Down Club Hurling & Football

[guevara]

Observations from tonight's game at Ballyholland.

The standard of refereeing in this County is shambolic. Saval effectively had their fate decided by a clown who allowed one team (Burren) away with a lot more than their opponents. As a neutral I couldn't get over the amount of decisions that could be seen from the sideline to be incorrect & were acknowledged by both sides of the crowd. McAlinden got booked but was wrong player. In first half James McGovern fell on ball picked it up & was given a free because ref thought Saval man picked it on the floor.
This continued the whole night & anyone trying to vindicate his performance is much at fault as the ref!
Burren didn't play well at all. They rely on McKernan to pull the strings & by his standards he had a stinker tonight. They are vulnerable at Midfield. At the start of the second half Saval cleaned them out in this sector.
The County men on show apart from Hughes & Kearney were poor. Ciaran McGovern couldn't deal with Kearney & as stated McKernan struggled.

Saval looked a lot fitter in the last 10 mins. Burren seem to be reduced to cynical fouling to keep them away from the nets.
Also why didn't Saval introduce Paul Faloon sooner? he made an immediate impact but sometimes hindsight is a wonderful thing!

[TheClutch]

Also why didn't Saval introduce Paul Faloon sooner? he made an immediate impact but sometimes hindsight is a wonderful thing!

did faloon score?i watched their first round game with the town and i thought that he was rashly subbed at half time....

[Mid Down Gael]

Anyone have the teams for the two teams tonight?

Burren - 1 M Rocks 2 R McGivern 3 P Mohan 4 Ryan McGovern 5 Chris McGovern 6 Ciaran McGovern 7 D McCartan 8 D Rooney 9 G McCartan 10 J McGovern (1-8) 11 K McKernan 12 E McGovern (0-1) 13 C McGovern 14 C Murdock (0-1) 19 A McArdle.

Subs used: P ORourke, PJ McAlinden, C Byrne and P Poland. (AND THEIR 16TH MAN CON REYNOLDS)

Saval - 1 P Murphy 2 M Clarke 3 D McCarthy 4 D Murphy 5 D Quinn 6 D Cunningham (0-2) 7 D Clarke 8 C Turley 9 P Turley 10 J McCarthy (0-2) 11 S Kearney (0-2) 19 M McCarthy 13 F McConnville 14 D Hughes (0-6) 15 N Devlin.

Subs used: G Quinn, P Faloon, C Lennon.

Both teams showed a large number off positional changes.

[Mid Down Gael]

As a neural tonight I thought the ref did Saval no favours. I think he was the difference in Saval winning and losing.

Talking to a few Burren lads after the game and they admitted they got out of jail.


McKernan will be a big loss for them in the semi. He won the game for them with that tackle even though he will miss the semi.


Big bridge crew there tonight...I dont think they will lose any sleep tonight.

Hopefully they will loose sleep tomorrow night!!!!!!!

[Mid Down Gael]

Does anyone know why there are East Down reserve fixtures made for Monday night? The Down championship quarter finals draw to a conclusion on Monday and i thought Wednesday night would have made more sence to play these games.
Im sure many gaels will want to be in Newcastle to see Clonduff v Liatroim and hear the simi final draw after it. Typical East Down board. 

[meatsy86]

Absolute disgrace the refereeing performance last night. It was blatantly obvious when we went 2 points up on 2 occasions in the second half that the referee was awarding handy frees to let Burren back into it. Just a few observations from last night:

1. How can you award a yellow card and a 14 metre free against a man going for a 50/50 ball and winning it.

2. PJ McAlinden was wrongly booked for a third man tackle, it was Ciaran McGovern who made the challenge and he was already on a yellow. To amend for this the Referee didn't book PJ for a bad tackle about 10 mins later his exact words to Pj at the time where "I Wrongly booked you previously so your ok this time" Surely if he had known he was wrong he would have gone back and gave Ciaran McGovern his second yellow.

3. Our Full back got his tooth knocked out in a challenge and when he said this to the referee he moved the ball up for dissent to leave an easy scorable free.

4. When Daniel Hughes had that last free he asked the ref how long there was to go but the ref refused to tell him and any other player who approached. But when Damien Barton asked the ref replied 1 minute after the free is taken, yet when the Burren Keeper kicked the ball out the Ref blew for full-time.

Biased is not the word to describe Con Reynolds.

[Mid Down Gael]

Absolute disgrace the refereeing performance last night. It was blatantly obvious when we went 2 points up on 2 occasions in the second half that the referee was awarding handy frees to let Burren back into it. Just a few observations from last night:

1. How can you award a yellow card and a 14 metre free against a man going for a 50/50 ball and winning it.

2. PJ McAlinden was wrongly booked for a third man tackle, it was Ciaran McGovern who made the challenge and he was already on a yellow. To amend for this the Referee didn't book PJ for a bad tackle about 10 mins later his exact words to Pj at the time where "I Wrongly booked you previously so your ok this time" Surely if he had known he was wrong he would have gone back and gave Ciaran McGovern his second yellow.

3. Our Full back got his tooth knocked out in a challenge and when he said this to the referee he moved the ball up for dissent to leave an easy scorable free.

4. When Daniel Hughes had that last free he asked the ref how long there was to go but the ref refused to tell him and any other player who approached. But when Damien Barton asked the ref replied 1 minute after the free is taken, yet when the Burren Keeper kicked the ball out the Ref blew for full-time.

Biased is not the word to describe Con Reynolds.

I couldnt agree with you more meatsy. I was a neutral and couldnt believe what  i saw. i was sitting beside staunch Burren men and they admitted the referee won it for them. This man done my own club out off a minor championship last year when we led by 6 points against the bridge and he sent off one of our key players for nothing, who was later cleared, gave them a number off handy frees similar to last night and played five mins off injury time when there clearly wasnt. Its a disgrace players training hard all year to be put out off championship by a referee. Reynolds brings controversey everywhere he goes. Some off the yellow cards handed out in the first half where for nothing. I have great sympathy for Saval today as they are another team to suffer from Reynolds biased and unfair refereeing.

[Aghdavoyle]

knowing nothing about either team and looking at the highlights i don't see anything wrong with the burren goal anyway - apart from the bad goalkeeping.

[Mid Down Gael]

knowing nothing about either team and looking at the highlights i don't see anything wrong with the burren goal anyway - apart from the bad goalkeeping.

Maybe not. But its a good job the highlights dont show why the seven free kicks McGovern converted close to goal where awarded.

[down6061689194]

Does anyone know why there are East Down reserve fixtures made for Monday night? The Down championship quarter finals draw to a conclusion on Monday and i thought Wednesday night would have made more sence to play these games.
Im sure many gaels will want to be in Newcastle to see Clonduff v Liatroim and hear the simi final draw after it. Typical East Down board.

We played last night instead, I think only teams out of the championship are involved.

[Town Gael]

Tut Tut- how dare people on here criticise a referes's performance or blame them for a defeat!!!

[Aghdavoyle]

knowing nothing about either team and looking at the highlights i don't see anything wrong with the burren goal anyway - apart from the bad goalkeeping.

Maybe not. But its a good job the highlights dont show why the seven free kicks McGovern converted close to goal where awarded.

Fair enough - i can only comment on what i see

[bridgegael]

Absolute disgrace the refereeing performance last night. It was blatantly obvious when we went 2 points up on 2 occasions in the second half that the referee was awarding handy frees to let Burren back into it. Just a few observations from last night:

1. How can you award a yellow card and a 14 metre free against a man going for a 50/50 ball and winning it.
2. PJ McAlinden was wrongly booked for a third man tackle, it was Ciaran McGovern who made the challenge and he was already on a yellow. To amend for this the Referee didn't book PJ for a bad tackle about 10 mins later his exact words to Pj at the time where "I Wrongly booked you previously so your ok this time" Surely if he had known he was wrong he would have gone back and gave Ciaran McGovern his second yellow.

3. Our Full back got his tooth knocked out in a challenge and when he said this to the referee he moved the ball up for dissent to leave an easy scorable free.

4. When Daniel Hughes had that last free he asked the ref how long there was to go but the ref refused to tell him and any other player who approached. But when Damien Barton asked the ref replied 1 minute after the free is taken, yet when the Burren Keeper kicked the ball out the Ref blew for full-time.

Biased is not the word to describe Con  Reynolds.

not long after this danny hughes was getting pulled and dragged by 3 burren defenders and no word of a free!  without a doubt the ref lost saval the game.  he shouldn't get another match!!
i hear he was guest of honour at the Burren question and answers night

[Mid Down Gael]

Absolute disgrace the refereeing performance last night. It was blatantly obvious when we went 2 points up on 2 occasions in the second half that the referee was awarding handy frees to let Burren back into it. Just a few observations from last night:

1. How can you award a yellow card and a 14 metre free against a man going for a 50/50 ball and winning it.
2. PJ McAlinden was wrongly booked for a third man tackle, it was Ciaran McGovern who made the challenge and he was already on a yellow. To amend for this the Referee didn't book PJ for a bad tackle about 10 mins later his exact words to Pj at the time where "I Wrongly booked you previously so your ok this time" Surely if he had known he was wrong he would have gone back and gave Ciaran McGovern his second yellow.

3. Our Full back got his tooth knocked out in a challenge and when he said this to the referee he moved the ball up for dissent to leave an easy scorable free.

4. When Daniel Hughes had that last free he asked the ref how long there was to go but the ref refused to tell him and any other player who approached. But when Damien Barton asked the ref replied 1 minute after the free is taken, yet when the Burren Keeper kicked the ball out the Ref blew for full-time.

Biased is not the word to describe Con "by name and nature"  Reynolds. A**ehole more like.

not long after this danny hughes was getting pulled and dragged by 3 burren defenders and no word of a free!  without a doubt the ref lost saval the game.  he shouldn't get another match!!
i hear he was guest of honour at the Burren question and answers night

Con used to ref for us but went back to his own club.
I would say that he is the best ref in the county by a distance.
Seems like the major objector on here is MDG. Now I did witness a great referee in action the other night in Downpatrick(not).

I seen at first hand many times how bad he is. Everyone here is criticising him so he deserves no defence. Yeah ref in downpatick had poor game too from what im told. Thats a big problem in Down, poor referees who think they are above the players and can dictate to them and influence outcomes off games. Maybe when you go to big games like last night you will see for yourself.

[bikeflyer30]

Ok lads a bad ref and to be honest not a great match but if everyone has a go at every ref in the county soon we have no ref's left would anyone hear think of becoming a ref ? I think not it's a thankless job.