NFL Division 3 2014

[magpie seanie]

Same old story from us, hit a couple of purple patches then fell asleep. Some of the starters are just not good enough for this grade in my opinion.
Another brilliant performance from marren and Kelly but too many players did not perform.

Word to pat Flanagan - pull off the next player that loses the ball in the tackle, enough is enough.

We need to beat Longford to stay up, very frustrating from a supporter point of view.  Fair play to Wexford, they did enough to win.  Good to see Colm McGee back

Glad that Keelan Cawley was back and seemed to play very well. Some others that usually feature well on the radio commentary seemed very quiet today 

Longford game huge for us now but to be honest we always suspected this. We should be at our strongest so far in the league - should have Egan, Bree and maybe even McIntyre so they'll be a big help. A win there and I don't think we can go down. Wexford were always going to be tough on their own patch today in a must win game for them. Sounded like lots of silly (repeated) errors but when we do hit a purple patch we can put 4 or 5 scores on very quickly, which is encouraging.

I think there's lots of room for improvement but I also do see signs of improvement.

Congrats to Cavan and Roscommon.

[SLIGONIAN]

Same old story from us, hit a couple of purple patches then fell asleep. Some of the starters are just not good enough for this grade in my opinion.
Another brilliant performance from marren and Kelly but too many players did not perform.

Word to pat Flanagan - pull off the next player that loses the ball in the tackle, enough is enough.

We need to beat Longford to stay up, very frustrating from a supporter point of view.  Fair play to Wexford, they did enough to win.  Good to see Colm McGee back

Glad that Keelan Cawley was back and seemed to play very well. Some others that usually feature well on the radio commentary seemed very quiet today 

Longford game huge for us now but to be honest we always suspected this. We should be at our strongest so far in the league - should have Egan, Bree and maybe even McIntyre so they'll be a big help. A win there and I don't think we can go down. Wexford were always going to be tough on their own patch today in a must win game for them. Sounded like lots of silly (repeated) errors but when we do hit a purple patch we can put 4 or 5 scores on very quickly, which is encouraging.

I think there's lots of room for improvement but I also do see signs of improvement.

Congrats to Cavan and Roscommon.

the reports I got from people at the game were pretty disgusted with today's effort. Very critical and naming several players just not good enough but being picked again and again. Patience is wearing thin by the sounds of it. Cawley curran Kelly Brehony got good mentions marren late on did well. As Seanie says bree Egan and McIntyre should boost and hopefully have Charlie back soon, hopefully they'll put Martyn in full back soon too. A far bit of pressure on us now, we have to beat Longford, Roscommon look strong. Congrats to Cavan and Roscommon, well deserved.

[Shamrock Shore]

That game v Cavan today was the most depressing 70 mins football I've seen in a while.

Standard was dire. Cavan should have won by a mile but they ultimately won cos they were the least worse of the two teams.

Only player that we had to earn his outfield spurs was Micky Quinn. The rest were clueless and uninspiring. (our goalie had a few good saves).

I had the misfortune to be with my 10 yr old daughter  in front of a Cavan ignoramus who effed, blinded, cnuted this, cnuted that the whole 70 mins.

Myles, you've disssed Pearse Park before iirc. Can you expand on what you see are the ground's faults? I've been traipsing in and out of there, and played there numerous times, since 1973 and I have no major issues with it.

[gwan-ye-boy-ya]

Terrible game in Longford in a terrible ground with a terrible referee. We should have been way ahead and missed a very scorable 1-4 in the first half and Longford had the ref to thank for giving them a lot of soft frees to keep them in touch and they ended up going in 1 point up at half time. Martin Dunne left his shooting boots behind today. At the 2nd of the 2nd half Cavan went down to 14 men when Mooney got a harsh 2nd yellow and then the ref started giving cavan a few soft frees before evening the teams with a straight red for a Longford player for a late tackle on Martin Reilly. Cavan hit their purple patch in the 3rd quarter, a quick free by mackey found Tierney who blasted a shot off the bar with an open goal gaping. The rebound  was touched on the line by the longford player and a penalty awarded which Dunne buried. Longford got a few more frees but never really threatened again.

Cavan again looked poor in attack. Made lots of chances and in total hit 13 wides, missed 2 excellent goal chances and dropped 6 shots short. Longford were more economical but created no goal chances and only had a few wides. However, we got the 2 points while playing poorly and that is a good sign. Thankfully we can get another run in Croke park and look forward to Div 2 football next year. Can't see us beating Roscommon without getting some of our players back for 2 weeks time.

aye sure yous will beat the rosies alrite. Yon uns are the meath of connaught.

[mylestheslasher]

That game v Cavan today was the most depressing 70 mins football I've seen in a while.

Standard was dire. Cavan should have won by a mile but they ultimately won cos they were the least worse of the two teams.

Only player that we had to earn his outfield spurs was Micky Quinn. The rest were clueless and uninspiring. (our goalie had a few good saves).

I had the misfortune to be with my 10 yr old daughter  in front of a Cavan ignoramus who effed, blinded, cnuted this, cnuted that the whole 70 mins.

Myles, you've disssed Pearse Park before iirc. Can you expand on what you see are the ground's faults? I've been traipsing in and out of there, and played there numerous times, since 1973 and I have no major issues with it.

Sorry took me so long to reply, I was trying to figure out what iirc meant!

Well there are a few things with Pearse Park. The biggest problem is the terrace opposite the stand. Was it the O Reilly builder from Fawlty Towers who built it? You can't see the a few meters inside the side line when you stand on it in any sort of a crowd. I found that out the last time I was there against Roscommon in the U21 AI semi final two years ago and it was really annoying. I went to the seated area yesterday to find my view obscured by metal poles holding up the roof. The pitch was also in poor nick with a ping-pong style bounce of it which both teams found difficult to deal with. The fence along the side of the pitch was obviously built before levels were invented. As for the mess they made of trying to play  the national anthem at the start, well enough said really.

[Rossfan]

Delighted we are finally out of div 3 & we did it in style with two games to spare.
Well done to Cavan also like ourselves 5 wins from 5 the last two games matter little now however i'm looking forward to the Croke park final on April 26th.

Also delighted and we are certainly getting out of the badlands in some style.  A point difference of +43 (110/67) tells us that at last we've raised ourselves from the morass.
Jayses but weren't the Biffs absolutely awful. AZ what's goin on at all at all?
We helped them as much as we could by our comedy opera gifting them 2 goals.
A lot done but we've got a lot to do in the goalie and back division before we can hope to compete with the Rhus in June if we get over Laythrum.

[ross4life]

Also delighted and we are certainly getting out of the badlands in some style.  A point difference of +43 (110/67) tells us that at last we've raised ourselves from the morass.
Jayses but weren't the Biffs absolutely awful. AZ what's goin on at all at all?
We helped them as much as we could by our comedy opera gifting them 2 goals.
A lot done but we've got a lot to do in the goalie and back division before we can hope to compete with the Rhus in June if we get over Laythrum.

Credit to Evans & co for changing our style of play after those shocking displays against Leitrim,Longford. Mayo are far from water tight at the back this year either but at least they are playing against better quality than us & they should improve once some Cunniffe, Barrett return. Should we stick with the starting 6 defenders & hope they cut out the silly errors & defend better collectively or introduce more experience e.g Donal Ward,Ian Kilbride?

The last two league games will be used for fringe players, Cavan in Croke park will set up defensively against us & it should be a good test for our free scoring forward line before the championship.

[Rossfan]

Should we stick with the starting 6 defenders & hope they cut out the silly errors & defend better collectively or introduce more experience e.g Donal Ward,Ian Kilbride?

Ward like Darragh Donnelly and Paddy Brogan seems to be injury prone. Kilbride too slow for the Summer.
I'd like to see Stack and Donnelly get seriously tried out but  the latter is injured these days.
It looks like goalie and FB line aren't on the same wavelengths either.

[Qwerty28]

That game v Cavan today was the most depressing 70 mins football I've seen in a while.

Standard was dire. Cavan should have won by a mile but they ultimately won cos they were the least worse of the two teams.

Only player that we had to earn his outfield spurs was Micky Quinn. The rest were clueless and uninspiring. (our goalie had a few good saves).

I had the misfortune to be with my 10 yr old daughter  in front of a Cavan ignoramus who effed, blinded, cnuted this, cnuted that the whole 70 mins.

Myles, you've disssed Pearse Park before iirc. Can you expand on what you see are the ground's faults? I've been traipsing in and out of there, and played there numerous times, since 1973 and I have no major issues with it.

Sorry took me so long to reply, I was trying to figure out what iirc meant!

Well there are a few things with Pearse Park. The biggest problem is the terrace opposite the stand. Was it the O Reilly builder from Fawlty Towers who built it? You can't see the a few meters inside the side line when you stand on it in any sort of a crowd. I found that out the last time I was there against Roscommon in the U21 AI semi final two years ago and it was really annoying. I went to the seated area yesterday to find my view obscured by metal poles holding up the roof. The pitch was also in poor nick with a ping-pong style bounce of it which both teams found difficult to deal with. The fence along the side of the pitch was obviously built before levels were invented. As for the mess they made of trying to play  the national anthem at the start, well enough said really.

Shocking game altogether, couldn't be bothered trying to type all of the faults from a Longford viewpoint or I'd be here all night! Might be  lucky enough to stay up if we get some of the U-21s involved for last 2 games (unfortunately don't see us beating Dublin again Wed)

Re Pearse Park, they seem to be repairing/replacing some relevantly new terracing for some reason, as one wag pointed out yesterday it definately not an archaeological dig thats taking place. I agree it could do with being sloped better as the sideline on that side is impossible to see

[Syferus]

Should we stick with the starting 6 defenders & hope they cut out the silly errors & defend better collectively or introduce more experience e.g Donal Ward,Ian Kilbride?

Ward like Darragh Donnelly and Paddy Brogan seems to be injury prone. Kilbride too slow for the Summer.
I'd like to see Stack and Donnelly get seriously tried out but  the latter is injured these days.
It looks like goalie and FB line aren't on the same wavelengths either.

Big props to the forwards. The shaggy bear from Brigids is in flying form, unselfish and incredible vision at times. The Murt-Senan goal was poetry between two team-mates with complete trust in each other. Will be interesting how our free-flowing attack matches up with Cavan's quality defence in Croker.

[Shamrock Shore]

The terracing in Pearse Park on the near side is being reinforced as the original was beginning to shift.

I cannot empathise with you Myles as the last time I was in Pearse Park with a massive crowd was 1977 when the Dubs played Cavan. I never had trouble seeing the game when I stood on the near side terrace but I am over 6ft and perhaps there were shag all in front of me so maybe you have a valid point.

The stand was redeveloped a few years ago. There's only about 5 poles the entire length so you must have been unfortunate!

I agree with the pitch condition. I thought it looked very poor. And I was surprised cos they keep it under wraps from the county final to the beginning of the League. Perhaps the county hurlers made a dogs' dinner of it.

As for the balls up of The National Anthem......the only thing worse would have been if they put in an emergency call to the Longford Pipe Band to come and rescue the day!

[ck]

Cavan and Rossies head and shoulders top two in div 3 but let's face it they haven't exactly beaten much. The rest of the teams in div 3 are no better than those in div 4

[This Years Model]

I hate to say it, but it's very much looking to me like a shoot-out between Wexford and Longford on the last day, with the loser going down ...

Allianz Football League Roinn 3 2014 Round 6
Cavan  v  Roscommon
Fermanagh  v  Wexford
Offaly  v  Limerick
Sligo  v  Longford

Allianz Football League Roinn 3 2014 Round 7
Roscommon  v  Sligo
Limerick  v  Cavan
Fermanagh  v  Offaly
Wexford  v  Longford

[Rossfan]

Action resumes in this mighty Division as we and Cyaavn play out the remaining schedule of meaningless glorified challenge matches.
I suppose two shadow teams here on Saturday?
Ros probably -
O'Reilly
Stack Collins Ward
Kilbride Donnelly Brogan
Finneran C Shine
Keane Burns Keenan
Compton O'Gara and

[Syferus]

Action resumes in this mighty Division as we and Cyaavn play out the remaining schedule of meaningless glorified challenge matches.
I suppose two shadow teams here on Saturday?
Ros probably -
O'Reilly
Stack Collins Ward
Kilbride Donnelly Brogan
Finneran C Shine
Keane Burns Keenan
Compton O'Gara and

Wouldn't be surprised by Donie Smith featuring this weekend.