Cadbury's All-Ireland Under 21 FC 2009

[DownFanatic]

Are 7,9 and/or 12 on the Down senior panel? Some exciting players on that Down team and a few of them should be starting v Fermanagh. Pete McGrath the next Down senior manager.

7 - Timmy Hanna is not on the Down panel but 9 - Pete Fitzpatrick and 12 - Jamie O'Reilly are.

Colm Murney, Michael Magee, Conor Maginn and Paul McComiskey are also on the Senior panel.

[muppet]

Congrats to Down and Cork, 2 entertaining games to watch, thanks tg4.ie.

Agreed, fair play to TG4 for bringing us games that RTE for whatever reason, never bothered with.

[WhoAreYaWhoAreYa!]

It will take a bloody good team to beat Mayo.

You were right! Down are a bloody good team!

[WhoAreYaWhoAreYa!]

Brilliant win for Down. great forward line was the difference. Down took there chances, Mayo didnt, typical Mayo. How Pete Fitzpatrick didnt get man of match is beyond me. he was absoultly phenomenal against Tom Parsons who was an ireland compromise rules player last year. This man has to be Dan Gordons partner on May 17th against Fermanagh. Bring on Cork.

i definately agree!

[Class of 99]

Great result for Down! Ref was a disgrace. Fitzpatrick will surely be knocking on the door for the Championship and surely wee Pauls days on the bench are over, or are they?

[under the bar]

Well done Down, hard luck Mayo, more hard luck Armagh etc.

[Canalman]

Totally disgusted....Dublin kicked that semi final away.....same old same old....... Still feel that our future full back will be O'Carroll who was outstanding today imo. THe sooner he gets into the senior team the better.

Anyway congrats to both Down and Cork.

[bridgegael]

well done to down,  after wed night it was a big ask of the lads to do it all over again 3 days later.  down played some stuff today,  big mention to the down midfield who won their battle when all the talk was they would get cleaned out.  other mentions to joe murphy,  conor poland and paul mc.  roll on mayday!!

[Tyrone Dreamer]

The only thing that worries me about number 9 for Down was he went out of it for much of the 2nd half. Would stamina be an issue? Thought he was unreal in the 1st half, some great catches up against a strong Mayo midfield. Will be interesting to see Down in Ulster this year. There side of the draw is wide open.

[IolarCoisCuain]

Well done to Down on a cracking performance three days after the Ulster final. They have some really classy players and a wise old fox on the sideline. Best of luck to them.

As for Mayo - well, the drawing board is no stranger to us, is it? 

[Dubh driocht]

Two good games, go raibh maith agaibh TG4.
Totally biased, but thought Down were the class act on show. Gaelic Football the way it should be played.A re-run of the 1979 final against Cork - wee Pete to complete the treble. The prospect of P Fitz and Dan picking out Benny and Mc Comiskey is the business !

[INDIANA]

Totally disgusted....Dublin kicked that semi final away.....same old same old....... Still feel that our future full back will be O'Carroll who was outstanding today imo. THe sooner he gets into the senior team the better.

Anyway congrats to both Down and Cork.

To a point canalman- did you not feel that game was a microcosm of dublin football for the last decade. All huff and puff. Thought the lads worked fantastically well but lacked a little bit. I thought our backs were ropey in general and we missed too much. Cork had the little bit extra.

Thought Down were fantastic- where the f*** do all the players go up there. Mayo a bit like dublin- lacked a little bit. Definitely the two sides in the final for me anyway.

[Rossfan]

First game had an exciting ending but the football wasnt near as good as in the second.
In both ganes the winners were the team that had the forwards who could kick the ball over the bar from anywhere.
Down played some excellent football which was a joy to watch.
How would we have done against them I wonder 

Good to see ye Down and Mayo crowds get a dose of Longford Reffing...we've been on the receiving end of them for years
(However they're not the worst ... dont get me started on the Laythrum whistlers ....)
As for the Final - if Down get the same amount of posession as Dublin did it will be over after 20 minutes but then again every game is a different story.

[RedandGreenSniper]

Just in the door from Longford. Very disappointed, I thought there was an All-Ireland in this Mayo team but we can have no complaints, Down were much the better team and two goals against the run of play kept us in the game when it looked like we'd be blown away.

I don't see how some Down posters reckon the referee screwed them - he made a number of brutal decisions against both teams. The sending off was the right call, the first yellow was for Fitzpatrick hauling down O'Shea in the first half and the second one was a cynical attempt to stop Donal Vaughan getting in on goal.

Down won because, like most people said, they had forwards who could do damage, particularly McCommiskey and Jamie O'Reilly. But two things I'd like to add - Kevin McLoughlin should have been put on McCommiskey because Kevin Keane was struggling. Mayo management have to hold their hands up there. And while the Down attack was strong, Down won the game because of the strong performance around midfield and on the breaking ball. Peter Fitzpatrick was the best player on the pitch, I don't know how he didn't get man of the match. He gave Tom Parsons the runaround in the first half like I've never seen before with Parsons. Tom came into more in the second half and people might reckon Fitzpatrick was fading but the reality was there was no way he could dominate for the entire half but he more than did damage.

Also there was talk of the Down full-back line being weak. They weren't. None of the Mayo full-forward line were able to do much, partly because of their own limitations (Douglas being the exception - he was class imo) but also because of some tenacious defending by the Down full-back line.

Oh, and one more thing, even though the result was the right one, if Mayo had a decent free-taker we could have got more from the game. Jason Doherty kicked two badly short and Kevin McLoughlin kicked two wide from kickable positions (O'Shea should have been taking them surely?). But had those scores went over they would be scores that would have enabled Mayo to STEAL the game. Down are very, very good and, without having seen Cork, its gonna be hard to see past Down.

[Trevor Hill]

That was a cracking game of football, though the referee made some very dubious decisions in the second half in favour of Mayo, it seemed that he was doing everything but taking the kicks for them. At one stage Down simply couldn't get a break from the referee. I cannot really comment on the sending off as I didn't get a clear view of it, but everyone around us thought it was a harsh decision.
My man of the match today was Peter Fitzpatrick, who seemed to catch everything that came his way in the first half and scored an excellent point. In saying that it was a hell of a team performance, from the corner back to the corner forward everyone seemed to play well. Jamie O`Reilly scored 3 excellent points and Conor Maginn added another fine point. McComiskey showed well for the ball all day and caused the Mayo defence no end of problems. The entire Down forward line seemed willing and able to shoot from anywhere, something the senior panel could well learn from.
Congratulations to everyone concerned on a truly magnificent game of football, commiserations to a good Mayo side. I sincerely hope that Down go on to win it, it would be great, not only for the future of Down football, but for Peter McGrath, who would complete the collection with wins already at minor and senior level.
Down now meet Cork in the All Ireland Final on Star Wars day, May the fourth be with them