Derry vs Donegal USFC Final

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:Asking Derry to play next week to add insult.

Looks like your 1st and 2nd favourite teams are going out within 7 days of each other.

GAA-Fan wrote:

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:Asking Derry to play next week to add insult.

Looks like your 1st and 2nd favourite teams are going out within 7 days of each other.

Looks like it. But it's very unfair. I find the whole officialdom thing very disillusioning. As far as I am concerned, once that penalty went in, the game was over. Donegal were content to park the bus. But it was barely a penalty. Ball gone wide and the goalie's legs accidently caught the forward running through. Then the Derry sub creamed and he lets it go? Give both or give none. Don't know anymore. Would turn you off the sport.

Just back indoors from our first provincial title in 19 years and thats more a a case of living closer to to the venue of the game than the seat of the winners where some of my former schoolmates have still not got past Emyvale and more power to them. - though the cosy bar dished up a few drikable scoops

Firstly lets get the Penalty out of the way - I haven't seen any replay and I will admit from where I was(corner of hill and town goal)it was soft at the same time every time any player went to ground was a free so the call was consistent.

Aside from that Donegal dominated every line on the park and for Loyal to try and hang this on a Referree call is disengnious in the extreme. Every one of Derrys big names fell asunder and got called ashore. Karl Lacey dictated this game like a good scrum half would in a one sided rugby match - All but 2 of Derrys first half tally with a gale force wind in their backs came from careless frees . The Derry Full back line had no answer for any direct ball and Murphy fetch to a Peeling run from Colm anthony resulted in at least 4 scores. Donegal led 5-2 in to the teeth of gale which when you look at the Connacht final wast the equaivalent of a 20 point lead. McHugh had a stormer without having much play in the opposition half - McFadden showed strong - Thompson/Hegarty etc all had blinders. The amount of turnovers in defence from Lacey/mcGlynn/McGee was way above any statos average

You wont lose many games if you keep the opposition to 8 points - and for the moment Im happy to rejoice on where we are. Cork we don't want and I would fear the power of their half forwards against our "45 yard moate"after that I don't think any of the qualifier victors will look forward to trying to break us down. My reservation still remains that our "defensive half forwards need to chip in score wise especially on calm sunny August day in Croker but at least my reservation will get put to the test
Tir Chonaill Abú

Well done Omar on your first provincial title in 19 years. Well done RMDrive too.

But the Game was delicately poised at half-time. Once the penalty was converted and complemented with a point or two, the game was immediately gone from Derry. Donegal were never going to relinquish the lead. It is what I call parking the team bus.

In that respect, the penalty conversion was worth than the three points.

I feel sorry for Derry, I really do. Had the Donegal penalty not been given, we could be looking at a different result. But it is on socres like that which a game changes. I hope they bounce back but I have my doubts.

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:Well done Omar on your first provincial title in 19 years. Well done RMDrive too.

But the Game was delicately poised at half-time. Once the penalty was converted and complemented with a point or two, the game was immediately gone from Derry. Donegal were never going to relinquish the lead. It is what I call parking the team bus.

In that respect, the penalty conversion was worth than the three points.

I feel sorry for Derry, I really do. Had the Donegal penalty not been given, we could be looking at a different result. But it is on socres like that which a game changes. I hope they bounce back but I have my doubts.

I beg to differ here - There was a gale force breeze blowing- somewhat diagonal but mainly in favour of Derry in the first half - After watching the Roscommon game - anyone I spoke to or eavespropped on- Donegal or Derry had this as at least a five point wind advantage. Donegal leading by 5-2 totally dominated the game in every line of the pitch - One exception was was where Derry won clean ball at centre field when Kavanagh was injured at teh end of the first half- and had to be replaced by McElnhinney - Derry got 3 points off this - although two of them would not have been scores only for lazy fouls by McGlynn.

Once Donegal got to half time level the game was won - unless the wind changed - I agree the Peno was soft but then take you have to take two points off the Derry first half score. There was no point in this game where Donegal were troubled - it ain't pretty but if the opposition are scoring 0-5 from play you will win a lot of games.
Don't know who got MOM but Lacey dictated this game from start to finish - never touched the ball without converting defence to attack and making 40 yard space from trapped corners- Different class -


We have lost 5 Ulster finals since 1992 some of which included some poor Ref calls - in particular 1998 when Brolly killed us but after Devenney getting mugged- but all of these I think we deservered to lose ref or no ref- Today we were the better team bo doubt no debate and we won- and we deserved to win - Good enough for me.

The BBC commentator described the breeze as "a North, South, East, West gale".

Well done Donegal. Not pretty but well earned victory. Some decisions could have gone either way but Donegal were the better team, and better forwards.strange comments on the game I must say. Premier league?

I'm a very proud Donegal man this evening. It's been a long time coming and I'm delighted for all the players and the management team. Over the last few years Donegal people were only looking for a bit of pride and passion from the lads - traits that seemed to be lacking far too often. Winning something was secondary to going out and playing with the pride and passion that the county jersey deserves. Well this year there's not one player that can be questioned for what they have given the team. Every single player has the admiration and respect of the county and it's a wonderful feeling to see your county being represented by tough, hard-working warriers. I'm very proud of each one of them.

And of course today we won the Angle Celt for the first time in 19 years, coming from the preliminary round to do so. There was some fantastic scenes in Clones today and I hung around in the ground for a good while after so that I could savour every moment. The walk back through the town to the car was joyous - smiling Donegal people everywhere I looked and the odd roar of Come on Donegal. I've always loved Clones and today will be locked in as another good memory of there.

I think we dominated every facet of the game - there was no Derry player that you could say go the better of his man. Murph, Colm Anthony, Thompson, Lacey, Big Neil, Mickey Hegarty, Pappa, McHugh all had massive games. When the ref blew for half time I knew we had it. The breeze was very strong but Donegal chose to play against it after winning the toss. The free that Murph missed at the end of the first half was a demonstration of how strong it was.

Both penalty calls were penalties. WTF was the Derry keeping trying to do? He made a complete balls of it and took Murphy out of it. From the Sunday game it looked like Derry should have had one too.

Strange that the Sunday game didn't highlight the alleged strike on McBrearty as they are usually all over that stuff. I haven't seen it yet so I'll have to reserve judgement.

Time to enjoy it now anyway. Donegal - Ulster Senior Football Champions 2011. Sounds pretty good to me.

A sleeping giant in Ulster is beginning to stir.....

Fair play Donegal, much deserved, at all times looked like they had more men on the pitch. Application guts and work rate second to none.

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:The BBC commentator described the breeze as "a North, South, East, West gale".

It was fairly consistent blowing diagonal into the corner of the Far goal and the Hill -
Basically from where Hegarty scored his point after the 30 odd handpass move was the only part of the pitch where
you could shoot and have the wind 100% in your back.

OMAR wrote:

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:The BBC commentator described the breeze as "a North, South, East, West gale".

It was fairly consistent blowing diagonal into the corner of the Far goal and the Hill -
Basically from where Hegarty scored his point after the 30 odd handpass move was the only part of the pitch where
you could shoot and have the wind 100% in your back.

Or to put it another way It was blowing into RMDrives face if he was looking at the big tree on the left of the above picture

Not sure what Brennan hopes to acheive - if the powers that be didn't replay the 2010 Leinster final they are hardly likely to take a different view on a game where there was six point margin.
Unless he feels that they will get the rub of the green the next time around. Whilst the six day turnaround is hugely unfair it has been there since the fixture list was decided and was always going to be the fate that awaited yesterdays losers.

He would be better served trying to get his team focussed on the Kildare game and to see why Muldoon, Gilligan,McGuckian were so far off game pace yesterday. or why he thought it was a good idea for Mchugh's man to follow him back into the donegal 45 leaving 60 yards of open space in front of Murphy and Mcfadden.
Louth did the same thing last year - I remember in the half time interview in the Rd4 qualifier game the backroom team were still crying about the Meath game a mindset that did not serve them very well.

Congratulations to Donegal on becoming Ulster Champions, Yesterday showed that the Anglo Celt still matters and it was great to see the pitch celebrations after the game. Donegal were deserved winners on the day - Derry may have been unlucky not to get the rub of the green for their penalty which was stonewall in my opinion but I still feel Donegal would have got over the line regardless of whether Derry had converted their penalty or not.

You have to admire the work ethic and discipline that this particular group of Donegal players possess and although their big test will come in the quarter finals in Croke Park they should be a force in championship football for the next few years with their young management team learning much along the way.

Jonsmith wrote:

A sleeping giant in Ulster is beginning to stir.....

Fair play Donegal, much deserved, at all times looked like they had more men on the pitch. Application guts and work rate second to none.

Hardly a sleeping giant! Won their first Ulster in 1972 and a fhandful since. Next thing we'll be hearing that Tyrone are a sleeping giant! Cavan are a (still) sleeping giant - Donegal aren't - don't get carried away lad!

Sorry JS - on reading again I reckon you were referring to Cavan!

C'mon the Blues!

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Sorry JS - on reading again I reckon you were referring to Cavan!

C'mon the Blues!

I assumed the rather large picture of the Cavan Minors with the Cup would have added some context to my comment... I'll be clearer in future..

Just dropping in to express my delight. I've still got a beaming smile on my face and it's Tuesday morning. Everything Donegal worked for the past 9 months has come to fruition now with the win on Sunday. Any self respecting Derry supporter who attended on Sunday will admit that the better team won this game of football. For me, the contentious decisions went as follows:
Murphy penalty - Tripped by Devlin, foul, penalty.
Derry no penalty - Hard hitting shoulder badly timed, didn't catch the Derry lad square, penalty.
Murphy point that wasn't given - A point every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Poor umpiring.
McBrearty incident - This was clear as day an elbow in the face from a player who was being wound up by McBrearty. Poor refereeing, compounded by an unbelieveable decision to card Murphy. Correct decision here would have been yellow for McBrearty, red for McBride.
Finally, on a side note, and I'm not sure if it's my personal bias influencing this or if anyone one else noticed but the amount of 3rd man tackling and off the ball stuff Derry resorted to on Sunday was far from pretty. Mark McHugh in particularly seemed singled out for special treatment. Lacey took a few late hits also. On one occasion after such a late hit after the pass had been delivered, Deegan raised his hand for the advantage. Followed the play for what I think ended in a Donegal score but failed to then take action against the Derry player.
Now given all of the above, and forgive me if I've missed a contentious incident I fail to see the argument for Derry winning this game. While nervous at half time I did feel the breeze was worth 2 to 3 points to Donegal in the second half. Murphy and Hegartys second half performances put any lingering hope that Derry would prevail to bed. Muldoon and Lynch were reduced to bit part roles which left Derry dependent on James Kielt for scores. Kielt scored 2 very good points in the second half, as did Charlie in the first. Aside from that Derry played most of their football outside the 40 posing little threat. The most incredible thing about the entire game was that Brennan decided for the entire 70 minutes that McBride, Mullan, McGuckin and latterly McCloy were capable of man marking Murphy, McFadden and McBrearty and when things started to appear differently failed to take action. I don't believe Derry posessed the players to beat Donegal on Sunday but allowing our forwards to do what they pleased for the duration would surely have to be questioned by the Derry faithful. A lot of smoke and mirrors at the moment about what could, should or would have been given x, y and z. I know this will sound incredibly cocky but it's merely confidence I assure you. If we could draw Derry in the quarter final I'd be more than happy to do so. Derrys danger men are E Bradley and E Muldoon. The latter is a superb footballer, worthy of every superlative going. A fine fielder, free taker with excellent distribution, he is, unfortunately for Ballinderry and Derry, coming to the end of his career. While he dictated the game against Armagh, Lacey made sure that wasn't going to happen against Donegal. Eoin wasn't fit to play. I don't buy this malarchy about him being worth 5 or 6 points to Derry in a game. We'll never know what he'd have been worth, that's the facts.

If the sides were to meet again, I'd fancy Derry.

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:If the sides were to meet again, I'd fancy Derry.

IF they meet Derry again I'll be happy enough


Well they can't meet in a quarter final so if they meet again it would be fair to say that the majority will have underestimated both sides place in the pecking order

For Derry to make a semi final against Donegal they have to beat Kildare and Dublin with Donegal having to beat
one of the round 4 winners with Derry being the only exclusion - with Cork being the team they will most wish to avoid.
Otherwise Derry having beaten Kildare could have a quarter final against Kerry or Mayo and a semi final against Kerry/Mayo or the cream of the qualifier crop at which stage Donegal will also probably have had to beat dublin if the sides are to meet again unless Dublin meet Cork or maybe Tyrone in a quarter final.

Congratulations to Donegal.

Cant see Derry beating anyone this year without the Bradleys, they are a huge loss. Id even be confident if Armagh got a second chance against them. I think Derry were unlucky not to get a penalty which would have obviously had a huge impact on the game but Donegal coped very well with Derry attacking game.

Omar - normally you are sensible in your posts. However in this instance, I feel you are being blinded by patriotism. Or possibly by your reflection in the Anglo Celt Cup? Or maybe Maurice Deegan's whistle? I don't know.

Derry are a good outfit and I feel sorry for them - losing two of their best players to injury, subject of some controversial officiating, asked to play a game six days after the Ulster final in a venue seven times further away than the opposition.

As for a possible re-match, I think had Donegal not got the cushion of the penalty on Sunday, the direction the game took may have been a lot different. Certainly Donegal would have to chase and actually try to win the game. Derry on the other hand wouldn't have been forced to look for goals.

I hope Derry beat Kildare but I'm doubtful they will.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see any football over the weekend, and so can add little to the debate on whether or not Derry were robbed.

However, as outlined a couple of pages back, I struggled to see how Derry could win this game, especially after the loss of Eoin Bradley. Citing Paddy as a loss is a red herring (he hasn't been good in years), but Eoin brings them something that none of the rest of their other forwards do, in so far as he creates panic in opposition defences. I'm not surprised to see Lynch and Gilligan both fail to score from play, having predicted that both of them would struggle without Bradley creating space for them.

I'm not saying that Derry would have beaten Donegal if they had been at full strength, because I still believe that Donegal would have shrunk the playing area and bottled up the Derry forwards. Donegal have more good players, and are also better organised than Derry.

Derry and Donegal won't meet again this year as Derry, like always, have been over-rated by many, and now exposed as an average side.

So, well done Donegal - very few sides have ever won an Ulster title via the preliminary round, so this is a very good achievement. Now, having won something, perhaps they will come out and try to entertain people, or maybe that is wishful thinking...

"Exposed as an average side" - The only thing exposed on Sunday was the ineptitude of the rule-enforcers, and not for the first time.

Still a work-in-progress, but I feel Derry are an improved side. I think in the right circumstances, they'd smash one of the big teams (Dublin, Cork, Kerry) to pieces with their refreshingly skilful forwards.

Hopefully they bounce back and don't let the bad refereeing of Deegan or the bad planning of the Ulster Council get in the way of their progress.