but I wouldn't concur that he is our definite number one either.


As for the sending off - harsh. A lesson learned though, you get away with little physical play nowadays. He seemed to just swing his body to shake him off.

My point about Varley is that I believe management won't play him when it comes to crunch time.  Not that he has been playing poorly.  I seem to be s***e at getting my point across.  I am only second guessing managment where I feel that Varley is only a stop gap until Cillian returns and it makes no difference how many points or goals he scores.  I believe he will be dropped once O' Connor returns.  The same will apply with McLoughlin coming in for Doherty.  If this is the case, then I feel we might as well be giving other lads a shot at it.  If you believe Varley will play in the full forward line, who is going to miss out.....Mort, Andy, Cillian?  I could be totally wrong and management are keeping a totally open mind

I am not setting out to rubbish individual players.  I believe they are all trying very hard.  The game against Dublin will determine if we have improved from 2011.  I hope we have

Varley did start in the last important game we played. Kerry last August. He is a fixture in the selectors mind if you agree with it or not.

[bucko]

First post of the season and after what sounded like a poor performance. Was listening to it on mad west so can't give a definintive opinion on it, but one word used by the commentry team more than once to describe Mayo's play was laboured. On their day, Mayo are capable of playing some excellent free flowing football, but when the performance level drops it goes way down and they regress to over elaboration, excessive short passing going backwards and to static men. From the commentry there seemed to be a lack of concentration from some players (Freemans bad wide for example). Is it possible that they took Down for granted and by the time they realised they were in a game they could never get going properly? That's how it sounded to me anyhow.

How Billy Fitz and his mates expect 14 men to play freeflowing football against a team plays mass defence, drag down, bodycheck and trip anybody running at goal is beyond me. I m not complaining about Down, they had to get their teeth into this game. Especially after Mayo going a man down so early gave them a great opportunity. Imagine if Down lost this after having a man advantage for 70 mins! Wee James would be on slush - never mind thin ice.

I am complaining about the lazy analysis of the lads in commentary. Laboured my hole! Unlike us I m sure they re getting a few bob so they should call it better than that.  Ok its an amateur game and players should not be destroyed in public. But the suggestion that the issue today was that Mayo was laboured is just shite and does a listener like yourself a disservice.

Mayo s performance level dropped? Well if you lose, well yeah, but not sure what it means really. Mayo still dominated possession and territory for most of the match with a man down. Is that a drop in performance level?

I m not panicking. Play the right keeper and as Muppet said the defence and midfield look handy. It s about getting the balance in the forwards right. Some 'big' names may have to be upset to do this but to hell with that. Some fans will have to be upset too as a consequence

And another thing! It s important to keep 15 on the pitch as long as possible! Losing a midfielder to a straight red for nothing. If likes of Aidan gets a red card then he must send someone to A&E.

More in the way of mental performance than physical, wouldn't fault the players for effort. I'd always class us as a confidence team, when we're on top of our game with confidence levels high we play very well. However from time to time, when our confidence drops or we get frustrated by the opposition(and by the ref!!!) we tend to regress back to the tactics I described. You look at our slow start against Laois or the 2nd half v Armagh, the swings in our over-all performance level over the course of a game are large. There are very few teams out there that can maintain 100% for a full match, I think we just have to minimise the gaps that do happen and the level they drop to.

Just home from a great day in Castlebar after gaining a very vital 2 pts . The confidence of some Mayo fans on this thread all week was quite noticable but not any more . Aidan o Shea deseved to go no question . Muppet claimed that we could play the referee better than Mayo but from i saw the Mayo forwards knew how to win very easy frees by holding on to the defenders arm . Only for the frees Mayo woul of scored 3 pts . Poland tripped the forward as he was heading down on goal dont know for sure but defintely looked outside the box that was the best option to stop a goal cant really see much wrong with that . As for his reckoning that we have some very poor footballers they are obvivously a notch better than your poor footballers and some of your supposidly good ones .The referee was absolutely desperate but it wasnt all in Downs favour with alot of scorable frees to Mayo at the end

Are you justifying the use of deliberate foul play to stop the opposition from scoring as an acceptable tactic?

[moysider]

What did you want Poland to do let him go on and score dont tell me a Mayo defender wouldnt of did the same if the roles were reversed Did you really expect Poland to tell the ref it was a penalty . Any man would need lengthy treatment if he got an elbow from O Shea .

Elbow my hole. What s the likes of quality creative players like Hughes and Poland doin slowin down free kicks and kicking forwards through on goal? Poland last man back and Down a man up! Next time I see Greg and Mickey I must ask them how they feel. Ye know the old game is in trouble when Down plays like that. Ye should not have sold out.

[Pangurban]

Great to get the win, but in truth it has to be said that Mayo lost this game rather than Down winning it. Fourteen men and a forward line who left their shooting boots at home, can count themselves unlucky. Down have yet to find any rhythm or confidence as a team, relying on good individual performances from key players will only take us a little way. Today we played like Armagh on a bad day, packed defence, pulling dragging and fouling. We dont have the players or the nous to play this system. We have forwards capable of out-scoring any team in the country, being asked to defend, usually at the expense of conceding soft frees. Unless we throw of the shackles and start doing what we do best, we are heading nowhere other than Div.2. There is no difference between losing by 1 point or 10 points, so lets play to our own strengths, and give it a lash

[Lar Naparka]

Is it just my imagination or do Mayo play badly on their home pitch?
Going by the Mid-west commentary and what I've read since, their shooting and general play were dreadful yesterday..
Against the Dubs, they would have been completely banjaxed if McCarthy hadn't been sidelined.  Even at that, I didn't fancy Mayo's chances and was happy when the game was called off.
I can recall a few games last year when Mayo gave some woeful league displays in Castlebar.
Since the grounds were revamped, I don't think Mayo played well on this pitch.
Anyone else think the same as me?

[RedandGreenSniper]

One defeat and all is wrong with the world. Enda Varley not good enough? Presumably you weren't in Portlaoise? There he scored two savage points from play when brought on in the last ten minutes. You probably weren't in Armagh either where he started and kicked four points from play? But because he doesn't score today he must be dropped off the panel? He was fouled for what should have been a penalty, won any ball that came his way but like someone said, any time Mayo attacked, they had numerous Down defenders to cope with.

I wouldn't be too hard on Robbie Hennelly either. A bad day today but he's capable of better and it was his first game in a while. Don't think many goalkeepers would have saved that goal, certainly not Clarke either who wouldn't be out half as quick. Clarke is in better form at the minute though but I wouldn't concur that he is our definite number one either.


As for the sending off - harsh. A lesson learned though, you get away with little physical play nowadays. He seemed to just swing his body to shake him off.

My point about Varley is that I believe management won't play him when it comes to crunch time.  Not that he has been playing poorly.  I seem to be s***e at getting my point across.  I am only second guessing managment where I feel that Varley is only a stop gap until Cillian returns and it makes no difference how many points or goals he scores.  I believe he will be dropped once O' Connor returns.  The same will apply with McLoughlin coming in for Doherty.  If this is the case, then I feel we might as well be giving other lads a shot at it.  If you believe Varley will play in the full forward line, who is going to miss out.....Mort, Andy, Cillian?  I could be totally wrong and management are keeping a totally open mind

I am not setting out to rubbish individual players.  I believe they are all trying very hard.  The game against Dublin will determine if we have improved from 2011.  I hope we have

Fair enough, and I agree with you. I don't know that Varley will start in championship - Moysider's point about Kerry last August notwithstanding. But he definitely has done enough to earn his starting spot for now and if he develops and improves as a result - which he might - then he'll be in the shake-up. He might be in the shake-up as it is. Besides, I wouldn't go looking at the likes of Evan Regan three days before he plays U-21 championship. One thing was very apparent from Sunday though - Andy has to be played in the full-forward line. Now if Cillian is to do likewise, and starts, then its one helluva battle for the last spot between Conor, Conroy, Varley, Doherty and possible Freeman - if he's not played in the half-forward line. Sadly we don't have the same options in the half-forward line. At the minute it looks like Dillon, McLoughlin and AN Other. That might be Freeman. But there's a chance for the likes of Harte to step up or Aidan O'Shea maybe to move there and have Barry Moran and Seamus O'Shea at midfield.

[Farrandeelin]

Is it just my imagination or do Mayo play badly on their home pitch?
Going by the Mid-west commentary and what I've read since, their shooting and general play were dreadful yesterday..
Against the Dubs, they would have been completely banjaxed if McCarthy hadn't been sidelined.  Even at that, I didn't fancy Mayo's chances and was happy when the game was called off.
I can recall a few games last year when Mayo gave some woeful league displays in Castlebar.
Since the grounds were revamped, I don't think Mayo played well on this pitch.
Anyone else think the same as me?

This year anyway Lar. Last year Mayo saved their best league performance in Castlebar against Cork having lost to both Armagh and Kerry and they drew with Down. Last year in the championship we beat Galway but had a terrible first half.

[Chimley]

A half-forward line including both McLoughlin and Dillon is not going to give us much physicality. I am not sure that Horan knows the answers either and the inclusion of Doherty for the past two games has been strange. It's the one line that I wouldn't have a clue about at this stage.

[muppet]

Just home from a great day in Castlebar after gaining a very vital 2 pts . The confidence of some Mayo fans on this thread all week was quite noticable but not any more . Aidan o Shea deseved to go no question . Muppet claimed that we could play the referee better than Mayo but from i saw the Mayo forwards knew how to win very easy frees by holding on to the defenders arm . Only for the frees Mayo woul of scored 3 pts . Poland tripped the forward as he was heading down on goal dont know for sure but defintely looked outside the box that was the best option to stop a goal cant really see much wrong with that . As for his reckoning that we have some very poor footballers they are obvivously a notch better than your poor footballers and some of your supposidly good ones .The referee was absolutely desperate but it wasnt all in Downs favour with alot of scorable frees to Mayo at the end

The ref gave everything to Mayo in the last 10 minutes (including ridiculously blowing for full time and then playing another 5 minutes) presumably to get out of McHale Park alive. But the damage was done long before that.

As for your poor footballers, yes we have some poor footballers too. But I''ll give an example of what I was talking about (which I didn't really want to do as they are all amateurs), your manager made his first substitution after 20 something minutes because one of your poor footballers was fouling so much he was going to be sent off. Now you can be all offended at someone having the temerity to call a Down footballer poor, and maybe he was just having a bad day or carrying an injury, but he was being absolutely cleaned and looked a long way off the standard to me.

Back to Polland stopping a likely goal, this is what soccer called the professional foul. If everyone thought as you do there would never be any goals, just a lot more 14 yard frees. That would be a great spectacle. And Kerry would be the All-Ireland Champions.

[southdown]

Mayo must be pretty poor then if our poor players beat them.  Id say you were great yourself.

[macdanger2]

Well done Down, good away win for ye. Poor result for us and it drags us back into the relegation battle, makes next weeks game v Donegal very important.

O'Se being sent off completely changed the game, I'd say we would have won it handily if we had 15. It probably wasn't a sending off no more than MacCarthys sending off in the abandoned game v Dublin. That said, he lashed out against Kerry last year and should have got the line so he needs to be careful about that. I thought the grief the crowd gave the linesman was a bit out of order, it wasn't that bad a call. Conor should have gotten the line at the end for shouldering the ref, very lucky to get away with a yellow.

Hennelly was average enough, possibly at fault for the goal and missed three 45s.

In the backs, I thought Richie Feeney had a great game, Vaughan was good as well. The other four only did ok, Keegan and Keane looked nervous which is to be expected but they need to improve to be sure of their places in my view.

We won midfield even without AOS. SOS and BM in particular fielded some great ball but I'd say a cuter team wouldn't allow that to continue the way Down did. That was very encouraging for Mayo - Down are going nowhere if they can't best a Mayo midfield down a man.

Freeman for all his missed frees won a lot of breaking ball in the second half - needs to do better with the frees though, we'll win nothing with that craic. Dillon still shows his class when he's on the ball but he's not as influential as he might be. Doc was lost out around the half forward line and saw very little ball.

I thought Mort did well, made some mistakes but scored his frees, worked hard and showed for ball all the time - he shouldn't be playing so far out the pitch though. Andy is carrying a few pies but showed well, only one point though isn't enough from one of our star men. Varley was very quiet.

Good to see Harte back, some clown behind me was giving him awful abuse - fair enough he was poor but it's his first game back FFS. Conroy only touched the ball once and was pulled for picking it off the ground, could do with a longer run.

Overall, a lot to work on.

Down need to do something around midfield, they allowed Mayo to pick balls with relative ease all evening and didn't show much ingenuity in working it short. Laverty looked very good, he's a flyer but his size may come against him in the big games.

[Leo]

Down need to do something around midfield, they allowed Mayo to pick balls with relative ease all evening and didn't show much ingenuity in working it short. Laverty looked very good, he's a flyer but his size may come against him in the big games

Isn't it time we in Down took heed of what our opponents can clealy see......
Our policy at present seems to be to play Dan Gordon, one of the best midfielders in the game, anywhere but midfield, while our persistence with small players (Laverty, Poland, Maginn, McComiskey) will always find us out come the real test of championship football.
Our friend from Mayo spots this a mile away in one game - our management can't see it after 3 years in charge!!!

[whitegoodman]

This game is all about opinions, our good friends at the irish news reported Ambrose Rodgers who was playing midfield as MOM whilst some would say the moving of Dan Gordon to FB helped shore up a struggling full back line!!!

[Lar Naparka]

Well done Down, good away win for ye. Poor result for us and it drags us back into the relegation battle, makes next weeks game v Donegal very important.

O'Se being sent off completely changed the game, I'd say we would have won it handily if we had 15. It probably wasn't a sending off no more than MacCarthys sending off in the abandoned game v Dublin. That said, he lashed out against Kerry last year and should have got the line so he needs to be careful about that. I thought the grief the crowd gave the linesman was a bit out of order, it wasn't that bad a call. Conor should have gotten the line at the end for shouldering the ref, very lucky to get away with a yellow.

Hennelly was average enough, possibly at fault for the goal and missed three 45s.

In the backs, I thought Richie Feeney had a great game, Vaughan was good as well. The other four only did ok, Keegan and Keane looked nervous which is to be expected but they need to improve to be sure of their places in my view.

We won midfield even without AOS. SOS and BM in particular fielded some great ball but I'd say a cuter team wouldn't allow that to continue the way Down did. That was very encouraging for Mayo - Down are going nowhere if they can't best a Mayo midfield down a man.

Freeman for all his missed frees won a lot of breaking ball in the second half - needs to do better with the frees though, we'll win nothing with that craic. Dillon still shows his class when he's on the ball but he's not as influential as he might be. Doc was lost out around the half forward line and saw very little ball.

I thought Mort did well, made some mistakes but scored his frees, worked hard and showed for ball all the time - he shouldn't be playing so far out the pitch though. Andy is carrying a few pies but showed well, only one point though isn't enough from one of our star men. Varley was very quiet.

Good to see Harte back, some clown behind me was giving him awful abuse - fair enough he was poor but it's his first game back FFS. Conroy only touched the ball once and was pulled for picking it off the ground, could do with a longer run.

Overall, a lot to work on.

Down need to do something around midfield, they allowed Mayo to pick balls with relative ease all evening and didn't show much ingenuity in working it short. Laverty looked very good, he's a flyer but his size may come against him in the big games.

Well done, macd. Thanks for the rundown. There hasn't been even a smell of this game on TV so far even though I've seen  reruns of Div2 games being broadcast.

[muppet]

Mayo must be pretty poor then if our poor players beat them.  Id say you were great yourself.

I take it all back, I was watching the them all wrong. Down were all absolutely brilliant. Every one of them. They will win the Sam, Euros and Olympics this year.

Does this type of post make you happier?