DERRY V FERMANAGH Healy Park Sat 21st June Throw in: 6pm

[Estimator]

All in all, I feel that O'Rourke's ability to impose his gameplan on the match was were the game was won and lost.  Derry players and management just had no answers to a very good and very mobile fermanagh team.  The loss of Fergal Doherty around the middle of the park was immense and I can't remember Derry winning one clean ball around the middle of the park.  McCloy looked extremely dodgy and I don't think Owens would have got in so handy if big Niall had have been marshalling the edge of the square...
Anyway I hope Fermanagh now go on and lift Ulster.  Congratulations Fermanagh, O'Rourke and Maxie in particular, at least we might get one Ulster medal in Derry this year, lol!

Totally agree with that. Forgot to mention McElroy in my previous post, fair play to him, done well throughout!

[Lecale2]

Great victory for Fermangh and fully deserved. The Ulster football championship is the ony one worth watching now adays.

[haranguerer]

14 mins gone and game oveer, Fermanagh arnt near physical enough

Heh heh heh. Its f**king great having a look at this the nxt morning!

[FermPundit]

Brilliant result last night. I didn't think I would be saying those words after the first 15 mins but the boys didn't panic, they stuck to their game plan and were deserving winners. Man for man Derry have the better players but Fermanagh out fought them for every ball and they clearly wanted it more. I think most people now appreciate why so many Fermanagh supporters wanted Malachy O'Rourke as manager. He's probably the best young coach in Ireland at the moment. He has instilled such a work ethic and confidence in the team that I haven't seen before. One thing that has held back Fermanagh teams throughout the years has been fear. For too long Fermanagh feared the big boys of Ulster and they almost felt out of place competing against them. Hopefully those days are gone. As a team we have been steadily improving for the last 10 years so I suppose last night's victory shouldn't come as too big of a surprise. A NFL division one semi final, All Ireland quarter final and semi final in 04 indicates that we belong with the top tier of counties in Ireland. So maybe this year wil be our year when we finally break our duck and lift our first ever Ulster title. Well done to everyone last night. I think the scenes on the pitch after the match showed our much this means to us. Fear Manach Abu!!

[Maguire01]

Fermanagh were the better team, but their tactics for the last 10 minutes of the game were absolutely disgusting, someone mentioned sherry's ending off, by the end fermanagh should have had about 4 more gone, the cynicism in their play (whilst understandable) is not something we should want in gaelic football. 

Eh? please elaborate. Fermanagh were very unlucky to have had one player sent off, never mind 4 more.  I think you must be the only person to have posted who doesn't think that the ref was 'card happy'.  Can you point out who else should have been shown a red?

The other point is once more the injury time, the ref decided on 2 minutes, this despite the fact that he'd handed out what, 10, 12 yellows, each taking a good 30 secs, and whilst you may say that Derry would have lost anyway, it had a huge bearing, twice in the 2 mins of injury time derry had the chance to cut the deficit to the minimum with very scoreable frees, but given the time left they had to try and work a goal.

A genuine query - is the time taken to discipline players meant to be added onto the end? I thought 'injury time' was time added on when the game was stopped due to injury?

[Maguire01]

The management team were very poor, completely out of ideas.  In three years, with a good bunch of players Derry have failed to reach an Ulster decider, which is nothing more than a complete failure.

Man for man Derry have the better players but Fermanagh out fought them for every ball and they clearly wanted it more.

Hard to know whether to keep buying this.  Is it not a case that the Derry players have simply been overrated? Surely a team supposed to have so many good players should and would have made a real breakthrough by now?
Also, as a non-Fermanagh and non-Derry man (albeit with Fermanagh bias in this tie), if i had to pick a starting 15 from both squads, there's be at least as many green shirts.

[FermPundit]

Man for man Derry have the better players but Fermanagh out fought them for every ball and they clearly wanted it more.

Hard to know whether to keep buying this.  Is it not a case that the Derry players have simply been overrated? Surely a team supposed to have so many good players should and would have made a real breakthrough by now?
Also, as a non-Fermanagh and non-Derry man (albeit with Fermanagh bias in this tie), if i had to pick a starting 15 from both squads, there's be at least as many green shirts.

Fair comment. Although I agree that Derry were over hyped last week I genuinely believe Derry have some outstanding footballers. They lost this game because they under estimated the challenge that Fermanagh would give them. I know you could give me many reasons why this would have been a mistake but I just feel Derry lost this game in the changing rooms before they came out.

[Bogball XV]

The other point is once more the injury time, the ref decided on 2 minutes, this despite the fact that he'd handed out what, 10, 12 yellows, each taking a good 30 secs, and whilst you may say that Derry would have lost anyway, it had a huge bearing, twice in the 2 mins of injury time derry had the chance to cut the deficit to the minimum with very scoreable frees, but given the time left they had to try and work a goal.

A genuine query - is the time taken to discipline players meant to be added onto the end? I thought 'injury time' was time added on when the game was stopped due to injury?

According to the rulebook:

3.2 The playing time shall consist of two periods
of thirty minutes each, but time shall be added
on in each period for incidental or deliberate
delays

I imagine the 400 bookings would be classed as incidental.  As for the fermanagh tactics at the end, I can't single any one incident out, but every time a derry man got the ball in any sort of threatening position he was dragged to the ground by 2/3 players, it was total cynicism at it's worst and incidents such as that should be punished more severely, it's probably more a failing in the rules, it's definitely time for a sin bin imo.  I appreciate that fermanagh were only doing what they had to do to win, but the last 10 mins were total rugby league.
Anyway, good luck to you, it'll be a long time coming if you can manage it, but i still think armagh may be the team to beat.

[Bogball XV]

BTW Maguire, I've come round to your way of thinking about the closed roof stadium, wish to f**k that omagh had one yesterday

[screenmachine]

not that  i think this affected the game in any way but here goes...did anyone notice the fermanagh man who scored maybe their last or second last point 'double bouncing' the ball as two derry man had been previously blown up for earlier on. This rule really annoys me when a player slightly loses control of the ball and then has to readjust, i don't see it as a double bounce but if the referee is going to blow it then he has to blow it all day long...seen bradley have a we slap at our maxie in the first half, only the mans made of sterner stuff he could have been rollin around like he was shot...or from tyrone

[glenullinabu]

I've yet to see it mentioned here, maybe I'm the only one that thought it, but the two Bradley's attitude is beyond rotten. A pair of ill mannered, disrespectful cnuts, in particular their attitude to Crozier and McCloskey.

just keep them away from industrial sanders, is that what youre saying

[Orior]

Fantastic result for plucky wee Fermanagh. (I'll stop using that term if they win the Anglo Celt, lol)

Cant believe how the Derry forwards went missing. The great white hope Lynch? Not this year matey.

The soccer afterwards was as dull as dishwater compared to the football.

[glenullinabu]

An unbelievable result !

no it wasnt.
many of us have beeen talking about the poor full back line and how bad mccloy and mcguckian are
this team was picked on past glories and until derry picks on current form they have no c hance
even gilligan has a split fanbase - good at club but gives appearance of glory hunter at county level - wants handy ball and frees
who the hell decided he should have hit the penalty?
even if derry had a big lead fermanagh would have come back when they started running at derrry - derry teams are worse with s big lead

defence should have been built around mccusker at full back - (i also feel mcivor gets a hard time unfairly)
anyway the qualifiers will show how good or bad we really are
i think crozier must go now - he seems to be too uncertain

at club level we can all wait for the ballinderry backlash with some of their county men looking to live up totheir reputations
might be worth a few pounds for the ulster club

[glenullinabu]

Man for man Derry have the better players

no they dont - fermanagh spould have been in ai final few years ago ( and would have but for terrible decision near the end to give mayo a free)
these boys should win ulster, but i think theyll freeze if they play against armagh
they play great football and are a pleasure to watch when they get going (except in omagh yesterday)
belief is all they need

[haranguerer]

Bogball, hows them grapes? Cynicism is bodychecking players runs off the ball like Derry did all day yesterday.

Havent seen the match on TV yet, so yet to see what it was like properly, all I know was that it seemed like a great game at it - and thats not looking back with rose tinted specs.
Derry are fragile, and so it proved again yesterday. SM Lockhart was a big loss to Derry imo - championship football is made for players like him. Every team can only play as well as they're let, and Fermanagh stifled Derry to an unbelievable extent. They were the far better team - a 6 point victory wouldnt have flattered them. With such a big psychological hurdle to get over however, Fermanagh were always just going to scrape through.
With regards to an Ulster title, it (and more) are there for them. Everyones going to be harping on about Fermanagh being good yesterday but they weren't great. They gave derry a 6 point lead, then when they were completely dominant for the 1st 15 min in the 2nd half, they didnt score. At that point, I thought they had kicked themselves out of it. There is a lot more in this team, I just hope I see them fully firing some time. Defence is brilliant, and thats without the allstar fullback (roy of the rovers stuff that, wasn't it!): if Fermanagh score 15 points in any game, I'd expect it to be enough.
The final - its gonna be tough. Hard to know who you'd 'prefer' - The aristocrats, (isnt that a class thing for people to call you..) Down, when their tails are up are a serious proposition, while Armaghs method and similar incredible work rate to fermanagh would make for an exhausting game even to spectate at.
I'd imagine there will be serious hype, given fermanghs record, I just hope it doesnt get to them. But theres plenty in the tank, bring it on!