USFC Final Antrim v Tyrone Clones 19th July

[Orior]

Antrim have a better chance of winning the 2009 Anglo-Celt than Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Derry, Fermanagh or Monaghan.

Antrim will win the mdifield battle easily. Tyrone midfield still shite.

Antrim will continually draw fouls from the Tyrone backs by running at them. McMeniman and co dont like it up 'em. Paddy Cunningham will convert those frees.

Stephen O'Neill will cause the Antrim back line a problem, but they can snuff him out in the same way they did on Seanie, and McFadden.

Red card for Jordan.

Antrim 2-11 Tyrone 0-16

[imtommygunn]

No way will any McMahon be marking Paddy Cunningham.

I'd be nervous on the spare man too. Wexford got crucified for it last year against Tyrone.

McMahon and Gormley would end up marking Burke and McCann and Quinn on Cunningham. Then one of those two wing back boys spare.

I thought we would potentially have beat Cavan by more if we'd went man to man...

Unlikely a winning habit will be changed though and based on this far none of us can question anything beign done!

[ONeill]

The great thing for Antrim is that there will be zero pressure. Well, I suppose in the back of their minds is the pressure of not getting stuffed. But this Antrim side have a good few winners in their midst, be it Ulster Club medalists or Sigersons.

It's hard to know what Baker will do. Play conservatively or go for the knackers and just run at them. What impressed yesterday was the speed of handpassing out of defence and the ability of their forward line to win primary possession. McKeever fielded the ball as good as anyone in this year's championship. Aodhan Gallagher has become a footballer all of a sudden. The McCanns don't seem to do much wrong either and we're due a titanic Cunningham (or Cunnigham according to BBC) free-taking performance.

You just never know what will happen. I hope that with 15 mins left, Antrim have their tails up and are pinning Tyrone with the ole gay abandon. Bought the son an Antrim rig before the game yesterday.

[ardmhachaabu]

If Antrim play the way they did last night then I don't see any reason why they can't give Tyrone a run for their money.  No cute hoorism about it either, I mean it.  Antrim have nothing to lose, their midfield is immensely better than Tyrone's, distribution was good for them yesterday though shooting on the whole was poor from the number of wides they had.  With a bit of luck Antrim could take Tyrone.  They will definitely not be a pushover, they will be running at the Tyrone defences.  Looking forward to it now

[DennistheMenace]

To beat Tyrone I'd expect  Antrim will need to score a couple of goals.

As we saw in the Derry game they have dangerous players throughout their team so keeping 2/3 of their main men quiet isn't enough.

I'd personally go man for man at the start.

[Minder]

As well as Antrim have been going they would need to raise the scoring averages, 1-10 and 0-13 (after long spells of dominance) wouldn't be good enough against Tyrone

[ONeill]

Big McLean on O'Neill?

[Gold]

we are in dreamland!

[tyroneman]

their midfield is immensely better than Tyrone's,

and how do you work that one out??

Kevin Hughes.2003 AIF MoM
Enda McGinley 2008...all star MF

versus........................................................

[Orior]

McKeever is 6' 7" and he can jump. Antrim need to stop Tyrone playing the short kick-outs.

Even as an Armagh man, I'm more excited by this year's final than last years.

[nrico2006]

Agreed Tyroneman.  Tyrones midfield is frequently heralded as being poor, which is balls.

As for the final, the result is a foregone conclusion.  I can see it being close enough though, 5/6 points.  I believe Tyrone will be complacent, no matter whats said by Harte or others, and this coupled with Antrim just going for it could leave the game closer than expected.  On the otherhand I hope I am wrong and Tyrone treat Antrim like a Kerry or Derry and go for the jugular, and that Antrim freeze a la Fermanagh 2003.  Antrim have done well reaching the final but in reality they have beat a poor Donegal side and Cavan.

[tyroneStatto]

i think this could be a similar game to the 2007 ulster final against monaghan. tyrone will build up a 7 or 8 point lead early on. complacency will then set in and by the end we could be hanging on.

[imtommygunn]

One of the thing's about midfield when you're playing Tyrone though is you're not playing 2 v 2.

If Mckeever gets the ball I'd expect him to get swarmed.

Who knows how we should play them. Nothing to lose though so we should maybe just go for it.

[EC Unique]

Antrim will get stage fright Tyrone will be in cruise control and win by 8 or 10 points at least. The reality is Antrim have beat the worst Donegal side I have ever seen and Cavan were very poor as well. To be honest the standard of Ulster football is at its worst in my living memory. Tyrone are going to be Ulster Champions without getting out of 3rd gear This will do them no favours in their quest for 2 in a row.

[Fuzzman]

Its great to see Antrim in the Ulster Final and I'd say they have built up a head of steam now and a lot of self belief.

Realistically though I don't believe they are capable of coming anywhere close to this Tyrone team who like we've all said before have beaten the two main threats in Ulster this year in 2nd or 3rd gear. Tyrone are much too professional these days with the execution of their gameplan and we've already shown that our FF line can play poorly in 2 successive games and still win at a canter.

I know I sound over confident and anything can happen in a final but having watched Mayo hammer the Rossies, Kildare hammer Laois & the Dubs annihilate Westmeath who were not a bad team last year then I'd expect Tyrone do not be taking the foot of the gas for this one and to blow them away at least 1st half and then maybe make a few subsitutions second half.

Mickey will know that if you give any time hope they can harm you so he will want to be out of sight before half time.

Have we any further injuries after the weekend?
Are county men playing with their clubs again?