Down Club Hurling & Football

[Mourne Rover]

There are only two changes for the Roscommon game, which is not what many people expected. One appears to be enforced, as Murphy, who has been among our few successes so far, picked up an injury against Kerry, and is replaced by Flynn. Boyle also comes in for Darren O'Hagan.

The message from Burns would seem to be that the team seriously under-performed the last day and need to be given the chance to sort themselves out as soon as possible, but it is surprising that Mallon still does not start.

We could not cope with Roscommon's size and strength in the two matches last season and they look to have improved considerably since then while we have obviously lost our last seven in a row against inter-county opposition. The only glimmer of hope is that we have tended to be better on the road over the last couple of seasons, but we will have to come up with some viable form of a defensive system and also a way of getting into the scoring area at the other end.

[Brick Tamlin]

It's not surprising Mallon doesn't start. The lad doesn't want to or know how to defend. At present a 20min man.

cut the crap, I thank you sir.charming.

[cut the crap]

On a serious note MrBrick , did you ever play senior football at club level, did you ever play county football at any level, because if you can answer yes to any or both of these questions you should hang your head in shame , Down doesn't need supporters who don't get behind their team.Our game is easy played from the stands or by the fireside, we haven't got the best squad in Ireland , that's fact but don't question their commitment or desire to win. As for clowns like you stay at home with your lap top.

[Mourne Rover]

Brick may be surprised to learn that, according to Shannonside radio, Mallon actually did start today's game. It is hard to tell from the commentary but it seems that McKernan may have dropped out.

[MK]

Brick may be surprised to learn that, according to Shannonside radio, Mallon actually did start today's game. It is hard to tell from the commentary but it seems that McKernan may have dropped out.

Gerard Collins starts instead of Luke Howard according to Down Twitter,who are still advertising tickets for last weeks game 

[Mourne Rover]

McKernan was reportedly unavailable because because he became a father overnight, which was probably the only good news coming out of the Down camp today. The radio coverage indicated that we definitely improved on the Kerry debacle, which would not have been hard, but, apart from a bright start when we scored the first two points, we were fairly comprehensively outplayed and should probably have lost by more than the final margin of nine points. One of the commentators suggested that Roscommon appeared significantly fitter than Down, which is hardly a good sign.

[cut the crap]

Not a great result by all accounts , hopefully management can take some positives , it will be a long league campaign but I believe we will have made some progress when the championship campaign starts.

[charlieTully]

Not a great result by all accounts , hopefully management can take some positives , it will be a long league campaign but I believe we will have made some progress when the championship campaign starts.

Cut the crap.

[snoopdog]

The Dubs are sending their juniors up next Sunday.   

[cut the crap]

Tyson got beat, McGregor got beat , even the great Kerry team got beat by Offaly , so I'm heavy on hope light on expectation when the Dubs come calling, I was at the last one in Newry when we beat them,so who knows.

[manfromdelmonte]

Not winding ye up, but Down were atrocious today.

One of the worst teams I've seen in the last 3 years.

[wobbller]

Not winding ye up, but Down were atrocious today.

One of the worst teams I've seen in the last 3 years.

Go away and eat an orange.

[Smurfy123]

Does anyone know what's is happening regarding Saturday night before the Dublin game?
Is meet the players and that happening in the canal court hotel going ahead?

[Brick Tamlin]

On a serious note MrBrick , did you ever play senior football at club level, did you ever play county football at any level, because if you can answer yes to any or both of these questions you should hang your head in shame , Down doesn't need supporters who don't get behind their team.Our game is easy played from the stands or by the fireside, we haven't got the best squad in Ireland , that's fact but don't question their commitment or desire to win. As for clowns like you stay at home with your lap top.

Show me where I questioned commitment or desire?

[downup]

The scoreline yesterday probably was a fair reflection on the game. Down went in at HT 3 points down and that in itself didn't do justice to Roscommon. Down did play a very defensive game especially in the first half and on many occasions only had one player over the half way line. They did limit Roscommon to long range efforts which mostly went wide in the first half and were just not able to break quick enough on the counter attack when they did overturn possession. On at least 4 occasions we had chances for scores in the first half and we couldn't kick the ball 25 yards over the bar which is just not good enough at this level. In the second half Roscommon stretched Down a lot more and were able to get in for scores that little bit easier. Down did hit the crossbar in the middle of the half but after that didn't go in the heads did seem to drop and Roscommon ran out easy winners in the end. It was a better performance from last week, Turley worked hard, Barry O Hagan showed well at times, Ryan Mallon made a few telling runs and the full back line were a lot tighter than last week. We know we are going down but we can definitely work on improving at least a few things in our play and whilst it wont save us it may give us more scores on the board then the poor return we got at the weekend. We need a more reliable free taker, Harrison misses too many scoreable frees. Paul Devlin got some good points when introduced simply because he was prepared to shoot which we don't do often enough. As things are at the minute anything less than a 10 point defeat by Dublin would be a big improvement.