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This game is really in the balance. Derry had a great league run but were giving a bit of a hiding in the league final, similarly donegal gained promotion but were very poor in the final against Monaghan

If Gallagher isn't fit I would like to see mcelhinney and toye line out at midfield with a half forward line of MacNiallais, Ryan mchugh and David walsh. Derry would love for murphy to be named at midfield he has to start at FF. it's crucial that the ball going into the forwards is off better quality than what was happening in the final. Also we can't stand off them and let them have shots at goal from 30-40 meters out as they have the players that are capable of scoring from there and will also punish donegal if they give away silly frees

I like that Derry are going in as favourites and few people are writing donegal off, that takes away a bit of pressure from them. It's a bit like 2011 no one knows what to expect from donegal. I think we will just have enough to get the win

Anyone looking for tickets they are back available online. Word is Derry clubs only took around half there allocation and were on general sale up in owenbeg. Donegal will outnumber them 2/3:1 which is poor turnout giving the run they had in the league

Heard from a sec tonight some clubs could only get half of their ticket order.  Would say they'll be a right few heads at it

Is that Derry or donegal clubs. Would find it strange that clubs in Derry didn't cover their ticket orders when Derry gaa have had tickets on general sale at there office in owenbeg this past 2 weeks( know that for a fact as a friend from Derry told me to go their if we were stuck for tickets and its on Derry gaa website) if clubs were struggling to cover orders then they should be asking questions of their county board. My own club in donegal actually had to get tickets from tickets.ie to cover there order (know this because my 4 tickets were part of that batch)

So the back door is now split in 2 teams from the A side will not be able meet teams from the B side and vice versa. It already looks likely there will be some cracking games in the back door this year especially on the B side of it.

This game is really in the balance. Derry had a great league run but were giving a bit of a hiding in the league final, similarly donegal gained promotion but were very poor in the final against Monaghan

If Gallagher isn't fit I would like to see mcelhinney and toye line out at midfield with a half forward line of MacNiallais, Ryan mchugh and David walsh. Derry would love for murphy to be named at midfield he has to start at FF. it's crucial that the ball going into the forwards is off better quality than what was happening in the final. Also we can't stand off them and let them have shots at goal from 30-40 meters out as they have the players that are capable of scoring from there and will also punish donegal if they give away silly frees

I like that Derry are going in as favourites and few people are writing donegal off, that takes away a bit of pressure from them. It's a bit like 2011 no one knows what to expect from donegal. I think we will just have enough to get the win

Anyone looking for tickets they are back available online. Word is Derry clubs only took around half there allocation and were on general sale up in owenbeg. Donegal will outnumber them 2/3:1 which is poor turnout giving the run they had in the league

I heard it was injury related. But I wouldn't criticise until we know the real reason.

The statement released says its due to injury and not enjoying how he's playing. Then goes on to talk about possibility of him heading to America this summer to play football. I'd put my house of their being other issues surrounding this and anyone who's from donegal and has any interest in this team knows he has a reputation for liking to party. I've seen this 1st hand and it's not something a player should be doing while in middle of the county season IMO

Moaner just like his da

Heard he rates himself very highly, needs to pull his finger out as has been well off the boil

The McHughs can play but against Monaghan and stronger more robust teams they are a liability, they cant break the tackle, lose the ball in the tackle

He rates himself extremely highly. I'd put money on that he's gone due to discipline issues (drinking) his brother twice the player anyway so will slot into the half forward line in his place

Seems to be big interest in the 1st round between donegal and Derry. All tickets that went on sale online are sold out already and the supervalue stores in donegal have sold their allocation. Will be an interesting game which could all cone down to the amount of primary ball each full forward line can get.

Is setup to be an interesting ulster championship with at least 5 teams really fancying their chances at winning it

Donegal will feel they let that 1 get away. Where 2 points up with 2 mins to go and end up being beat by 4. Gave away the goal straight after going 2 up which was a real sucker blow. Seems from reports Cavan were very defensive but none the less fair play to them winning 4 in a row in any grade in ulster is no easy thing to do

Armagh v Donegal switched to Breffni with 8.30 throw in.

Was going to travel to omagh for the game tonight but Cavan to far away on a week night anyone know if any radio station is covering the game highland radio only has updates from it

[retaining]

League form doesn't have much of a bearing when it comes to the summer and the championship.

Dunno about that, most teams that do well in league do well in the championship. Outside of Donegal you wouldn't really say there is an All Ireland winning team in division 2 yet you're (kinda) struggling to break free of it. If I was a Donegal fan with hopes of retaining the All Ireland I'd be a bit concerned about their league form.

Dublin are the current All Ireland Champions!!

That's right Dublin are AI champions and also league champions. Donegal won AI in 2012 and admittedly finished 6th in Div 1, but Mayo were NFL & AI finalists. In 2011 Dublin were NFL finalists and AI champions. In 2010 cork won AI & NFL.

So much for the league counting for nothing.

I still stand by the fact the league doesn't have a big bearing on championship, teams always improve come the summer. Donegal in div 2 of league in 2011 came within a kick of the ball to reaching a AI final. Monaghan playing division 3 football last year won ulster. 
My main point was based on Derry though, this isn't the first time they have had a great run in div 1 of the league only to under achieve come the summer. I know which I would prefer anyway

Poor performance by Donegal by the sounds of it. 12 wides ... 6 more dropped into the keepers hands ... McFadden missing several easy free kicks. We seemed to get turned over very easily in the tackle - is this an area we've seen problems with in several games. If Derry set up defensively like Down (and Meath) did, we could have a lot of problems - I'm not sure that they'll take that approach though.
I think Leo is struggling at CHB. Will Paddy McGrath be back and be fit enough come championship, allowing Lacey to come out of the corner? If not then Leo or Frank seem to be our only options.
We are not impressing in a (relatively) weak division while Derry are flying in a very strong one ....   

Don't need to start panicing just yet Stephen. To say we aren't impressing is a bit ott as well did you see our 1st 3 games especially the Monaghan game and this is probably 1 the stronger div 2 in the last few years.

League form doesn't have much of a bearing when it comes to the summer and the championship. We struggled all league last year while Tyrone were flying and w turned them over in the 1st round. I will admit Derry have surprised me a bit this year but its not the 1st time a Derry team have been flying win the league only to be a disappointment cone championship. Today did seem to be an off day for the team but similar to last week they created enough chances to win the game which isn't to bad since you feel we struggle against a defensive gameplan.

Paddy McGrath will be back for championship don't worry bout that 

I'd agreed with all that Mourne Rover. One other concern I had was that Donegal's physical strenght apperared much greater than ours.

We still had handling errors and some loose passing. Also some final passes went astray, which had they of come off we'd have won by a few more.

Think Donegal have Galway and Louth left, Monaghan have Galway and Laois? We have Meath and Laois.

From that you'd have to believe Donegal will win both and Monaghan too probably. So all to play for and Down have it all to do to get back to D1.

Well done to James & Co today.

We have Louth and Armagh left. Have said all along that I had hoped we wouldn't have to go to Armagh needing a win to get promoted.

O'Rourke was penalised for delaying a sideline kick, surely the free kick had to be close to the sideline?

Meath should demand a replay, sue the GAA if they get relegated on the basis of that result.

You are right in part. Orourke was penalised for delaying the sideline for which Padraig Hughes threw the ball up on the 20 meter line where a foul was committed and the resulting free was granted.

McGlynn got a bit of a flukey goal as well though in fairness (so I was told anyway).

You mean when he delicately floated the ball over the keeper from a tight angle with his left foot?  Nothing flukey about that!
That left foot has now scored 1-01 for Donegal - the point against Cork in 2012 being a bit more important in fairness.

Was it with his left or right he scored the goal in the ulster final. Here is a link to see the free murphy scored yesterday to secure the draw
http://www.joe.ie/gaa/gaa-news/video-michael-murphy-kicked-an-almost-impossible-point-to-salvage-a-draw-for-donegal-yesterday/

McGlynn got a bit of a flukey goal as well though in fairness (so I was told anyway).

Yeah only frank be able to tell us if he meant it or not  a draw was a fair result but would say we were the applied of the 2 sides at the end, was a stupid free yous gave away right at the end which murphy scored from although it was far from easy to score from

Your midfield were totally on top on the 1st half jinky. We were trying out different tactics at kick outs and none were working. When Neil Gallagher came on we got a bit of a upper hand. All in all your midfield performed well but might of been different if Gallagher was on from the start

Not sure if yous had any forwards playing in defence hardy but yous played a defensive ganeplan yesterday getting loads of bodies behind the ball. When we ran directly at yous and moved the ball quickly yous struggled a bit but we didn't do this enough imo

All in all it was good enough game considering was played on a very heavy pitch, we had more than enough chances to win it (hit woodwork twice in 2nd half) we left happy with the point considering the kick it took to get the draw