Derry Laois AI Minor SF

[fer fox ache]

Baile Stil I have to say that I was highly impressed with wee forrester, outsanding throughout. As for the ref I he was crap but I don't know what Laois thought they were at Kieran Farrell should have been sent off in the first half for a clip on Bell. Their county chairman lost the plot and went for the ref at the break. The first sending off of Lillis was just plain stupid a daft kick right in front of the ref. laois seemed far to intent on third man tackles lates hits and dropping the elbow throughout, their management seemed to have them far too wound up. The second sending off was a second yellow card and probably the result of frustration but the game was lost by that stage and the Loais discipline had completely gone. If Laois had focused more on the ball I think they could well have won the game.

[bailestil]

Aye Laois were so fired up they could hardly play any football. The midfieldes who got sent off was ready to tear strips off the ref at the end of the game. As for wee forester. He is a flying machine and for guy his size he has a mighty leap. It would be your worst nightmare running after him for an hour!

[fer fox ache]

Aye, I was part of the management for our under 16s last year and he ran us ragged. If lads 20 years younger than me couldn't keep up with him I wouldn't fancy it. By the way what's crack with Emmett Green, I heard he's packed it in altogether, if so he's a massive loss for ye

[bailestil]

Dunno about packing it all in. He has had a bad run of it since breaking his leg. Hard not to think he would be one of derry minors best players if he was still there. He's a big loss for them. I'm sure It'll be hard watching them doing so well... But i'm sure He'll be back.

[screenexile]

Well done to Derry and the Screen lads in particular... great to see a good representation from our club and indeed their can be no complaints about the managements biased selection as there is a wide range of players from Senior to junior clubs both North and South Derry.

I think I might make the trip down to headquarters now for the final and I'd be fairly optimistic of us against Galway but it should also be a very entertaining game. Doire abú!

[Will Hunting]

Have to say it's one of the strangest matches I've been to in a while. There was a lot of niggle and tension, certainly not what you would usually expect from a minor game (very different in this sense to the drawn game), and Derry were able to win by basically scoring goals.

Derry were lucky enough to come out with a win I thought, especially when you consider that they really only played well for about 10 mins in the first half, and 5 mins in the 2nd half. A couple of the goals were lucky too (2nd and 3rd goals came from direct mistakes by the Laois defence). But Derry did the important things well i.e. get their noses in front, and more importantly, hold on to the lead. Although when Laois got back to within 4 points in the 2nd half I feared the worst. However, it was then that Heron broke away to score Derry's 4th and decisive goal.

Laois lost the run of themselves in the 2nd half. They must have got so worked up at half-time that their discipline just went. The ball stayed in the one area of the field for about 5 mins at one stage with the ref awarding free after free followed by a few hop-balls. It was at this stage that the first Laois man saw red. I saw the incident, he swiped the foot at Declan Mullan, nothing particularly malicious i thought, but the ref had no choice.

About the referee. It was the same guy that ruined the Derry Monaghan senior game earlier this year. He applies the rules to the absolute letter of the law, and creates problems for himself as he is incapable of blowing for a free without showing someone the black book. Laois tried to be too physical throughout the game though and it definitely worked to their disadvantage.

Derry will need a lot of improvement on this performance, but they continually looked like threatening up front. McGeehan is a handful, he's a very clever player that can find good positions for himself. The movement of the Derry forwards is excellent (at their best in the first half of the first game v Laois). Forrester is an excellent player, he's a great man to win loose possession, and isn't afraid to go in where it hurts (he took one particularly bad knock after fielding a great ball). Heron was impressive in the half-forwards, and Kielt may not have had his best game, but took a couple of important catches in the 2nd half.

All in all, Derry have learnt a lot about themselves over the past week, and I think this puts them in a great position going into the All-Ireland Final.