Tyrone V Donegal

[Fishead_Sam]

I was surpirsed that McMennimen (no.25) stayed on the pitch so long he should have got a yellow far earlier, was I the only one notice him wrap his leg aroung one of the Tyrone players kneck about 10-15 minutes before he got his first yellow.

What was McFadden at throwing that punch, silly man, Donegal in the Qualifiers with him banned how long? He will miss one game at least, probably 2!

[gerry]

Great to see a Tyrone win after the Fermanagh match, long way to croker in sept though

[sam03/05]

Hughes was superb today (apart from his shooting)
he won or broke nearly every ball and was a one of the reasons why we won. Also got himself into some great positions on another day he would have had 4 or 5 points. He looks much sharper and fitter than he ever has.
dont think you could fault anyone in Tyrone shirt - C McGinley apart... big joey needs to shed a few pounds b4 the final

[thebuzz]

Good to see the Cookstown boys doing well. Somebody said to me yesterday that Mugsy was overweight. I wish i was as fit as him. Young Mulgrew is just going to go from strength to strength.
If by some slim chance we were to get past Monaghan methinks we'd be in for a bit of a drubbing in the Ulster Final.

[tyroneman]

There was nothing awesome about Tyrone, Donegal were brutal, plain and simple

Typical Armagh bulls**t.

Donegal were brutal the last day out as well and ended up beating Armagh so where does that leave the Orangemen then??? 

Tyrone simply had too much workrate, skill,  teamwork and outright hunger today for Donegal. I don't believe that was Tyrone in 5th gear yet either.

Leaving all that aside though -  beating the NFL champions, who had just disposed of the reigning Ulster Champions in thier previous match, by 11 - nothing awesome in that Donagh.....................

Glad to see MH finally wake up to Cormac McGinley - hopefully yhat was his nightcap in the last chance saloon. Joey all the way now, failing that AN Other - anyone but McGinley

Don't think much of the Orange Jnr brigade either. The futures not bright in Armagh, the futures not Orange

[INDIANA]

As regards donegal i think they are too big for summer football. Mc Ivor has  for gone size to the expense of speed. If you look at tyrone one could tell after 15-20 mins they were going to run donegal off the park- the difference in speed was staggering. i think donegal play there best football on the wet heavy pitches but struggle in the summer when speed is king.

[Lamh Dhearg Alba]

There was nothing awesome about Tyrone, Donegal were brutal, plain and simple.

Donegal had 9 wins and a draw from 10 league and championship games in 2007 and Tyrone beat them by 11 points, to try and point a negative spin on the result is churlish in the extreme. Donegal were poor against Armagh as well and still won....sometimes, however hard it may be for you, you have to give some credit for a superb performance.

As for the chat about Kevin Hughes its very unfair to focus on his poor shooting. Ok on a better day he could have hit 1-3 or something but his all round performance was very good and bodes well. Monaghan or Derry will be a different proposition and a much tighter game Im sure but its just nice to be there, certainly todays performance put a lot of belief and hope back into Tyrone football.

[J70]

Where now for Donegal? The changes in the system this year mean that there is much less chance of a relatively easy qualifier game to get them motoring again, not that that would necessarily happen anyway after today. Two years ago, after a similarly demoralizing loss to Armagh, the team just about scraped by Wicklow, before disgracefully not bothering their asses against Cavan until we were 10 points down. Three years ago, another heavy defeat amid high expectations against Armagh was followed by our gifting a qualifier match that we had enough chances to have won easily to Fermanagh through indiscipline and infighting. So despite the relative success of 2003, our qualifier record is not exactly brilliant. After today's debacle, can McIvor lift them and pull them together to give it a proper lash? Will he or they want to? Because if they go out of the qualifiers now with a whimper, that league title is not going to mean very much to anyone ever again: it will have a mauling by Tyrone and a possible qualifier humiliation hanging over it forever.

What was completely unacceptable today was the way many players just didn't compete and basically gave up early in the second half. Yes, the penalty before half-time was a big blow, but good teams put those incidents behind them and get on with things. You could see Donegal players lift it for a couple of minutes after Ciaran Bonner's point early in the second half, where they seemed to be fighting a bit harder for possession than they had up to that point, but once Tyrone got the next couple of scores, they just threw in the towel. Excepting McFadden and McMenamin's late stupidity, I can't fault the full forwards too much as the supply was basically nonexistant for most of the game, but most of the other players were beaten hands down by their men. Some of the mistakes were ridiculous e.g. Durcan putting McConigley in trouble with a short kick-out, McConigley messing up a simple hand-pass to Devenney, both resulting in points for Mulligan. Durcan giving away the penalty, Barry Monaghan playing a five yard pass on the ground from a free to a teammate surrounded by three or four Tyrone players and so on and so on. Very few players were willing to stand up and give a bit of leadership. Some, like Devenney and Kavanagh, tried in the last quarter, but the game was long gone at that stage.

That's also two matches in a row where we've been destroyed by the opposition's midfield and half-backs, although today was far, far worse than the Armagh game. Despite our hopes, it would appear that the Cassidy/Gallagher pairing is not necessarily the answer to our midfield problems, although they were also completely let down by the failure of our half-forwards to compete with the Tyrone half-backs. It hard to see what alternative there is though. Maybe Cassidy needs to be moved back into the half-backs again, but none of the other half-backs and half-forwards who have been tried at midfield have been a success. Indiana may also have a point about McIvor going for the big men at the expense of speed. I didn't catch why Barry Dunnion didn't play today (presumably injured), and while I'm not suggesting that one player would have made much of a difference, he was definitely missed in that area of the pitch. I would like to say that Toye and Hegarty were missed around the middle too, but they weren't great against Armagh and maybe would have made no difference today either.

I would think that many of the teams going into the first round will be fancying their chances against Donegal after our last two performances.

[ONeill]

BTW:
B Dooher; Hub; Gormley; Mulligan - absolutely outstanding stuff . great team performance and looking for more this year.

Are you having a laugh naming Hub as being outstanding? i think that was one of his worst ever displays in a Tyrone shirt. Im usually a fan of hughes but he had a nightmare today - his shooting and passing were absolutely terrible for the whole game!!

Absolute nonsense. Hub was in the top 3 performers today, behind Dooher and Gormley.

Much covered here - one thing - great to see that hunger back. Big time. A big, big statement. Work-rate and skill is a seriously pleasing concoction.

Feet on the ground.

[PrivatePile]

I missed Mc Ivor being interviewed after the game, i was all set to get my "Whadda you call it" meter out for him, anyone know how many times he said it?

[ONeill]

As for Donegal - soft underbelly, as hinted at against Armagh was seriously exposed today. McIvor's team seemed too concerned about neutralising possible options when Tyrone were on the ball that they forgot that Tyrone were actually in possession. Sorry to see their thuggery. Plenty of physicality.  No footballing guts. Would like to see them win Sam though if we don't.

[Armamike]

Great performance by Tyrone, with their half back line and Dooher laying the foundations for the win.  Dooher was brilliant, showing for the ball all the time, driving forward and taking 6 scores from play.  Harte was right to take him off 5 mins from the end to get the applause he deserved.  The likes of Colm Cavanagh and Raymond Mulgrew grabbed the limelight towards the end of the game , but by that point the likes of Dooher had done the main work.  Donegal were awful.  Really bad!  The amount of time and space they gave Tyrone players on the ball in their half forward and half back lines was unreal. Dooher's point midway through the first half was an example, with him running maybe 30 yds without a tackle going in. That set the tone.  Tyrone were obviously good enough to exploit the space given them and in return they closed Donegal down at every turn.  Tyrone probably felt going into the game that they needed to put on a performance to convince themselves that they have what it takes this year again. They have put down a marker for the rest of their year.

Donegal have really disappointed me over the past 2 games.  They've played some stupid football and most of their players haven't been willing to put their bodies on the line to win the ball.   They had 3 weeks since the Armagh game so they should have been just about right going into this game.  It's hard to see them going anywhere in the qualifiers after those 2 performances.   

[J70]

As for Donegal - soft underbelly, as hinted at against Armagh was seriously exposed today. McIvor's team seemed too concerned about neutralising possible options when Tyrone were on the ball that they forgot that Tyrone were actually in possession. Sorry to see their thuggery. Plenty of physicality.  No footballing guts. Would like to see them win Sam though if we don't.

I think its crystal clear now that we don't have the talent or the bottle to go all the way, and as I've said already its hard to see the team lifting themselves for the qualifiers after the past two performances.

I wouldn't be too hard on McFadden, although I did think we'd left the indiscipline side of our game when things aren't going well behind. He'll get his deserved ban, but he's not a dirty player. Having been sent off once or twice myself in similar situations over many years of low-level junior soccer, I can well understand how someone can lose the head when the game has turned into a complete nightmare and opposition are doing a bit of gloating and mouthing off. I didn't see what Kevin McMenamin did for the second card, but if ever a player deserved a ball in the head, its Ryan McMenamin!

[ziggysego]

McMenamin -v- McMenamin.

Is it something in the name?

[aodhruadh]

In answer to your question, i really dont know what now for Donegal.They have to hope for a relatively easy draw in the qualifiers, otherwise i think its curtains for another year.

Dunnion was planned to take the field but seemed to struggle in the warm up and was withdrawn.

Another year without the Anglo Celt Cup, 15 year drought now. Depressing, can't understand the lacklustre display, esp after the Armagh performance which was poor. And now facing into the qualifiers without our best forward, gotta hope we dont meet Armagh, Mayo, Meath from what we've seen so far.