Ulster Championship 2021

[yellowcard]

Should be 2 finely balanced matches at the weekend.

I would have said at the start of this season that Donegal were on a par with Kerry based on last year but they would appear to have gone in different directions since then. Donegal have had some injuries to key players which may have impacted their form this year and winning a close battle with Derry on Sunday should serve them well. I still expect that they have the players to get over Tyrone on Sunday but it wouldn't surprise me it went the other way.

Similar with Armagh and Monaghan, I think this will be another cliff hanger. I'd expect McManus to be fit to play although the miles on the clock do look to be catching up on him and I think Armagh are the team on an upwards curve. If they can contain Monaghan in defence, I think Armagh have the greater all round quality up front to edge it.   

[bennydorano]

Any word of overall ticket numbers for the weekend games?

[Milltown Row2]

Again an awful pity that Derry team don't get another day out, some serious talent in that side and Donegal had to dig deep. Could be 6 genuine Ulster contenders next year depending on where Cavan go next. Tyrone and Donegal unlikely to be any more than a kick of the ball between them, but Murphy will get Donegal over the line if fit I reckon.

I know we definitely have it in us to beat Monaghan, the ability is there it's just the cuteness/ruthlessness to see games out as usual that could kill us. Definitely a game that could go either way and if we get over this, it's a free swipe at Donegal or Tyrone in the final.

Why is it a pity that they don't get another game? They won't win Sam so now the county can get their championships and leagues done  with the county players back.

I'm preferring the knock out stages tbh

[befair]

I hope Chris McKeague gets an All-Star some year. Outstanding for his club for years, and a great performance last Sunday (can't be blamed for the winning pt)

[Main Street]

Devastated doesn't even cover how I'm feeling. I've been following Derry since 1990 and the last 10-15 years there hasn't been a whole lot to get excited about. I was excited today screaming at the TV and for 70 minutes thought we had it.

To a man the hunger and desire was there and it's been a while since that was the case. Yes we should have won the game but playing Div 3/4 over the past few years showed at crucial times in the game.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game and I'm just glad that this group have brought pride and competition back to the County. If we can keep things in place for next year there's no reason we couldn't challenge for Ulster and with more talent coming through the future is looking bright and we should be targeting CP in the next 2-3 years.

Also fair play to the minors as well huge game next week best of luck to all involved!!

Sums it up perfectly.
The closer the game came the more convinced I was that we were going to win. I still can't quite get my head around the fact that we didn't.
Some point by McBrearty to snatch it.
But if we'd taken even one of our goal chances we'd probably be sitting lined up for a semi final.
I don't know how that penalty wasn't awarded to McGuigan....so frustrating. But I guess the difference between the two teams was the efficiency in front of the posts. I saw a stat on the screen mid way through the second half on RTE. Derry had scored 10/16 chances where Donegal had scored 12/13 chances.  That's the difference, a very fine margin.

But, overall the signs for Derry are really good. Our senior team is competitive again and are playing as a team. Gallagher has done a tremendous job.
The age profile is good, we have the minors in an AI final so hopefully we'll get a few more quality players filtering through. I think we need to improve the bench as our subs didn't seem to make the impact the Donegal subs did, but hopefully that will come too.
A year of Div2 football and a further year of building under Gallagher and hopefully we'll be real contenders in Ulster at least.

I've heard rumblings about the non selection of players from north Derry onto the team. Are there some good players deliberately being shunned?

[rrhf]

I understand all that surely, but cant you at least admit you lacked a wee bit of bravery needed at the end. In a strange way it reminded me of the national league final in 91/92 for Tyrone. 2 very even and coming teams and the losers had the opportunities to win it. a flukey goal or a goal chance missed - no difference.  A  breakthrough game for either team and on that 91/92 day the losing team went on to suffer disproportionately for a few years whereas the winning team were hailed as giants and in their supporters eyes team of the decade. a hype wave that propelled them to an all ireland win within 20 months. Watch Donegal go now...  Such is football. 

[yellowcard]

Apart from the gilt edged goal chance that rebounded off the crossbar and onto the line, Derry had at least 3 other half chances of goals in the second half where they took the easy option of taking the point. When there was an opportunity to twist the knife they didn't take it. A goal at that stage in the game probably would have won them the match. Donegal were just a bit more composed inside the scoring zone and were very efficient with their point taking from 30-40m out.

For Donegal I would be concerned with the amount of times their defence was breached to give up goal chances. The same thing happened against Down in the first match where they gave up about 4 good goal chances.

[J70]

Apart from the gilt edged goal chance that rebounded off the crossbar and onto the line, Derry had at least 3 other half chances of goals in the second half where they took the easy option of taking the point. When there was an opportunity to twist the knife they didn't take it. A goal at that stage in the game probably would have won them the match. Donegal were just a bit more composed inside the scoring zone and were very efficient with their point taking from 30-40m out.

For Donegal I would be concerned with the amount of times their defence was breached to give up goal chances. The same thing happened against Down in the first match where they gave up about 4 good goal chances.

Its been a concern since the start of last season.

So far teams, Monaghan in the league aside, either take the point or Donegal usually manage to get enough there in the end to make the shot a difficult one.

[tbrick18]

I understand all that surely, but cant you at least admit you lacked a wee bit of bravery needed at the end. In a strange way it reminded me of the national league final in 91/92 for Tyrone. 2 very even and coming teams and the losers had the opportunities to win it. a flukey goal or a goal chance missed - no difference.  A  breakthrough game for either team and on that 91/92 day the losing team went on to suffer disproportionately for a few years whereas the winning team were hailed as giants and in their supporters eyes team of the decade. a hype wave that propelled them to an all ireland win within 20 months. Watch Donegal go now...  Such is football.

It wasn't a bravery issue....we weren't able to get the ball worked into a scoring position. Look at where we had the ball. Donegal did a job in keeping us out. It would have been silly to shoot from a bad position when you know if the ball goes dead the game is over. Generally in that scenario the ref will play on until the attacking team gets a shot off but a poor ref performance was, in my opinion, capped off by not letting Derry have the opportunity of working the ball into the scoring position.
I don't think there's any comparison with a league final almost 30 years with this game and I certainly don't consider that league final being a breakthrough game for Derry. Yeah we got a goal at the end, but it was to win a competition that didn't really factor very highly on anyone's radar. Perhaps Tyrone had more ambitions for that than Derry did.
What was the breakthrough for Derry back then was winning the 89 minor championship, St. Pat's Maghera winning McCrory cups and Hogan cups, Lavey winning an All Ireland club and a highly competitive county championship. That's where the hype came from within Derry and where the expectations came from. Not from beating a team that hadn't won anything in a competition that wasn't rated all that highly.

Donegal may well push on now, but I doubt they would consider that match a breakthrough game for them. Tyrone will be a test for them, but I think Donegal will be too strong for them in the middle third. Tyrone are hard to judge as they are changing their style of play and under new management. Difficult game to call, but I'd slightly lean towards Donegal given the trouncing Tyrone got in Kerry.

From a Derry perspective, our minors have been knocking at the door for a few years, our school teams have been performing well, Glen had a minor team that won 2 (I think) ulster championships, Slaughtneil winning Ulster and prgressing to the latter stages of the AI championship and we have an experienced manager. These are all good signs that as a county we are moving in the right direction and whilst the result was disappointing, we've progressed a huge amount over the last 2 years.

[Estimator]

I wouldn't blame Coldrick for not allowing Derry time to get an equaliser. McBreartys winning point landed over the bar right on time ticking by the 74min. He blew the whistle about 75secs later, he allowed Derry to work the ball down the left, then switch the ball to the right, before trying to go again on the other side. He was never going to add infinite time to let Derry get a shot away.

[tbrick18]

I wouldn't blame Coldrick for not allowing Derry time to get an equaliser. McBreartys winning point landed over the bar right on time ticking by the 74min. He blew the whistle about 75secs later, he allowed Derry to work the ball down the left, then switch the ball to the right, before trying to go again on the other side. He was never going to add infinite time to let Derry get a shot away.

I'm not saying it should have been an infinite amount of time, but if he wasn't going to give Derry the chance to develop a scoring situation, why didn't he just blow it up after the kickout? 75seconds isn't long when you take the time needed for a kickout out of it.
Perhaps another 30-60 seconds is all it would have needed then there really would have been no excuse for not getting a shot off. If we couldn't have worked a scoring attempt in that time then fair enough. It is subjective I suppose but I felt over the course of the entire game he was unduly harsh on Derry in comparison to Donegal. I see the Irish News yesterday seemed to be of the same view.

[J70]

You could even see Coldrick motioning with his hands after he blew, almost laughing, basically saying, "how much time do you expect me to give yez, lads?".

Once it went back out to the middle to start over again, he was always going to blow.

On his overall performance, I didn't see him as being harsh on either team. He missed the penalty shout, but McMenamin pulled the shirt and put the arm around his neck for a split second each, so its not hard to see how Coldrick missed it in real time.

[JoG2]

You could even see Coldrick motioning with his hands after he blew, almost laughing, basically saying, "how much time do you expect me to give yez, lads?".

Once it went back out to the middle to start over again, he was always going to blow.

On his overall performance, I didn't see him as being harsh on either team. He missed the penalty shout, but McMenamin pulled the shirt and put the arm around his neck for a split second each, so its not hard to see how Coldrick missed it in real time.

I'd agree re the time given. We knew he'd eventually blow once the ball was being passed backwards, which is fair enough I suppose. I think Rogers was the only player who could maybe have let one fly.

Completely disagree re the penalty shout though. Coldrick was standing looking at it, the arm / hand around the neck was in full view of the ref... It was poor not to award a penalty imo.

[Milltown Row2]

You could even see Coldrick motioning with his hands after he blew, almost laughing, basically saying, "how much time do you expect me to give yez, lads?".

Once it went back out to the middle to start over again, he was always going to blow.

On his overall performance, I didn't see him as being harsh on either team. He missed the penalty shout, but McMenamin pulled the shirt and put the arm around his neck for a split second each, so its not hard to see how Coldrick missed it in real time.

I'd agree re the time given. We knew he'd eventually blow once the ball was being passed backwards, which is fair enough I suppose. I think Rogers was the only player who could maybe have let one fly.

Completely disagree re the penalty shout though. Coldrick was standing looking at it, the arm / hand around the neck was in full view of the ref... It was poor not to award a penalty imo.

Ref'd a game recently, point in it with injury time nearly up, free from out on the wing I said to the player that he'll need to either score or I'll allow one play from the break ball. Ball dropped short and they proceeded to try and engineer a score, eventually I blew and the abuse was desperate..

I was the reason why Antrim football is so bad, was the pick!
You can't blow when the team is attacking! That's a new one

When times up, it's up !

[ONeill]

How aware do you think the players were of the time remaining?