Tyrone v Down Ulster Championship First Round 8th June 2008

[mattockranger]

A side to get goals are hard to beat and a Down team with cofidence is very hard to beat.....!
they beat us (louth) in the league at the death with a goal.......just when you think they are dead and buried,out of it they get a goal against the run of play

its a characteristic in this side and fair play to Ross carr and DJ Kane two down stalwarts who thought their team to play with guile and honesty!
dark horses for ulster! and then who knows!!

[the green man]

I think derry were beat in the first round up in irvinestown that year - i think it was my first game, unless they lost to fermanagh two years in a row.  We've handed out some amount of hammerings to them since then though.

Not too sure what round it was. Mickey Moran was over them along with the oul fella. Frankie Johnson drop kicked a line ball/free kick into a Fermanagh player, they scored from that and won.

[Bogball XV]

I think derry were beat in the first round up in irvinestown that year - i think it was my first game, unless they lost to fermanagh two years in a row.  We've handed out some amount of hammerings to them since then though.

Not too sure what round it was. Mickey Moran was over them along with the oul fella. Frankie Johnson drop kicked a line ball/free kick into a Fermanagh player, they scored from that and won.

I'm guessing that since it was in irvinestown it wouldn't have been a semi-final anyway, that's frankie the slaughtmanus man?  Doctor?

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Couldn't make the game tonight, well done Down, and good luck for the rest of it. Believe Mc Enaney was horrific, he's excelling himself these days.

[the green man]

I'm guessing that since it was in irvinestown it wouldn't have been a semi-final anyway, that's frankie the slaughtmanus man?  Doctor?

Defo Slaughtmanus, not sure if he's a doctor. The oul fella still spits when he talks about that game. You could be right, that the game was in Irvinestown

[stiffler]

Just home from the game, Down thoroughly deserved their win, you could see how much it meant to the players at the end, Benny was jumping up and down like a madman!

The referee was awful, the Down players had to be beaten alive before they got the free, whilst tyrone got a number of soft frees, especially near the end of normal time.

Did anyone see Dooher kiss his man on the cheek, what was that about? 

If theres a better game this year, i pray to good that im at it.

[The Real Laoislad]

See the BBC has Down being reduced to ten men in the second half 

I think you mean 14 men 

[lecale4]

What a game!!! The adrenalin is still flying!!!
Men of the match for Down:

- Benny Coulter - most direct forward, great to see ponits from play - and of course the goal
- Murphy - really got under Doohers skin - had him rattled throughout - the Golden Boy even resorted to diving - not a thing Tyrone are renowned for
- Dan Gordon - great display despite being hampered by injury
- Liam Doyle - great engine, kept it going til the end - brilliant free taking under pressure
- Ambrose Rogers - player of the 2 games on aggregate - McEnaney wouldn't give him a free all night - went to the end - won a great possession in the fourth period at the death - brilliant
- Ross & DJ - INSTILLED SOME BELIEF - despite conceding 8 points without reply - from 0-12 to 0-16 to 0-20 to 0-16 they still kept going!!!

Unbelievable referring from McEnaney - played for a draw in normal time - has to be the man in the big picture. 4th period was a free for all - you couldn't buy a free - think the bad light got to him!!
An Dun Abu!!!

[hoopsaaa]

Fair play to Down. Mickey Harte is one of the best GAA managers ever. Now its time for him to move on. The team needs a good shake up.

[balladmaker]

As an Armagh neutral at tonight's game, thought it was a great game to watch. It see-sawed so many times, with Down deserving winners. Ref was downright poor, gave Tyrone too many cheap frees.

[Doire abú]

The more cynical among us would say McEnaney is an over-rated ref and its impossible to play against Tyrone or Armagh if he's reffin.

[Lamh Dhearg Alba]

Hopefully Down slay Armagh, and that'll be the 'catenaccio' teams of Ulster gone

Shouldnt rise to this kind of trip but really what are you on? Tyrone ran up 0-21 tonight and contributed to a superb game, only a fool would be suggesting they are a negative team. The catenaccio is hardly working either if they conceded 1-19 . Clown. Go and watch a DVD of the 2005 championship as well, a whole series of classic open matches.

Inevitable that Mickey is going to take some stick but I hope people are reasonable and remember what he has done for Tyrone in the last few years. The performances since 2005 have not been great but fate has not been kind with all the selection problems. Ultimately the full forward line of Canavan, O'Neill and Mulligan was massive for Tyrone and without them its a shadow of the team. McGuigan's problems we all know about, he did well to even be on the park these last 2 games. With a bit of luck Tyrone will be dangerous opponents in the qualifiers but no real prospect of anything more than that.

Well done to Down, great spirit over the two games having been in trouble on a few occasions and still coming back to go through. They have been underachieving in recent times given they have some really excellent footballers and maybe now they are on the up again. Hopefully this isnt the peak for them (like 99 for example) and they go on to have a really good championship. Potential is there to cause a lot of bother for most teams.

[st pauls mcgrath]

any word on were the semi final will take place or will it just b clones no matter if cavan or armagh win?

[Yes I Would]

They are singin on the streets of Newry tonite! That drink does awful things!

"The men in red and black are back bellies full of fire
We're going down to Dublin to bring back the Sam Maguire"

[thewobbler]

A truly exilharating game of football, even if McEnaneny tried his best to ruin it.

Down's half-back line were outstanding to a man. Murphy utterly dominated Dooher, Doyle excelled in nearly everything he did, and as for Carr, well he started off well, and get progressively better with every minute.

Our midfield was genuinely impressive until Peter Donnelly came on and shook things up very well (although possibly aligned with the knocks that Dan took early on slowing him down). What was noticeable was that a one-handed Dan Gordon is possibly even more effective than the two-handed version. In the first half, every time he broke the ball, it was straight into a Down player's hands.

I was well pleased with McCartan's performance. It was a great example of how niggling and perseverance can gain rewards.  Cavanagh would ruin any full-back in Ireland given a good supply of ball, and on what he received today would have scored at least 3 points on anyone, so Daniel can keep his head very high.

Up front, Danny Hughes was easily the pick of the bunch. He absolutely tortured McMahon for pace and gave his half-backs a great option time and time again. Coulter put on more a series of cameos than a performance, but here, I'd take those cameos every week.



For Tyrone, Penrose was again scarily effective, if under-used. Harte and Jordan were hugely involved in comparison to the drawn game. Aside from the mother of all f**k ups for the goal, Ricey was generally splendid. McGuigan and Donnelly made big impacts when they came on, while if Cavanagh could have cloned himself and sent one out to midfield, the Red Hands would be in an Ulster Final. Two Sean Cavanaghs in any team would be hugely unfair on the opposition though.

But, I'd agree with Tyrone comments that it's time for Harte to move on. He's probably the best manager in the country, but his team don't seem to have the same dynamic they once had. Whilst you couldn't fault them for effort, I don't think his players buy into his ideas the same way the once did. The workrate was there, but the intensity wasn't... if you know what I mean.