Down Club Hurling & Football

[SHEEDY]

cavan winning by 12 points tonight shows maybe that louth are going to be the whipping boys of this division and we shouldn't be patting ourselves on the back too much for beating them. an improved performance will be needed to come away with 2 points against cork.

[ardtole]

I agree with you Sheedy. I thought Louth would trouble some of the other teams in div 2, but going by tonight's result they must be favourites for relegation.
I still think if we put our strongest side out tomorrow we should be good enough to claim the points.

[OgraAnDun]

The Cavan/Louth result is even more stark when (if you listen to the Cavan posters on this board), Cavan wouldnt't be far off relegation themselves.

[SHEEDY]

really poor day at the office. the whole thing was just flat right from the start and that includes players and the crowd. it's really frustrating to see so much sideways and backwards passing which ends up getting turned over. dont think thats a great cork team and they beat us handy enough, it shows we've loads of work to do if we don't want to be in a relegation battle. shea miller, darren o'hagan and niall mcparland all worked hard and can come out of the match with a bit of credit on a really bad day for down.

[OgraAnDun]

It was the sort of performance we've all got used to over the past 4/5 years or more. A bit of bad luck, every lose ball seemed to fall to Cork but Down were fairly rubbish. If the house had managed to win (which seemed a possibility up to the goal), it would have been due to Cork's indiscipline rather than Down being any good. The ball into the forward line wasn't really working, but neither was running from sideline to sideline across the 45. It has to be done at times, but there weren't enough players like O'Hagan or Mooney looking to run with pace past the 45, even just to create space or drag men out of position. Felt sorry for O'Hare making runs all day long for a ball that never came (or never reached him).

[Dubh driocht]

Yeah,O'Hare did make a lot of runs but I thought he went too early. Harrison was also well marshalled and we weren't sufficiently imaginative to come up with a plan B.For me the problems stemmed from an immobile midfield, we could have done with McKernan and Johnston earlier. Shane Harrison had done well up to the goal but tbf he had few options and was showing a bit of urgency when we needed it but it badly backfired and it was game over.
Couple of observations on management. Doherty was excellent with the frees yet when we had a pointable free a minute before halftime they allowed a hail Mary job towards Harrison which ended up with Cork breaking down field and scoring; what should have been the levelling point changed to 2 points down. Also we could see Harrison's frustration,he seemed to be injured and should have been called ashore. Instead he took the bait ,got a straight red and will miss a tricky trip to Roscommon. Maybe I'm too hard on them and the players need to take more responsibility. I thought the half back line,Millar and Morgan were the only ones to come out with any credit.

[Smurfy123]

Poor from Down today all over the field with only Mooney O Hagan O Hanlon Doherty much good
It is going to be a big couple of weeks ahead against Roscommon and Clare
Again the management team are found wanting
Taking off Doherty??
Are these changes made before the match???

[Nanderson]

Did it annoy anyone else that Down didn't wear their home jersey. Is there a rule where both teams have to wear away strips or are they under orders to drive up sales of new away jersey?

[OgraAnDun]

Did it annoy anyone else that Down didn't wear their home jersey. Is there a rule where both teams have to wear away strips or are they under orders to drive up sales of new away jersey?

Down v Cork has always been away jerseys for both teams, certainly since 2010.

Coming back to the points above about management, I thought it was disappointing that Maguire was allowed to run the show all day for Cork. I know he dropped back a bit to be away from the attentions of the defence and play as a free man, but surely something more could have been done to try and nullify his impact on the game.

[Smurfy123]

Harrison 6 Poor on the kickouts and made a terrible mistake for the cork goal.I don't think he will start v Roscommon
O Hagan 7 Done ok for his first game back drove at the heart of the cork defence in the second half.Still rusty thou
McArdle 6 Did not so much wrong but he is not a corner back and would get destroyed against a better team
Flanagan 6 O Neill had him in circles every time he got the ball.Imagine him marking o Neill in his Pomp
O Hanlon 7 Done well driving forward tried right to the end will have better days
McParkand 6 wasn't in the game at all.Needs to improve
Doherty 7Done well on any 50/50 balls scored 3 great points surprisingly taken off with 20 to go
Poland/Donnelly 6 could not get to grips with the Cork midfield and struggle badly
Millar 7 Done ok in the first half was getting better after half time and score a great point
Maginn 6 poor game.Could not get going and is struggling with the intensity of the game
Mooney 8 Downs best player went direct and could have had a goal good game
Morgan 6 Kicked a lot of needless ball away struggled to get into the game at all place under pressure
Harrison 6 supply of ball in was poor and he wil have better days kicked out at the end and will be a big moss next week
O Hare 6 not at the races will struggle to play  next week
McKernan 7 got on he ball missed an easy chance but scored a point.Why is he not starting??
O Hagan 5 couldn't be the ball inti him may start next week
McKibbon 5 came on and as normal just run about doing nothing adds nothing to the team
Johnstone 6 only back after months out and looked  very rusty
M

[Targetman]

Very poor performance from Down today, second to the ball all over the field and and a very noticeable reluctance to push men up the field hence the struggle to get scores, kickouts a major problem along with the inability to win the midfield battle, doesn't look good for next weeks game away to Roscommon

[Feckmylife]

Did it annoy anyone else that Down didn't wear their home jersey. Is there a rule where both teams have to wear away strips or are they under orders to drive up sales of new away jersey?

Both teams changing to 2nd strip is standard enough. Kerry/Mayo both changed last night, as did Kildare/Monaghan

[Lecale Gael]

Did it annoy anyone else that Down didn't wear their home jersey. Is there a rule where both teams have to wear away strips or are they under orders to drive up sales of new away jersey?

both teams must wear changed strip....hence Kerry wearing gold v mayo, last week louth had to wear white tops instead of red

[Mourne Rover]

It was a disappointing day in Newry which probably told us much more about ourselves than the trip to Drogheda. The most annoying aspect was that Cork were nothing special and, going into the last quarter a point behind with plenty of momentum, we were in a decent position to get something out of the game. However, a couple of errors and some poor discipline saw the contest quickly slip away from us.

There was probably be a few more twists and turns in D2 but Meath, Roscommon, Cork and Tipperary look pretty strong and it was always likely that Louth were heading for relegation and would be joined by one of Clare, Cavan and Down. We are fully capable of staying up but our margin of error is not great.

Shane Harrison did fairly well in goals until the misplaced short kick-out which changed the match, and he will hopefully learn from it. Our defence was generally reasonable, before getting into bother late on. The half back line frequently impressed, especially O'Hanlon, and Doherty's replacement was a particular surprise as he had competed well in open play and put over three long range frees with authority.

Midfield is clearly our main problem as Donnelly is still finding his feet at this level and Poland seems more like a half forward. Morgan did a fair job but we could do with a look at Madine during Turley's injury

Mooney was the pick of the forward line, along with Millar, whose withdrawal also appeared to rebound on us. Harrison had a great start but got increasingly frustrated and a sensible substitution would have avoided the red card which almost certainly rules him out for the next two games. O'Hare kept making runs without getting the ball and may be better coming off the bench.

None of the subs made much impact, but McKernan and O'Hagan will be expecting to start in what could be a tough visit to Roscommon.

[Lecale Gael]

my take on it

1. long ball game plan wasn't working - but kept persisting
2. too many misplaced passes
3. poor decision making
4. free kicks not finding the first man
5. balls into corner not recycled quickly enough
6. attempts falling short
7. attempts from wrong positions
8. possession given away cheaply (out-muscled)


but Cork were not that much better on balance. difference was their ability to get the ball into the scoring zone quicker and they had better forwards

plenty to work on