Mayo v Down - March 11th

[moysider]

This game changes things a bit. Next week in Balyshannon has a whiff of relegation about it. And if we couldn t break Down s defensive wall today we could struggle again next week.

I thought management's response to the sending off was poor enough. SOS should have been brought in straight away and a forward sacrificed. Other changes came far too late. Again Varley was left on long after he was gane out of the game. When SOS came on it should have been for Varley. Doherty would have been a better bet inside with his bit of pace. What Conroy was meant to do in 10 mins is beyond me. Freeman was having a nightmare and was still there with a few minutes to go. Barry Moran (played well) was sent forward for the Hail Mary play in last few minutes. Surely coaches plan for these kind of scenarios? Today showed little signs of it.

What to do? Get Clarke back between the posts asap and leave him there. That would help. Aidan will get a month anyway. If he put fingers near Hughes' eye he deserves it but what I saw seemed harmless and the refs body language suggested right away he just wanted to act the man. Aidan gone means SoS will get a few games.

As Mupped summed up so well the forwards are a mess. But some of us had our doubts when we saw the selection. Todays game showed that McLoughlin is priceless for us. An absolute gem. Without him we re a rabble. Freeman and Doherty looked good in the ff line once upon a time. What are they doing outside now? Andy won great ball today but where is his best position? Maybe we re just trying to accomodate too many players together that are just not compatible in the same forward line. The balance is not there. 3 Saint Patricks and no God type of arrangement. I wonder who is picking the team? I say that because it looked like O Neill was the man on the line today. If he s the coach surely he should be picking the team. Maybe he is. I don t know. Anyway sure its only the league.

Depending on what happens on Wednesday night, we might still have to plan without likes of Kirby and O Connor for a while yet

Clarke will have to be back between the posts anyway - Hennelly has a lot going for him, but doesn't command the area (yet anyway) in the way that Clarke does.
It's match bans now rather than time, so Aidan shouldn't be out for the month. Where are you getting the eye thing from - he shrugged the fella off, maybe the elbow went out, but nothing major. Harsh red, but I can't see it being overturned.
Forwards were poor enough today, Doherty and Varley contributed very little from play. Freeman had a disaster with the frees.
On the plus side, Andy won a lot of ball, Dillon got two important ones from play, and Mort worked harder than I've ever seen him work before - didn't always make the right choices, or dispossess his man, but effort wasn't lacking.
Very hard to get scores against a team with 14 behind the ball as Down did after they built up a lead (which they were right to do), but we badly need someone who can kick a point from 35+ metres.
When the U21s are done, Cillian is a definite for free taking alone.

I didn t see any elbow, more like a push away. Just that Hughes was getting attention to his eye, that s all.

[saffronandblue]

It seems that O'Neill is the man in charge alright, so why we need a manager is any ones guess??  Maybe it's to keep his young clubman Jason Gibbons in the squad for a few more months........It's not young Jasons fault that he is not even rated by the manager.  If I had my way, I would get rid of Reilly, Gibbons and Varley asap.  These lads have been given ample chances or no chance to prove themselves over the past 15 months and to no avail.  Time to try others, it just cannot be any worse.

Once again the naivety of some of the calls on the line leave a lot to be desired.  Agree with Moysider that SOS should have been introduced immediately after the sending off.......any eejit like myself would have seen that change.

Watching Dublin destroy Armagh just shows us how far we have to go to get to the top level.  We are miles away from the Dublins and Kerrys of the GAA world I am afraid.

[Tubberman]

It seems that O'Neill is the man in charge alright, so why we need a manager is any ones guess??  Maybe it's to keep his young clubman Jason Gibbons in the squad for a few more months........ It's not young Jasons fault that he is not even rated by the manager.  If I had my way, I would get rid of Reilly, Gibbons and Varley asap.  These lads have been given ample chances or no chance to prove themselves over the past 15 months and to no avail.  Time to try others, it just cannot be any worse.

Once again the naivety of some of the calls on the line leave a lot to be desired.  Agree with Moysider that SOS should have been introduced immediately after the sending off.......any eejit like myself would have seen that change.

Watching Dublin destroy Armagh just shows us how far we have to go to get to the top level.  We are miles away from the Dublins and Kerrys of the GAA world I am afraid.

Yeah, that's why James Horan took on the Mayo job, to put Jason Gibbons on the bench And that's why Jason Gibbons goes out training several times a week - for the craic of sitting on the bench. Easy to sit on your hole and make assessments like that.

[saffronandblue]

I was been sarcastic Tubberman......read on......its not young Gibbons fault that he is not rated by the manager......and he is not the only one on the panel that is not getting or will not get a chance in my very humble opinion while sitting on my a hole   God some peole on here believe that no one else should have an opinion, God love them.  It is only an opinion after all.

[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.

[Tubberman]

I was been sarcastic Tubberman......read on......its not young Gibbons fault that he is not rated by the manager......and he is not the only one on the panel that is not getting or will not get a chance in my very humble opinion while sitting on my a hole   God some peole on here believe that no one else should have an opinion, God love them.  It is only an opinion after all.

might have over-reacted slightly :-) but was an unnecessary dig. Frustrating day all round

[saffronandblue]

I was been sarcastic Tubberman......read on......its not young Gibbons fault that he is not rated by the manager......and he is not the only one on the panel that is not getting or will not get a chance in my very humble opinion while sitting on my a hole   God some peole on here believe that no one else should have an opinion, God love them.  It is only an opinion after all.

might have over-reacted slightly :-) but was an unnecessary dig. Frustrating day all round

Fair enough.  The point that I was trying to make is that there are a fair few lads like Gibbons and my own clubman Shane McHale for example, who I believe will never get a chance this year because management believe that they are not good enough.  Maybe they are not good enough, throw then in to the thick of it, if they are good enough great, if they are not, move on.  I may well be wrong, but I would be fairly sure that Doherty, Varley etc. are stop gaps.....have no chance of making the managers championship side.  If that's the case then better to try a few other lads and see what they have to offer.

I feel like I am attending games, seeing the same old faces and on a personal level I would like to see a few others getting a chance of a runout...........at least it would give us something new to talk about on here.

[Farrandeelin]

I thought Shane McHale was going to be a late switch. Especially as he had his tracksuit top off for the warm ups. Agree with s+b as regards the tried and tested. Bring some new faces in. Maybe if U-21s go out we'll see Regan, Coen and the likes get a run.

[moysider]

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.

[Sam2011]

Agree with what Muppet said. Very Frustrating defeat. 3 points from play is not good enough for a division 1 team. Our forwards never got into the game and were doing to much messing with the ball. I can't understand why Freeman and Doherty are not played inside anymore we've seen the damage they are capable of dong and they just seem lost out the field.
Besides the forwards I thought midfield and the backs did grand.
As regards the ref I'm not even going to waste my energy.

[NP 76]

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

[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.

[saffronandblue]

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

[moysider]

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

So many defenders, so few arms. Yeah, we re rowing among ourselves but we re not fooling ourselves. Get that ref every day and anything is possible for ye. So its ok for your Poland ( one of your best players) to kick a player to prevent a probable goal and then point out that it was outside the penalty area (rather than the 'box'). I remember when Down teams were classier than that. Ye are now playing like teams ye used to look down on. Notice also that Danny Hughes ( a player I had time for) rolled around and had lengthly treatment but had no problem doing the full game. Enjoy the win.

[NP 76]

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 .