Meath v Fermanagh Official Thread

[dubsinthehill]

Where can I listen to live coverage from this match? Would quite like to listen to this - expecting a shock 

[Square Ball]

The Final straw!!!  from the BBC


Fermanagh football boss Charlie Mulgrew stepped down from the position after the county's 0-11 to 0-9 All-Ireland qualifier defeat by Meath on Saturday.
Mulgrew, who led the team to the 2004 All-Ireland semi-finals, said that he had always intended this season to be his final year in the post.

Meath led 0-6 to 0-4 at half-time at Navan and extended that lead to 0-10 to 0-5 early in the second half.

Fermanagh's produced a late rally but were unable to get on terms.

The Erne County's line-up had a late change from the side announced on Thursday with James Sherry starting instead of Tom Brewster.

However, Brewster was introduced for Ciaran McElroy midway through the first half when Meath were leading by 0-4 to 0-2.

Ciaran O'Reilly's second free of the first half reduced Meath's lead to the minimum but the Royals fought back to lead 0-6 to 0-4 at the interval.

The crucial period of the match came after half-time as Meath outscored Fermanagh by four points to one to take a 0-10 to 0-5 lead.

By that stage, the excellent Brian Farrell had notched four of Meath's points while Peadar Byrne had hit two scores.

Ciaran O'Reilly's fourth point of the match cut Meath's cut to four points and there then followed a crucial moment as Mark Little's goalbounded effort came back off the Royals woodwork.

A Tom Brewster free and a Shane McDermott point reduced Meath's lead to two but Farrell responded with a steadying score for Meath.

Brewster pointed again for Fermanagh but Meath were not put under serious pressure in the closing minutes as they held on for a deserved win.





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[FermPundit]

Just in the door from Navan. Disappointing result. The boys played well plenty of commitment and effort but we just don't have the forwards to turn possession into scores. Fair play to Meath they fully deserved their victory but I wasn't overly impressed with them. They have plenty of improvement to make if they want to go further in the qualifiers.

Not surprised to hear that Charlie has departed. He has had his critics within the county but in fairness he did led us to an AI semi final in 04. Its the right time for change and a few new ideas. I have my views on who should be the new manager but I'll leave that discussion for another day.

[agorm]

Comiserations to Fermanagh. They seemed pretty one dimensional in front of goal though they did create an excellent goal scoring chance during the second half and had the ball gone in instead of hitting the post it could have been a different result.
This performance was not an inspiring one from Meath and does not leave me particularly optimistic as to how far we are going to go in the qualifiers.
If you asked any Meath person that has been watching them consistently all year who would perform tonight they would probably have said Murphy, Fay, Moyles, Byrne, Bray and Farrell. And lo and behold it was pretty much the same bunch that were the best performers again. O Rourke had some good moments but seems to drift out of the action a bit. King had a good second half. Kenny showed a fair bit of determination and Harrington does a decent job without fuss.
The question must be asked how Coyle is continuing to persevere with Crawford? I can only conclude that he does not rate any of the other midfielders on the panel. Also, Fermanagh were much better at getting the breaking ball at all times - neither midfield made clean catches. Only for the industry of Moyles and Byrne and to a lesser extent Ward, Kenny and King we would have been wiped in the middle of the park.

For the next day, I would like to see Coyle take a risk with the number 10 position. I dont know who that is. I can only say that it is worth it as McLoughlin and Curran are not up to it in that position. There will be no real pressure on Coyle as we have definitely made progress this year so he should be bold and try to get players in that will fight for that breaking ball irrespective of whether they have started before now. If we dont significantly improve our possession we will definitely lose as Fermanagh could have taken us tonight.

[FermPundit]

We were saying on the way home that the 2 meath midfielders were huge but they didn't impose themselves on the game at all. They aren't very mobile and they don't get involved in play. Meath have some real class forwards. Farrell and Bray hit some great scores in the first half but they drifted out of the game after half time. Meath went long periods of the game without scoring. Fermanagh put the Meath defence under serious pressure in the 2nd half but we just couldn't score. If you read this thread during the week you'll notice us Fermanagh folk knew we would stuggle to get scores. Its been our major problem for many a season but in particular this year.

I'd be worried if I was a Meath supporter. A good side would have beaten youse tonight thats for sure. Its a pity it wasn't Fermanagh but sure we'll regroup next season and see what happens with a new manager at the helm. Good luck to the Royals for the rest of the qualifiers!!

[KIDDO]

Strange admission charge in Navan , 20 euro  or 15pounds sterling  for the stand , last wekend inNewry  same euro charge ,but sterling charge was 14 pounds ,last nightwhen one tried to gain a seat in the stand after paying  the 20 euro; no seats were available  .Some spectators had tickets  for the stand , but most paying the 20 euros, were issued with no tickets  with a pot luck system applying as to whether you got a seat.

[Hound]

Well done to Meath. It seems after every game they've won, opposition supporters have said they were poor! Only the Dubs have given them any credit 

Sounds like Brian Farrell has found some form, Meath won't be easily beaten and I'd fancy them to come up with a big performance in the next round. They've played enough Leinster and Ulster teams, so I really hope they draw Galway or Cork. Would be a great occassion, Meath would go in an underdogs but would be well capable of causing an upset.

Did Moyles and Reilly play at 11 and 6 respectively as selected? How'd they do?

[ExiledGael]

8 Euro for a student wasn't bad anyway!!
Not a great game, jesus Meath were huge compared to us, but the game was there for Fermanagh to win, little hitting the post was the chance to win the game.
Thought on the fermanagh side, McDermott Owens Murphy Maguire Little and Tommy McElroy all put their heart into it and looked dangerous, some of the rest were poor for varying reasons.
McBarron's not fit and was just doing his usual cla-ing about at midfield which is fair enough, Bogue had a stinker, Keenan has a real attitude problem and needs to lose the pounds and get back to the player he was at school level.
Breen's kick-outs were very dodgy and he must have been mouthing to the crowd as the people behind the goal were really goading him and had him riled.
Overall, not a bad effort, the search for a forward goes on!
Thanks for the memories Charlie, fcuk all the critics and moaners, always be a legend for the run you gave us all

[Jinxy]

Comiserations to Fermanagh. They seemed pretty one dimensional in front of goal though they did create an excellent goal scoring chance during the second half and had the ball gone in instead of hitting the post it could have been a different result.
This performance was not an inspiring one from Meath and does not leave me particularly optimistic as to how far we are going to go in the qualifiers.
If you asked any Meath person that has been watching them consistently all year who would perform tonight they would probably have said Murphy, Fay, Moyles, Byrne, Bray and Farrell. And lo and behold it was pretty much the same bunch that were the best performers again. O Rourke had some good moments but seems to drift out of the action a bit. King had a good second half. Kenny showed a fair bit of determination and Harrington does a decent job without fuss.
The question must be asked how Coyle is continuing to persevere with Crawford? I can only conclude that he does not rate any of the other midfielders on the panel. Also, Fermanagh were much better at getting the breaking ball at all times - neither midfield made clean catches. Only for the industry of Moyles and Byrne and to a lesser extent Ward, Kenny and King we would have been wiped in the middle of the park.

For the next day, I would like to see Coyle take a risk with the number 10 position. I dont know who that is. I can only say that it is worth it as McLoughlin and Curran are not up to it in that position. There will be no real pressure on Coyle as we have definitely made progress this year so he should be bold and try to get players in that will fight for that breaking ball irrespective of whether they have started before now. If we dont significantly improve our possession we will definitely lose as Fermanagh could have taken us tonight.

Spot on. The usual suspects did the business and the rest were mediocre. It seems that some players can only get themselves up for a big game against the Dubs. We simply CANNOT start the next day with Ward and Crawford centrefield. Moyles has to go in there. McLoughlin, Curran, McCarthy not up to this standard. From now on I want to see u-21's being given a shot when subs are coming on. Also,we cannot absorb the loss of GG and big Joe. I said to the lad beside me that that game was made for the 2 of them. Dunno if both are a lost cause but every avenue should be used to get them back. O'Rourke for all his height is not robust enough yet to win the high balls going in. I dunno about this game against Galway. They are another of our bogey teams. The management have a lot of serious thinking to do with regard to team selection. Finally, Anthony Moyles is a legend. We'd be lost without him.

[Hardy]

Good analysis Agorm and Jinxy. Just one point Jinxy – Moyles WAS playing in midfield on Saturday night. I'd add that he was the only one of the three midfielders that played well.

I'm still absolutely against moving him from CHB and Saturday night reinforced my opinion. All of Fermanagh's threat came straight through the middle of our defence. They crowded midfield, with their half forwards behind the midfield on our kick out and prevented anyone, including themselves, winning clean ball. The problem and disappointment from our point of view was that they won practically all of the loose ball and when they did ran through the middle with it. That hole in the middle had been plugged by Moyles all this year until the selectors decided to open it again by making him a third midfielder. It needs to be fixed and while Moyles is a better third midfielder than Reilly, the formation we used in the league knock-out stages and early championship games was working fine – Moyles at CHB and Reilly as the third midfielder.

The other big problem is the midfield itself. The persistence with Crawford is mystifying. He was practically invisible on Saturday night, in terms of providing attacking possession, yet he lasted until the 65th minute. That makes me wonder about the sideline. I wonder even more about why McLoughlin lasted as long as he did. I don't think I saw him once in the game.

Also, it was very disappointing to see us lose the fight for loose possession so badly, especially against a team of Fermanagh's small stature. Apart from Moyles, there was none of the traditional Meath aggression in fighting for the loose ball. Lads seemed to be standing back or contesting half-heartedly instead of having the required "go through anything to win the ball" mentality.

There were positives, too, of course - Brian Farrell's class will carry us a long way on difficult days and the ability of the forwards to get enough to win with very little possession was encouraging. Stephen Bray's point from the corner on his home pitch was a delight. Also, despite the aforementioned hole in the middle, the defence did very well in holding Fermanagh to 9, given the possession they enjoyed and Darren Fay gave another master class, especially in the first half.

I thought the mix of tactics in delivering ball to the forwards (when we occasionally had possession) was interesting. The ball along the wing or into the corner was very good and usually favoured the forward and it was mixed with some high ball for Farrell and Shane O'Rourke to contest. I thought Shane did OK but he was easily enough pushed around, which is not surprising – he's only a chap. He'll get better with every game, I'd say. He got a great ovation coming off – way more than his performance merited and you could sense the telepathy in the crowd, deciding to give him as much encouragement as possible.

I think, after all that, I've only said what Agorm and Jinxy said (apart from disagreeing about how to use Moyles), but sure you have to be talking about the game on a Monday, whether you have anything to say or not.

Anyway, we're still there and that game will have done us good. Fermanagh provided a  searching test and good experience in countering their type of game which would be bankable if were to overcome Galway and meet, say Tyrone. No matter what happens next we can look on this year as progress. I don't think we can afford to leave GG and Joe at home, though and expect to make much more progress. We're not that well off for talent. But after the trip up home, I wouldn't be optimistic about GG returning.

[Jinxy]

I think we are the only team in the country (other than maybe Roscommon) that have two 6'5" midfielders and the reason why this is such a rarity is obvious. As a combination, they are too immobile, too easily blocked and they don't even punch their weight with regard to fielding clean ball. They towered over their Fermanagh counterparts on Saturday. One of the midfielders needs to be a link man, to pick up breaks and help the defence out. This is what Moyles does very well. Hardy I understand why you would want to keep Moyles at centre back, but the fact of the matter is we need to generate momentum from midfield, otherwise we will spend the last quarter of games fighting rearguard actions like we did on saturday. it was a disgrace that we couldn't win a ball around midfield against probably the lightest team in the country. Reilly can "do a job" at centre back. Other than Moyles, do we have anyone else who can "do a job" at midfield?

[EugeneGeraghty]

Well Lads, the next round of qualifiers have to be played in neutral venues. What do you think the chances of ourselves and Galway playing a double header with Cork and Louth in Croker? If not there were do you think they'll play this one? Hyde Park, Mullingar etc

[Jinxy]

Portlaoise maybe? What's the capacity of Mullingar?

[Hardy]

I think we are the only team in the country (other than maybe Roscommon) that have two 6'5" midfielders and the reason why this is such a rarity is obvious. As a combination, they are too immobile, too easily blocked and they don't even punch their weight with regard to fielding clean ball. They towered over their Fermanagh counterparts on Saturday. One of the midfielders needs to be a link man, to pick up breaks and help the defence out. This is what Moyles does very well. Hardy I understand why you would want to keep Moyles at centre back, but the fact of the matter is we need to generate momentum from midfield, otherwise we will spend the last quarter of games fighting rearguard actions like we did on saturday. it was a disgrace that we couldn't win a ball around midfield against probably the lightest team in the country. Reilly can "do a job" at centre back. Other than Moyles, do we have anyone else who can "do a job" at midfield?

It's a reasonable argument Jinxy and there's no right answer to the question. I'm coming from the position that CHB has been our biggest problem position since 2001. OK, we wouldn't have been winning All-Irelands or even Leinsters if we'd had a CHB, but it was soul-destroying for years watching teams rampaging through our middle. Then we solved the problem and now seem intent on un-solving it in order to solve another one.

I agree midfield needs sorting. My suggestion has been to give Charles his chance. I accept the problem with that is that I don't know Charles's current form. I'm not sure I agree it's a problem to have two big midfielders. Yes it' s a problem if they're ponderous and immobile, but I wouldn't accuse McCarthy or Ward of that.

Yes, Moyles is absolutely our best midfielder. He's also our best half back, half forward and if it were not for Darren Fay, he'd be our best full back. So it's a question of where you use him If you use him at midfield, you lose your CHB. To me, Saturday proved that's a problem, as Reilly didn't do the job there and we were back to seeing little lads running through us for the crack again.

[Hardy]

I'd guess at a double header in Portlaoise. Would the four counties bring enough to make Croke Park viable? There were 20K at Navan on Saturday, probably about 15k of whom were from Meath. I suppose we'd bring as many to Croke Park. Louth 10K? Cork 5K? Galway 5K?