Down Club Hurling & Football

[Dubh driocht]

On another not, thanks to the useless bunch of pricks psni, traffic control sh#te!!!!

What a crass comment. Since PSNI co-operation with our voluntary stewards  has come in for these Saturday night games, traffic flows better, pedestrains crossing the dual carriageway are safer and proper standards and arrangements are clear for all to see. Maybe an inconvenience to the double-parkers and the latecomers who expect to park at the front gate, but get a grip. Match set up at Pairc Esler now among the best in the land.

Totally.
This is a special time for Down football- things have come together so well on and off the field.We need to back the Race Day on 27th March and as many as possible should make the trip to Cork - we owe them big time and it's less than 4 hours from Newry

[whitegoodman]

Just on the issue of the marshes it looks great but how long does it take for a couple of changing rooms to be built,  those builders must be there for nearly a year now.   Is there even shower facilities for both sets of teams at the min??

[artisan2010]

I dont understand how Clarke can be rated as a 7.  Is it the level of expectation. His point on the run in the first half was my highlight of the game.  In addition some of the passes he found in tight situations which both retained posession and changed the angle of attack were vital to the outcome.
I thought the pattern of the Galway game was repeated last night, over elaboration on occassion and the spurning of chances to take points at earlier points in play.
No disrespect to Mayo,Galway or Armagh but the Dubs, Cork and Kerry will be bigger challenges and the need to be clinical will be vital.
I didnt forget Monaghan!!! 

[whitegoodman]

Jes i thought i was being generous giving him a 7 lol. 

Thought he was out of the game for long periods  and yes he did score an great point but also tried a couple of rediculous efforts.  He did so some great things but not as often as normal.  Certainly didnt think his performance was on a par with mckernan or murtagh imo.  He cant be MOM every wk.

[SHEEDY]

thought clarke did some excellent work and some of his passing and vision was a joy to watch but he was also guilty of some of some bad shooting, 2 45's and an easy free blasted wide. these are the chances we cant waste at the higher level. the mark of 7 whitegoodman give was just about right.

[Leo]

Just on the issue of the marshes it looks great but how long does it take for a couple of changing rooms to be built,  those builders must be there for nearly a year now.   Is there even shower facilities for both sets of teams at the min??

The new changing rooms are ready for fit out - I had a dander in there Saturday morning - 4 massive dressing rooms, match control room , committee room - will be as good as it gets. As I understand it the away teams have been given the best facilities available for recent games in the fitness centre and Down have put up with makeshift faciluties - fair dues to the players while the work goes on. No omletes without cracked eggs my friend.

[whitegoodman]

When u say ready for fit out u mean they have to put the plumbing/tiling in yet, any idea why it has taken so long. Is the upstairs looking out onto the pitch for media or the actual control room

[Leo]

whitegoodman it looks to me like the top floor is event control and not press - have they not already got a 2-tier box in the stand where they want to be?
By the way, why is the big illuminated sign at the front  of Park Esler stuck on AroundAPound for yonks? It used to change faces between sponsors and Club Down. Is it because the original Club Down folded? Is the new Club Down not doing anything about it?

[PAULD123]

I'm not sure how to feel about Saturday night's game. I'm going to make two posts today. The first is on the things I see as bad. The second will be about the things I see as being good. We won and that's the single most important thing. If we beat Monaghan we guarantee first division football for next season. So we are one game away from meeting the target. But it is the manner of victory that leaves me in a quandary. We were by far the more skillful team and played the much better football - but only in patches. We won countless dirty ball, intercepted lots of passes, held around 60% possession (at least), never looked under pressure in possession, created 5-6 goal opportunities.

But reading those comments back makes it sound like we should have walked away with the game, so why didn't we? I think it comes down to shooting. I put it down to three things:

1) Firstly we can't score 45's and that is a major problem, Stevie just banged his over no sweat, we can barely make the small square.

2) Secondly the team is obsessed with going for goals. I am from the school of thought that you take every single point opportunity until you are 8-10 points ahead then look for goals to kill the game off. This would have been especially true at the weekend where we were continually recycling possession. We could have had them so far behind that they would never have come back. We've all heard it - "Take your points and the goals will come!!!"

3) Thirdly we don't seem to have a plan for attack. We control possession and work players into ever better positions. But at no point does it seem that a given player has elected himself to get into a point scoring position, where the team work the ball to get it to him, and then he finishes. It seems we just keep playing and playing waiting for something good to happen. In rugby a fly-half drops deep to kick a drop goal. He sets himself up for the score. With our fantastic possession play that's what we should be doing. One player in any move should be simply moving to position, then, once the defence is stretched he should be receiving it and slotting it over. Instead it seems we are just passing for the sake of passing. Most of our points from play happen on the run, not from these long impressive build ups. We tend to score from frees, or miss goal chances from the long build-ups. Compare this to Armagh who have a simple plan - Get the ball, play it in possession till Stevie is in position, give it to Stevie, Stevie scores. That's their plan and because of it they nearly matched us for scores.

But if we were more ruthless we would be the match for any team in the country. I wonder what everyone else thinks about these comments?

[hectorsheroes]

Good points made there but fairly negative I reckon - I'd be more than happy where Down are - at the top table and there as a force to, I'd be more bullish about our prospects than before. Look at 3/4 years ago and we have plenty to moan about - yes of course we should have won by more and alot of Armagh fans mentioned that to me as I was leaving but we won, we are in Division one and the status is almost safe and its the end of February!! Relax - McCartan and Dan in the full back line were superb - Armagh just soaked up pressure and played on the counter attack - that was all they had - other etams won't - we still have players to come back in and yeah we are not the finished article but no need for complete pessimism either

[5 Sams]

I'm not sure how to feel about Saturday night's game. I'm going to make two posts today. The first is on the things I see as bad. The second will be about the things I see as being good. We won and that's the single most important thing. If we beat Monaghan we guarantee first division football for next season. So we are one game away from meeting the target. But it is the manner of victory that leaves me in a quandary. We were by far the more skillful team and played the much better football - but only in patches. We won countless dirty ball, intercepted lots of passes, held around 60% possession (at least), never looked under pressure in possession, created 5-6 goal opportunities.

But reading those comments back makes it sound like we should have walked away with the game, so why didn't we? I think it comes down to shooting. I put it down to three things:

1) Firstly we can't score 45's and that is a major problem, Stevie just banged his over no sweat, we can barely make the small square.

2) Secondly the team is obsessed with going for goals. I am from the school of thought that you take every single point opportunity until you are 8-10 points ahead then look for goals to kill the game off. This would have been especially true at the weekend where we were continually recycling possession. We could have had them so far behind that they would never have come back. We've all heard it - "Take your points and the goals will come!!!"

3) Thirdly we don't seem to have a plan for attack. We control possession and work players into ever better positions. But at no point does it seem that a given player has elected himself to get into a point scoring position, where the team work the ball to get it to him, and then he finishes. It seems we just keep playing and playing waiting for something good to happen. In rugby a fly-half drops deep to kick a drop goal. He sets himself up for the score. With our fantastic possession play that's what we should be doing. One player in any move should be simply moving to position, then, once the defence is stretched he should be receiving it and slotting it over. Instead it seems we are just passing for the sake of passing. Most of our points from play happen on the run, not from these long impressive build ups. We tend to score from frees, or miss goal chances from the long build-ups. Compare this to Armagh who have a simple plan - Get the ball, play it in possession till Stevie is in position, give it to Stevie, Stevie scores. That's their plan and because of it they nearly matched us for scores.

But if we were more ruthless we would be the match for any team in the country. I wonder what everyone else thinks about these comments?

It looks as if Cathal Murdock is in for an extended run so he could be an option for the 50s

[redandblackareback]

I seriously hope Down dont start this nonsense that Burren were at last year by bringing Murdock out, anyway in my opinion he mighten be first choice next time out, I do feel Alder is as good as him. Is Gavin Joyce in the panel too, he did play against Antrim, might be worth a look.

Saturday was the most comfortable 1 point win Iv seen in a long while, James decision to start Murtagh was a good one also so was the move to bring Colgan in for a tired King, and if King and Fitzpatrick dont start to up it Colgan may be knocking on the door!!

Unfortunately for Armagh (As we have previously seen) their management team are clearly inept and are well out of their depth at this level. I have no hesitation in thinking we will win comfortably again come the championship when in the heat of battle a cool calm head with a bit of Know how is vital along the line.

Well done James and co keep it going.

[wobbller]

Good points made there but fairly negative I reckon - I'd be more than happy where Down are - at the top table and there as a force to, I'd be more bullish about our prospects than before. Look at 3/4 years ago and we have plenty to moan about - yes of course we should have won by more and alot of Armagh fans mentioned that to me as I was leaving but we won, we are in Division one and the status is almost safe and its the end of February!! Relax - McCartan and Dan in the full back line were superb - Armagh just soaked up pressure and played on the counter attack - that was all they had - other etams won't - we still have players to come back in and yeah we are not the finished article but no need for complete pessimism either

Dan was beaten to the ball 5/6 times by Mc Donnell although Dan's
blocked after those instances was superb.

[PAULD123]

This is my second post today. I have talked about the negative's as I see it, which basically all focus around shooting. Now for the positives:

1) Most importantly - We won, 5 points now and Division one status all but secured.

2) We have improved a little in each game

3) Each game throws up issues that seem to be addressed by the next game. The management seem to be astute, helping to eradicate problems, and improve us each time.

4) Specifically our ability to win ball in midfield has improved a lot since Mayo

5) I don't think there is a team in Ireland that are as comfortable passing the ball to retain possession

6) Our bench players are starting to come in and look like they belong in the starting team. We have at least 25 players all justified in expecting to be in the first fifteen

7) The kickouts have been much better, securing primary ball much more than in Mayo

We were able to keep Armagh to only 11 points (the second lowest score in any Division 1 match this season)

9) Even with our so-called weakened defence we are the lowest points conceders in the division

10) In bursts we are devastating. It is only if you have true talent that you can produce such great moves. The issue is merely now to add consistency to it.

11) Last season we were a team that took big leads and then gradually threw them away. This year, while we are still getting clawed back around the 50-60minute period, we are coming back to finish strongly.

12) The reason we won in the end was because we controlled possession for the last two minutes. We were a point ahead and simply allowed the clock to tick down while not letting Armagh touch it. The fact that we were able to do this is very pleasing and also shows learning. If we had done the same against Kildare last year when awarded a free in the last two minutes we would never have had to endure the agony of a last second save from Kalum.

13) The boys will be even faster on a dry hard pitch, which means as time goes on we benefit from more practice (as we play more games) and improving weather at the same time

14) Dan Gordon looks more like a quality fullback in each game, though Stevie did miss at least 2 chances that you would never expect him to miss again.

15) McKernan is getting back to his best

16) King looked fitter

17) Although we squandered a lot, we still got in there and created about 10 extra point scoring chances, 5 of which were goal chances.

18) If we keep playing this type of football then by summer we will have a full squad all capable of playing together, everyone will know the plan and most importantly we will be playing the sort of football that wins games. We will have the most cohesive team in the championship, with all players being comfortable in possession. Each man will know he has backup and where that backup is going to be at any time. Basically our team will work as a unit not individuals.

I think these are a lot of reasons to be cheerful. In summary I think we have to say that if we view this as a one-off then it was indeed frustrating from the squandered opportunities. But if we consider it a work-in-progress then we can say that everything is going exactly to plan and we should arrive at the start of the championship at the top of our game.

[ballela-angel]

Good posts yesterday and this morning - Saw the game on the Internet and watched it one additional time - Good win for Down - Thought it worthwhile pointing out that we hit the upright 4 times that denied us points and hit the post once and denied us a goal - On the law of averages, 50% of them should have resulted in scores, which would have given a very different complexion to the score and would have more accurately reflected Down's periods of dominance (Armagh hit the post once and it registered a score)