Messages

[The 2020 All-Ireland team is making its mark on this team with Murray, McEvoy established players, Higgins giving us much needed size and presence, Downey giving us some glimpses, and Patrick McGurk another great option once his injury clears.]

After the Meath game, there was a lot of negativity and by all accounts, Meenagh gave it to them in the week that followed. And since then, the performances have been getting better game by game. So huge credit to him and the team he has assembled.

Secondly we are starting to see the fruit of hard work by clubs and county. The 2020 All-Ireland team is making its mark on this team with Murray, McEvoy established players, Higgins giving us much needed size and presence, Downey giving us some glimpses, and Patrick McGurk another great option once his injury clears.
 
Soon have the 2023 minor team ready to push for places/provide options, Conall Higgins, Tommy Rodgers, and Eamonn Young and James Sargent (but I dont see him used this year after an ACL operation last June/July.) These lads won't see much or any time this year, but being in this high-performance environment will be massive for their development.

Add to that the form of our big players, Glass, Rodgers, CD, Paudi, McKinless, McQuigan, Ethan and Paul Cassidy. And 2 quality keepers, with Shea McGuckin putting in great performances each time he is in.

It's a great time again to be a Derry fan, and yes, I know it is only March.

Just looking at that team, I think 10 of the starting team in the AI Final v Kerry have made senior appearances: Patrick McGurk, Donncha Gilmore, Eoin McEvoy, Dan Higgins, Jody McDermott, Matthew Downey, Mark Doherty, Niall O'Donnell, Lachlan Murray and Charlie Diamond.
Decent return, but obviously some have been more successful than others.

I see the Louth game is sold out already

Yeah, none available. Does anyone know what the capacity of Ardee is?

2,800 hardly fit for a county game. I presume it's all intentional by Louth. Won't be many Derry fans at it.

Can't blame them really although I just got the green light to head down and now I can't get a fecking ticket!!

Thank Christ I purchased mine last week.

Mr Organised 👏

Tbh, it never even entered my head to get a ticket early

By all accounts Louth new stadium is looking well 

Was buying the Cork game tickets at the start of last week and spotted the 'Low Availability' note on the Louth tickets so bought them too.

I see the Louth game is sold out already

Yeah, none available. Does anyone know what the capacity of Ardee is?

2,800 hardly fit for a county game. I presume it's all intentional by Louth. Won't be many Derry fans at it.

Can't blame them really although I just got the green light to head down and now I can't get a fecking ticket!!

Thank Christ I purchased mine last week.

Screen man kicking fellow screen man when he's down 😜

If you knew him you'd know you couldn't kick him hard enough 

I see the Louth game is sold out already

Yeah, none available. Does anyone know what the capacity of Ardee is?

2,800 hardly fit for a county game. I presume it's all intentional by Louth. Won't be many Derry fans at it.

Can't blame them really although I just got the green light to head down and now I can't get a fecking ticket!!

Thank Christ I purchased mine last week.

[Dan Higgins and Eoin Mc Evoy done a fairly heavy running session before it started]

Funny I thought our kick outs were a small issue, I expected Ryans to be stronger that Shea but maybe hampered slightly by lack of physically big men around the middle.

Mid 2nd half we had Glass, Mc Kinless, Rogers, Clucky, CD all on the sideline so that would make it hard for any keeper. Its great they all could get rest at this stage in the league.

Dan Higgins and Eoin Mc Evoy done a fairly heavy running session before it started so I assume they aren't far away. Sunday shaping up to be a cracker, big chance to put Meath game totally to bed and show they're the best team in the Div 2. Which they are.

Who else was in that group? I'd Glass, Higgins and McEvoy then I wasn't too sure on the other 2,thought it was E Young and maybe McDermott or Sargent.

Any mention of McCluskey?

Meenagh talked about someone with a facial injury but McGuckin took a bad hit so it's maybe him. I think the bench depth will be tried a bit more this weekend.

Any Lavey men know if James Sargent will return this year? I noticed him among other U20s on the bench

Gaelic Life had an article last week saying that Sargent is 7 months into his his expected 9 month recovery and reckon he'll not play for the u20s this season.

Has he not got another couple of years at U20's?

AFAIK this is his 2nd year and he has one more left after this in 2027.

This thread feels really nostalgic.. it's a tangible throwback to the days of Tony Fearon.

[facial injury but McGuckin took a bad hit]

Any mention of McCluskey?

Meenagh talked about someone with a facial injury but McGuckin took a bad hit so it's maybe him. I think the bench depth will be tried a bit more this weekend.

Any Lavey men know if James Sargent will return this year? I noticed him among other U20s on the bench

The facial injury is the one sustained by McGuckin, could be out for a few weeks.

Could be the first ever meeting of London v Tyrone in the Tailteann later this season.

That would make iit an interesting year for the GAA statistician community in Tyrone.

Pretty sure Cavan haven't beaten Tyrone in the league since 1997. Was at that game in O'Neill Park, Cavan got a late winner and went on to win the Ulster Championship. If Cavan somehow manage a win this time around then Tyrone v London could not be subsequently ruled out.

Is that like the Meath/Cavan Breffni Park stat?? Meath hadn't beaten Cavan in Breffni since 1965.. in reality they only played in Breffni four times since '65 and one of them was a draw.

Haven't beat them much in any competition in recent years have they?

Won a McKenna Cup game vs them in 2017 I think? But yeah no League or Championship since 1997 (few draws though).

According to Google (might not be accurate) it's 18 games.
Won 0
Draw 3
Lost 15

Could be the first ever meeting of London v Tyrone in the Tailteann later this season.

That would make iit an interesting year for the GAA statistician community in Tyrone.

Pretty sure Cavan haven't beaten Tyrone in the league since 1997. Was at that game in O'Neill Park, Cavan got a late winner and went on to win the Ulster Championship. If Cavan somehow manage a win this time around then Tyrone v London could not be subsequently ruled out.

Is that like the Meath/Cavan Breffni Park stat?? Meath hadn't beaten Cavan in Breffni since 1965.. in reality they only played in Breffni four times since '65 and one of them was a draw.

Had a look at the 3 competitive games played to date and the starting front 6 named for tonight's game.
Cassidy (3 games) 2-7 all from play.
Shane McGuigan (1 game) with 0-7 (0-4 from play)
Niall Loughlin (3 games) 0-4 (0-2 from play)
McAteer (1 sub, 2 starts) 0-3 from play
E Doc (3 games) 0-3 from play
N Toner (3 games)  0-1 from play

Murray (2 games) on 0-6 from play is a huge loss to the team.
S Kearney on 0-4 from two sub appearance on the bench.

We've 5 defenders and a couple of lads who've seen v limited minutes contribute the same or more to the scoreboard than some of the starting forwards.

In all the games last week only Fermanagh scored less than Derry. Something different has to happen up front this week.

None of these subs made sense:
Shea Downey for Toner (54), Patrick McGurk for Loughlin (61), Sean Kearney for Baker (65), Sean Young for Cassidy (70).

Two defenders on for two forwards
One forward on for one defender
One that was on the field for seconds.

Rte Div 2 Predicted Table:

1. Tyrone
2. Meath
3. Cork
4. Derry
5. Louth
6. Kildare
7. Offaly
8. Cavan

They wasting there U20s playing senior their  instead holding them for the U20 Championship.

That ain't an issue any more...
McElholm was a prime example of this last year. As long as there is no breach of the 60hr time frame between matches.. players can move between squads (senior and U20) week on week.

N O'Donnell was doing running drills with McGuigan, Rogers and a couple of others. Didn't look like he was an option to come on as he was working with the lads not on the game panel.

I definitely would have a few more subs thrown on. Especially as there was no limit to them. Rogers, Bradley, the two Youngs should have seen game time.

After the goal we hit two 2pter efforts wide, JD dropped the ball after a midfield flick on from Glass with the keeper still in midfield and Murray spilled the ball in a decent position. It was that spell that put the gap between the sides.