Monaghan v Derry USFC SF Sunday May15th 16.00

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

I was one of the ones who, while praising derry after the tyrone game, wondered if it was a one off or the start of something. Now I know the answer. Fair play to them, hope they win Ulster now. As for Gallagher, isnt that that what you want to see from your manager; passion?

Absolutely, minus the spitting

[tonto1888]

I was one of the ones who, while praising derry after the tyrone game, wondered if it was a one off or the start of something. Now I know the answer. Fair play to them, hope they win Ulster now. As for Gallagher, isnt that that what you want to see from your manager; passion?

Absolutely, minus the spitting

Yeah, thats a bit disgusting. Commentary aid yesterday he was taught that years ago by some teacher in whatever school he went to as it helped to catch the ball

[Armagh18]

I was one of the ones who, while praising derry after the tyrone game, wondered if it was a one off or the start of something. Now I know the answer. Fair play to them, hope they win Ulster now. As for Gallagher, isnt that that what you want to see from your manager; passion?

Absolutely, minus the spitting

Yeah, thats a bit disgusting. Commentary aid yesterday he was taught that years ago by some teacher in whatever school he went to as it helped to catch the ball

Most players would do it on a dry day but fecking disgusting doing it when you're not playing i think.

[Wildweasel74]

Just a bad habit, which seems hard to get ride off. Derry have only beaten Donegal once in the championship since they last won in 1998,.Donegal now in 10 of the last 12 finals, Derry just 1 in 24yrs. Donegal be favourites and abit like Tyrone have held Derry under the cosh for a long time. Hard to believe we were playing Division 4 3yrs ago.

[marty34]

Surprised the man who brought McGuigan down 1st Half when bearing down on goal wasn't carded, strange decision. Struggled at Midfield as Monaghan moved up forcing us to go long. Thought E Bradley should  have came in earlier and, Straight to Midfield. Derry Bench very young, some players recently left the panel could be the difference in crunch games. Derry could afford to give away frees last 15mins as I thought Monaghan would need a goal to win it. Derry should scored at least another goal. If Derry had took their goal chances last year they beat Donegal.

Surely thats why the black card came in, McGuigan was threw in goal. Gough loves giving frees that nobody else sees, not a fan of him at all.

If Derry can sort kickouts when their under the cosh I think they'll beat Donegal, haven't seen any stats yet but interesting to see what scores Derry generated from when they went long with the kickouts.

McKinless is something else, he's phenomenal.

Not sure about Derry's keepers kick out - in 2nd half he was under pressure a bit.

Maybe not enough runners for him. At one stage they lost 3 or 4 kivk outs in a row and Monaghan put them under serious pressure.

I'd say it's one thing Donegal will focus on as they've a few big units around the middle third.

[God14]

Derry are in a far better place than Donegal going into the final make no mistake about it
For Derry, its same again. They have momentum, massive confidence, and complete belief in the system. No need to change a thing.
70 mins from Glory and a first Ulster in a generation. Heros

For Donegal, if they set up the same as they have all year, they will get beaten in exactly the same manner as Monaghan did yesterday.
For Donegal to win they need to massively adjust their whole template. Donegal need to mirror the Derry set up. 15 behind the ball.
Ultra defensive start to the game to prevent Gallagher getting any sort of lead. 
Then they need to be more patient and disciplined in the tackle. Frees within the scoring range will be the order of the day.
Donegal need to better utilise Murphy and McBrearty ability to win marks. They are bigger men than their derry counterparts, and should be better able to win a mark. Monaghan had big men up top, but couldnt win a mark
In an ultra defensive game these opportunities are massive
Donegal also need to look at the joy Monaghan had in the second half with the kick outs. I reckon Donegal have a significant edge in this area
If its nip and tuck going down the home straight, Donegal also have the advantage of 'being there done that'. They wont flinch.

Have Murphy and McBrearty got the legs to do the sort of running their counterparts are doing? Im not so sure, but they need to start in that manner. Donegal have a far better bench and Bonner will need to plan for high octane workrates & pre planned replacements
Bonner will know all that, but can they recalibrate their set up and style of play in the condensed timeframe?
I dont think they can

[God14]

It depends how they cope with 14 men behind the ball. I don't know if Bonner is a good enough tactician to be able to navigate a way through that tbh. It will be very interesting to see.

Maybe Murphy will just bulldose through it!

Every team in the country has pretty much played with 14 men behind the ball for years, surely this is front and centre at training sessions as it is at club training sessions.. ..youd think this is a new phenomenon with some on here

yeah but none of the top sides play this way. They havnt come across it in say 4 years.

[restorepride]

I was one of the ones who, while praising derry after the tyrone game, wondered if it was a one off or the start of something. Now I know the answer. Fair play to them, hope they win Ulster now. As for Gallagher, isnt that that what you want to see from your manager; passion?

Absolutely, minus the spitting

Absolutely. The negativity re spitting is childlike. Watch the game - just don't fart during it or the 'bad-habit' squad will smell you out!!

[marty34]

It depends how they cope with 14 men behind the ball. I don't know if Bonner is a good enough tactician to be able to navigate a way through that tbh. It will be very interesting to see.

Maybe Murphy will just bulldose through it!

Every team in the country has pretty much played with 14 men behind the ball for years, surely this is front and centre at training sessions as it is at club training sessions.. ..youd think this is a new phenomenon with some on here

yeah but none of the top sides play this way. They havnt come across it in say 4 years.

I agree, every team play a heap of players behind the ball. 

It's like a game of basketball nowadays.

You have the ball, try and score.
Then we have the ball and we try to score.

[JoeSoap]

Some performance in the first half from Derry, but I felt Monaghan were reeling them in and if they had cooler heads with their shot selections in the 2nd half they'd have gotten closer than 3 points. The 3rd goal was the killer score as I feel the momentum had swung back Monaghan's way at that point. But fair play to Derry, some of the performances were out of this world and they have a real sense about them that they're close to the big breakthrough. I hope we can delay it by another year in terms of an Ulster title but I am worried for 2 weeks time.

[SouthDublinBro]

I'm sure the pitch invasion after beating Dublin in a meaningless league match seems a bit hollow now.

[Cavan19]

I'm sure the pitch invasion after beating Dublin in a meaningless league match seems a bit hollow now.

Staying in Division 1 seems to be more important to them than the championship.

It's possible they could go on a run now in the qualifers out of the teams in it so far you would only say that Mayo are better than them and depending on how Tyrone react now they wouldn't be afraid of them anyway.

[JoG2]

I'm sure the pitch invasion after beating Dublin in a meaningless league match seems a bit hollow now.

As meaningless as an Ulster man pretending to be be from Dublin? Change the record, tiresome got!

[Dreadnought]

I'm sure the pitch invasion after beating Dublin in a meaningless league match seems a bit hollow now.

Staying in Division 1 seems to be more important to them than the championship.

It's possible they could go on a run now in the qualifers out of the teams in it so far you would only say that Mayo are better than them and depending on how Tyrone react now they wouldn't be afraid of them anyway.

Yes it seems to, but it shouldn't be. Leagues are for playing, Championships are for winning. They've lost sight of that a bit

[screenexile]

I'm sure the pitch invasion after beating Dublin in a meaningless league match seems a bit hollow now.

I don't know why other Counties get so perturbed about pitch invasions. . . I think they're great. Young lads and families getting their pictures taken with their favourite players from the County. Why not?

We've had 2 now and I'm full sure there'll be a 3rd one if we beat Donegal I'm all for it!