Down Club Hurling & Football

[ardtole]

Caolan Mooney was excellent yesterday. Such quick hands, McKernan and ohagan very good too.

[Mourne Rover]

Decent team named for tomorrow, with some strength in depth developing on the bench. It's also good to see Donnelly and Mallon back in the match day squad to give us options around the middle. The only negative element is the uncertainty over the final table because of the postponed game between Louth and Westmeath, who should pretty obviously have been instructed to reschedule the fixture for last Wednesday at the latest.

[snoopdog]

Decent team named for tomorrow, with some strength in depth developing on the bench. It's also good to see Donnelly and Mallon back in the match day squad to give us options around the middle. The only negative element is the uncertainty over the final table because of the postponed game between Louth and Westmeath, who should pretty obviously have been instructed to reschedule the fixture for last Wednesday at the latest.

Win tomorrow and we are promoted . No need to worry about anyone else.
 

[Smurfy123]

Hearing Attical beat Ballyholland by 10 points in Thursday night. Say what you want about him but Poacher done one hell of a job for them.

[OgraAnDun]

Need Westmeath and Louth to draw next week to get out of Div 3... how far Down have fallen. Div 3 2020 it is.

[thewobbler]

Surely a draw would send Westmeath up?

Can’t use head to heads in a 3-way tie, I wouldn’t think.

[meatsy86]

No head to heads in a 3 way tie. Points difference will decide it. A draw for westmeath next week and we stay in Division 3. A win for either Westmeatb or Louth and we stay in Division 3.We cannot be promoted now.

[OgraAnDun]

Was looking at the as it stands table from half time! You’re all correct

[Ed Hardy]

Absolutely awful stuff from Down today,  dont deserve to go to Div2  with a performance like that. A real kick in the teeth after 5 wins on the spin and very poor performance in last meaningful game before championship. Tally had improved them in certain area's no doubt, but very worrying after 7 games and McKenna cup if thats the plan for kickouts and the mf pairing. Hard to name the 15 to start against Armagh in May.

[Mourne Rover]

Today's first half was our most disappointing performance for a very long time, and, although we improved in the final quarter, the damage had been done and we managed to miss out on a promotion which was practically in our grasp.

We were uncertain from the start, with experienced figures like McKernan and Mooney making a series of unforced errors. Mooney did get a fine point which arguably should have been a goal but neither he nor Flynn are really midfielders and the opposition pairing took us apart. Our kick-out strategy was baffling, putting the ball constantly in an area which we could not gain possession, but the keeper could only have been acting on instructions.

The spine of the team was a huge problem, with Wells and Flanagan both exposed at the back before getting taken off and Poland not making an impact at centre forward.

Darren O'Hagan was our best player as usual, and nearly pulled us over the line singlehandedly, while a little more composure from our forwards in the closing stages could easily have got us the draw.

Very few of our substitutions worked and it was surprising not to see Maginn used at any stage on a day when we were crying out for a cool head on the ball.

Next year's D3 appears significantly tougher, with Cork, Tipperary and Derry all in the picture, so we could be regretting today's result for a very long time

[Targetman]

That was awful today, we don’t deserve to be in Div 2 if we can’t beat Louth at home, I can’t take any positives from that performance apart from maybe Darren O’ Hagen, getting cleaned out in midfield yet again but do we make any changes in that area, no sure leave Donnelly and Mallon on the bench and take a few forwards off!!

[Smurfy123]

Awful stuff today. The goalkeepers kickouts are baffling. Flanagan and McAleenan not up to it as count defenders and midfield is a major problem. No vocal point in the forward line where was Poland playing? Very disappointed performance from so many established players. J Johnstone can not take a man on

[Smurfy123]

Agree why was Donnelly not put in for Flynn in the middle

[Lotto]

This juvenile kick out strategy has been the same since the start of the Mc Kenna Cup. Surely we have the players and the management to have other options on restarts. It's either ignorance or arrogance to continue with this and not have other options when it clearly doesn't work against physically bigger teams. Some of our performances today were just awful and we lacked leaders, apart from Darren O'Hagan, for long periods of the game. If you were picking a team from today for Armagh how many from today would start? We have alot of work to do but at the minute I really fear for the Armagh game.

[Mourne Rover]

Donnelly is not the finished product as a county midfielder but he has improved steadily in recent seasons and we are clearly going to need him in the championship. He has missed the entire league through injury but it was hard to understand why he was fit enough for the bench today but not used in the final quarter.

While Tally deserves full credit for putting together a run of five consecutive wins, realistically the only opposition we dominated was a limited Offaly. Three of the games were won in injury time, and today could have been a fourth, but you cannot go on hoping to snatch results at the death. Our squad lacks depth and there are probably at least half a dozen positions up for grabs against Armagh.

Another factor is our form in Newry, where we have lost more matches than we have won over the last four or five seasons. Promotion today would have given us  a big lift but instead our confidence going into the championship may be fragile.