Down Club Hurling & Football

[Johnnie99]

Anyone got results/tables of the EDRFL?

Bryansford have won 2/2 over Bright and Ardglass

St Pauls have beaten Teconnaught and Dundrum, how have St Johns got on Johnnie. Also does anyone know how the league will be decided now it has been split into two sections?

St Johns have won 2/2, beat Saul by 1 and Kilcoo by 6.

Seniors beat Aghaderg by 9 points last night in Aghaderg.

[Naomh Pol CLG]

. 

Can't help wondering if Glasdrumman were affected by the early Friday evening throw-in and a long trip to Holywood?  Had they any players missing?

Typical...

Typical of what?
Can't you accept praise when it is given?  As regards my question, its reasonable and anyone would wonder the same.  Chill out man.

Typical of the general attitute towards our club.  We draw with the favourites for Div.3 so there must have been a serious problem with them i.e. the long drive to Holywood or the early throw in or players missing....Perhaps it's just that we have been under-estimated by most of the "Experts" in Down Football..

We are unbeaten at home, threw away a win at Ardglass also drew with and should have beaten the Favourites for the whole thing.  Not too many predicted that.

Agree with Lecale though, Self-belief remains a problem but we are working on getting that!

[FermPundit]

Lads, where abouts is Pairc Esler in Newry, isn't it out the Warrenpoint road? Whats the best way to get to it coming into Newry from Armagh, is there good parking at the ground?

[downredblack]

Ferm Pundit ,

The ground is out the Warrenpoint road yes and you should have no problem getting parking around the ground going on the numbers at the game last week . You could  also park at the Keys shopping center and dander up to the ground , take you 15 mins .

[FermPundit]

Ferm Pundit ,

The ground is out the Warrenpoint road yes and you should have no problem getting parking around the ground going on the numbers at the game last week . You could  also park at the Keys shopping center and dander up to the ground , take you 15 mins .

Cheers!

[Mourne Rover]

Disappointing outcome at Navan for the u21s, as, although Kildare are a decent side, we could still have won but for the poor defending which led to their goal. We were slow to react when the ball went down the left wing, Murney got turned inside and McAllister was beaten at his near post. The frustrating thing was that we were in complete control at the time, with a four-point lead which looked as though it might be five or six by the break.

Digney and Garvey have both been good in the previous games but they struggled badly today. It was amazing that Digney was not replaced, while Garvey should have got a straight red for dropping his knee on a Kildare player. Duffin and Hanna did well, but our midfield tired in the second half. McComiskey was tightly marked but still kicked a couple of fine points from play, while Brannigan and McKernan also looked the part.

It's difficult to see too many u21s making an impact with the seniors this summer. Murney certainly did not look the answer to our problems at full back, although Duffin or Colgan could be worth a look at half back. McKernan is in the frame for CHF, but McComiskey might be better coming off the bench.

[In the Onion Bag]

Mc Cumiskey stood out head & shoulders.  Brannigan's work rate was super.  McColgan came and went.

Sorry thing is they could have taken this match handy given the amount of time they were in control of it.  Credit to Kildare though.  Although Down almost had them out on their feet they fought back and in the last 10 Down were never going to find what was needed.

Have to agree with MR re senior prospects.  Brannigan is too small, McColgan may have it but, for a young fella, its worring that he tired big time today towards the end.  McCumiskey's talent makes him the the best hope of becoming a regular sen panelist but he also is small (but that never bothered wee James).  Here's hoping (again)

[downredblack]

I thought Duffin was very sound and hopefully is one for the future .

[An Duin Abu]

. 

Can't help wondering if Glasdrumman were affected by the early Friday evening throw-in and a long trip to Holywood?  Had they any players missing?

Typical...

Typical of what?
Can't you accept praise when it is given?  As regards my question, its reasonable and anyone would wonder the same.  Chill out man.

Typical of the general attitute towards our club.  We draw with the favourites for Div.3 so there must have been a serious problem with them i.e. the long drive to Holywood or the early throw in or players missing....Perhaps it's just that we have been under-estimated by most of the "Experts" in Down Football..

We are unbeaten at home, threw away a win at Ardglass also drew with and should have beaten the Favourites for the whole thing.  Not too many predicted that.

Agree with Lecale though, Self-belief remains a problem but we are working on getting that!

I see the chips on the shoulders getting bigger around Holywood again!

[Naomh Pol CLG]

. 

Can't help wondering if Glasdrumman were affected by the early Friday evening throw-in and a long trip to Holywood?  Had they any players missing?

Typical...

Typical of what?
Can't you accept praise when it is given?  As regards my question, its reasonable and anyone would wonder the same.  Chill out man.

Typical of the general attitute towards our club.  We draw with the favourites for Div.3 so there must have been a serious problem with them i.e. the long drive to Holywood or the early throw in or players missing....Perhaps it's just that we have been under-estimated by most of the "Experts" in Down Football..

We are unbeaten at home, threw away a win at Ardglass also drew with and should have beaten the Favourites for the whole thing.  Not too many predicted that.

Agree with Lecale though, Self-belief remains a problem but we are working on getting that!

I see the chips on the shoulders getting bigger around Holywood again!

Aye, ST PAULS SUCK and are going to be one of the 3 going down...~No doubt about that...


Now I conform...Happy now?

[Double Cross]

[TORGAEL]

I take it that thats a picture of the athletic grounds in armagh ?

[Mourne Rover]

I watched a Down player with genuine All Star quality today - unfortunately it was the repeat of Mickey Linden on the TG4 Laochra Gael. Another bad sign is that everyone else seems to be too depressed to post on the Fermanagh game. We didn't actually play that badly, but, as we all know, collectively we cannot defend and we are particularly vulnerable to a simple thump down the middle.

We were four points up with four minutes to go, and then shipped 1-3 without reply against opponents who had already been promoted and had little to play for. Going into the Ulster championship, we are still no better than seventh out of nine in the province.

McVeigh did well, with good kick-outs and several fine saves. He had no chance with the goal, after blocking the first shot, and is a certain starter n Omagh. Howard is one of several defenders who are OK in possession but poor tacklers. McGovern, before he was injured, and McGuigan are much the same, although Cole improved in the second half.
Doyle is a fine player who is not a natural centre half and might be better at wing back. Carr had another good game and will probably start in the championship.

Gordon was probably our MoM, while Turley was reasonable before he got booked. Ambrose scored two fine points and might still be Dan's best partner. Murtagh was dreadful in the first half but bounced back with two great scores after the break, while Sexton and Kearney were fairly ordinary. Clarke and Coulter were both good. O'Hanlon did well when he came on, although he seemed to be caught out for their goal, while McComiskey looked the part as usual.

It's really back to the drawing board for our defence, and the back six for Tyrone are total guesswork at this stage. 

[Down Gael]

This weekend has shown that there is no quick fix to all that is wrong in Down. The U21s lost yesterdays game in the middle of the park. Playing with the a very strong breeze in the first half it took them 15 minutes to impose themselves on the game, things looked to be going ok and then Kildare got a goal totally against the run of play. We can blame defenders all we want, but a goalkeeper should never get beaten at his near post like that. A 1 point lead was never going to be enough against that wind and Kildare picked points off from distance. Down didnt win one clean catch in the middle of the field in the second half. Caldwell was poor throughout and Colgan faded terribly after half time. There has been a lot of talk of Colgan being the saviour of Down football since his days as all  Ireland winning minor days, I think yesterday finally put that one to rest. Well it did for me anyway. There were some positives yesterday. As we already know, Paul McCumiskey is as good a forward as there is in the country. For me Murney has the makings of a very good defender and the CHB whos name escapes me had a good game, but as is the old story in Down a lot of the players were a bit small against what was a very big, physical Kildare side. The thing that Down lacked yesterday was a cutting edge up front, someone to split the defence, or run through and give the final pass. Sadly that man is on the other side of the World. Well done to Kildare though, they were worthy winners and are a fine side.

Moving on to today. 4 points up with less than 5 minutes to go. OK we all knew that Wexford were comfortably ahead, but a moral boosting win would have been nice. Yet again Down showed that they cant defend a lead. Fermangh are no world beaters, in fact they are no Tyrone beaters, but they ran through the middle of the Down defence and and scored 1-3 in the last 5 minutes. A bit like Monaghan did in last years championship, or even Cavan or whoever the year before. Its gone beyond a joke, our defenders cant tackle. Maybe they should have attended the U21 game yesterday and watched the Kildare team give a lesson in good hard tackling. What are these lads doing in training? Shooting practice?
Up front there are as many problems. Were do we play Benny? Why are we persisting with Ronan Sexton at CHF? he is a corner forward, end of story. We need a big, strong No.11. Not only do we need a half forward line who can defend, but it would be nice if our half backs could defend a little as well.
Its 6 weeks until the Tyrone game, 6 weeks until we go out of the Championship and into the qualifiers, where we will struggle to beat the likes of Carlow or Limerick and then fall to the might of Sligo or Waterford. We all thought last year was a low point, we would bounce back. Well we havent, we are stuck in Division 3 and by the looks of it we could be there for a while.

[Down Gael]

Division 3 2009

Roscommon
Cavan
Down
Louth
Longford
Limerick
Offaly
Tipperary