Efan wrote:Was in Parnell Park yesterday. A very frustrating performance. We recovered well from a sucker punch of a start. This can happen and scoring 1-8 without reply was exactly what the doctor ordered. At this stage we were cruising and were certainly in a position to kick on. But as happened against Limerick in the league from a position of complete dominance we conceded bad goals and suddenly we were in the thick of a battle. We could have easily kicked on and won handy. Even after half time and for about 10 mins after the sending off we were still struggling but as Antrim tired we could see there was something in it for us and battled well to force the draw. Bar the 1-8 spell in the first half a lot of players underperformed in the 70 mins. When we dropped our intensity and started getting sloppy and taking bad options. WE have one gear …. Full throttle and in games where our intensity wanes we appear to find it hard to switch back on. This is a man management issue. I don’t want to be OTT negative, if we had lost things would have been far worse. I think it’s a balls that the Galway game is in Croke Park rather than Nolan Park as I think the tighter more intense provincial ground would suit us better when it comes to getting stuck into the tribes men. We will have our work cut out. A few other things from yesterday ….
1) It was a killer to end up with Cleary at 6 and Kenny at 3 by full time having played the other way around for the league. Kenny will give us better go forward ball from centre back and I think we have to start as we started yesterday against Galway.
2) Derek Molloy is worth his starting place based on his ability IMHO. That said we cannot justify carrying him if these “rushes of blood to the head” continue. Yesterday in the passage of play that lead up to his challenge that earned him his second yellow card, 4 other Offaly players had closed down Antrim players and forced them back across the field. After these challenges came his lunge which cost us a player, a free and a point against. I think this is a man management issue, I would have him on the team but only if I was convinced that I had this side of him in check.
3) Hats off to Shane Dooley. Over the last few years we have lost games (like yesterday) as we did not have a 90% free taker. His point to level the game just up from the Antrim bench showed great leadership. You can also see from his conditioning and strength he has really worked to build himself up and can challenge very well for 50-50 ball. This is how we have to be to compete at the highest level.
4) I thought Stapleton’s refereeing was very dodgy especially in the first half. Maybe it’s my imagination but I thought a few times we were penalised on things that were let go by Antrim players. At one stage he chose to ignore his umpire (following a consultation) when he had clearly signalled that the Antrim keeper had stepped outside the square when making his puck out (Antrim had gone up the field and subsequently scored). 3 or 4 bad 50-50 calls like this can keep a team in the game. In the second half his performance improved, he was right to send off Derek Molloy and added a bit of extra time at the end I would think because the Antrim boys were dropping like flies for the last 15 mines.
5) Who is the lad with the Offaly jersey that is behind the goals at every game including Nolan Park on Saturday night?
black and red exile wrote:Looks like the only two on this site that are putting the rest of us to shame are POTH and GREAT DAY FOR THE PARISH. Personally speaking as one of the muppets who showed total disreguard for our northern friends and who predicted the 15 to 20 point margin I won't be making that mistake again, as we all learned yesterday on any given day anything can happen and when GDFTP analyised the last decade or so then we have no right to say we are going to roll over anybody, YESTERDAY WAS A LESSON LEARNED BY I WOULD IMAGINE ALOT OF THE PLAYERS AS WELL AS QUITE ALOT OF DAFT SUPPORTERS LIKE MYSELF SHOUTING AND ROARING ABOUT 20 POINT WINNING MARGINS
leinsterman wrote: just another thing it was bad form bye brian mullins and Daniel Currams
that they stead over at the dressing room for most of the second half and not with there teammates on the bench not a happy camp.
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