Mayo V Down- All Ireland Quarter Final

[galwaygreenandred]

Also some annoying fool of a Mayo fan behind me got in in the second half and kept roaring at them,TAKE YOUR POINT,YOUR DREADFUL,ABSOLUTELY DREADFUL.......WHEN WE WERE 14 POINTS UP!!!!!!!!!! Sickening S**t! Better to let some young lad have a crack at goal while he plays in Croker for the last ten minutes

[emmetryan]

I've put together a tactical piece on this game here for anyone interested
http://action81.com/blog/?p=6096

[ross4life]

The Mayo crew are all staying in the same hotel as myself including Andy Moran on crutches as you can imagine all in good spirits. Mickey Moran (looking well after his illness),Willie Joe Padden & the tanned one all here as well.

[Gabriel]

Mayo were unquestionably the better team, but Jesus, Down made it easy for them. That performance today was woeful - players standing off their men, Mayo attackers slaloming through the defence at will, nobody wanting to know for Down in the second half. The first goal was a shambles -  Darren O'Hagan trundled toward his man as the ball trickled towards the endline, the Mayo man kept it in play, had the time and space to pass it and they ended up getting a goal out of it. If that was Donegal, Dublin, Kerry, Cork, or Mayo for that matter, the attacker would have been f****d over the line and let know he was in a match. The strategy for midfield and kickouts is beyond laughable - Mayo must have made five or six clean catches in the middle of the field yet McVeigh continued to hammer it down there instead of looking for free men. There's no point saying that Down can't play the blanket defence - ffs, Donegal and Mayo were laughing stocks in the past and now have two of the best defences in the country, mean units that play smart defensive football while Down were repeatedly f****d today by Mayo attacks straight through the middle. Those teams didn't suddenly sprout the best defenders in the country, they play effective systems where every player knows their role. In our last three visits to Croke Park we have conceded 3-18, 2-17 and 2-20 - a disgrace. Big changes needed.

[Pangurban]

Congragulations Mayo, you have a fine team and deserve a bit of success, hope you go on and beat the Dubs and i believe you will. All of Down will be behind you

[GalwayBayBoy]

Congrats Mayo. Down were a shambles defensively and at midfield but you can only beat what's in front of you. In that regard Mayo were clinical, professional and ruthless. I hope Moran will be ok both for himself and for his team's fortunes. On TV you could hear the poor guy roaring in pain and the slow motion seemed to make it look like he twisted it.

Delighted for Moysider and all the genuine Mayo supporters on this board. However there is one nasty idividual here who was gloating when Galway hammered us and is after posting two scandalous comments about Ray Silke in relation to Andy Moran's injury. If this board is to mantain any credibility and respect those comments should be immediatley removed and he should be banned. Sick disgusting comments even by his low standards.

I read the comments matt and didn't think they were worthy of comment. In fact I was surprised that they weren't deleted by admin. If I was blackguarded like that on a public forum I would be raging to say the least. There may be more to come from that unfortunately.

[here comes 6]

As expected the usual 'Down players have no pride' and 'James must go' shite has started. I don't think we can be too harsh on that Down team. Today was a day when it didn't go right for us. Just one of those things.

Looking at it, we have had a very good three years under Wee James. An All Ireland Final appearance, Division 1 status retention and an All Ireland Quarter Final spot today. Let's be honest. The group of players that we have at our disposal at the moment are an honest and hardworking group. They aren't in the mould of some of the more stellar squads in the past. To get to the last eight this year was a massive achievement. Having to work without the likes of the two Clarkes, Fitzpatrick, McComiskey and Mooney had us handicapped from the start.

Id like to see Wee James stay on. We are no way in a crisis and probably just need to work on our defensive frailities and start playing to a system. We are a decent side and I still think an Ulster title isn't too far away.

Yes all you say is true apart from what you think we can still achieve.  I think we are now going Down in standard.Im not going to criticise any player as they give alot of time to this but the pace that weve played at this year is alot lower til what it has been in the past few years. i think this team are tired and its probably as they have NO rewards for what they have done for the County over this past few Years.  Down football is in a better place now than it was 5 years ago and i think we just have to take it that we are not up to the standard of the top teams in Ireland.  It happens and we just have to now sit back think it over and see what is possible with the players at our disposal..  An Dun abu

[In the Onion Bag]

The Down supporters were a credit today,everyone was so queit with nervousness going into croker today.After they would shake Mayo supporters hands and congratulate them and wish them the best in the semis and of course Mayo fans consoled the Down supporters,knowing all too much how it feels to be dumped out to a huge scoreline. Both were great today. Great performance by the Mayo Lads and let's go and stick it to the dublin jackeens and I hope our Down and Laois friends will be cheering us on Come on Mayo!!!! AOS Alan Dillon Andy Moran Michael Conroy Barry Moran Ger Cafferky Keith Higgins and David Clarke played great again

Don't forget the Albanians too.

[Farrandeelin]

What I must say I learned from yesterday is that the Down fans are great. They stayed right till the end even though most of them knew it was over long beforehand. My own county's fans take note. I'll comment on the game itself later as I'm using the phone now but it was a great day to be a Mayoman yesterday.

[Syferus]

I think the second game was more likely the reason they stayed 

[Aristo 60]

Extremely disappointed by yesterday's show. Sad to say that along with the relative success brought by this team, managment and board in recent years we are now in the all too frequent habit of shifting very heavy defeats.

I'm not one who buys into tactical masterplans and especially not when, from the stand, it looks like lads aren't even attempting to do their best. Too many passengers yesterday who looked like they wanted someone else to do the work. Too many half tackles and very little evidence of the required killer instinct to pounce first on the breaking ball.

Only Aidan Carr and Darren O'Hagan looked like men who were willing to do their jobs (and i'm not from Hilltown).

A number of circumstances which stood out for me that were indicative of our problems although these admittedly occurred long after the horse had bolted..

1) Our small forwards exemplified by Laverty. It was painful to see Conor blocked so that he could not collect the return pass under the hill in the second half. Unfortunately the option to burst THROUGH his marker is not an option to Conor and until we have power forwards in the mould of yesteryear then we will be very limited.

2) Our nervous backs. Towards the end with Mayo trampling us I saw an instance where ONE Mayo fwd managed to harrass FOUR down defenders with sheer determination whilst we should have been in cormfortable possession. Our backs looked so uncomfortable/stressed they actually went backwards to McVeigh even with the immediate numerical advantage. Maybe the heads were already gone but I question if they'd been there all year.

Remember that £1 the County Board took from us in 2010? I'd like mine back now please. Gotta go now and do my bit to mould the future generation.

[From the Bunker]

Summary of Mayo v Down yesterday on Setanta Website.

Mayo are discribed as 'Yewmen'. 

Never heard us called this before. Does the word exist? 

Here is the link.

http://www.setanta.com/ie/Articles/2012/08/04/Mayo-Down/gnid-149793/

[moysider]

Summary of Mayo v Down yesterday on Setanta Website.

Mayo are discribed as 'Yewmen'. 

Never heard us called this before. Does the word exist? 

Here is the link.

http://www.setanta.com/ie/Articles/2012/08/04/Mayo-Down/gnid-149793/

A play on Yeomen I d say mixed in with 'plain of the Yew trees' ??

[charlieTully]

When you look at the bigger picture James is doing a decent job.  However, as defensive coach, I have serious questions about Aiden O'Rourke.

So many times Mayo forwards have 2/3 Down men close to them but for some reason no tackles were made, Alan Dillon made some embarassing (from our point of view) runs thourgh the defence in the first half.

what bigger picture? we have been hammered by donegal and mayo now. James was only made to look good because he was lucky enough to have Marty Clarke in the squad for a couple of years. its time for change.

[mayo.mick]

Been confirmed Andy Moran is out for the rest of the season, but will remain on the panal.

http://mayogaablog.com/?p=11007