Don't think you can really defend Deehan since he was brought on in the 1st half and was totally non-existent for the rest of the game. I suppose you wanted lads who were playing well before the Wexford game to be dropped in favour of Reynolds/Deehan for no apparent reason. They were both brought on. What more do you want?
Well maybe neither played Well when introduced against Wexford in your eye's,but at the same time how could Cribbin not play both next time out as these lads who played Great coming up to the Wexford Game just did not perform in the actual Game itself, now im not trying to say Deehan and Reynolds are work beaters but they should both be playing against Monaghan
the point i would make is how long are we looking at Deehan and Reynold's to long they are there 6 or 7 year's if they can't get on that average offaly team after
that length of time they should forget about it and let young players have a crack at it. they wouldn't have make a differ if they had to start again wexford anyway
they might not be as bad but they wouldn't have been any better either.
y'know its not often i agree with Townman, in fact i think he is a pessimistic grumpy oul git set in his way's incapable of seeing the bigger picture, but in this instance i agree with him.
Now i should mention at this point that i haven't seen these guys around the pubs in Tullamore (as i have been living abroad these last seven or eight years) but if the stories are true and these two guys are seen as regular patrons of the Tap (not that i have anything against the place, I'm sure its a fine establishment) then they should be nowhere near the county setup no matter how good they are skill set wise, from my own point of view i would rather have players who have no skill but ware their Offaly hearts on their sleeves rather than have even a quarter of the team tainted with players with big ego's and no heart on the team
again just my own opinion
please feel free to continue to comment on this thread as the last one i commented on seemed to have died off
Greetings from central Vietnam, scenes to some of the fiercest fighting between the forces of the North and the South back in the day. Hopefully we can repel the invaders from the North in Tellamore...With any luck it will be quiet day for me tomorrow while my Monaghan bride ponders a crushing defeat
Bord na Mona man wrote:Greetings from central Vietnam, scenes to some of the fiercest fighting between the forces of the North and the South back in the day. Hopefully we can repel the invaders from the North in Tellamore...With any luck it will be quiet day for me tomorrow while my Monaghan bride ponders a crushing defeat
You could be hoping for a media blackout in the spirit of "Good Morning Vietnam" yet....
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.
Brilliant performance from Offaly.Niall McNamee as usual was excellent and Richie Dalton had by far his best game in an Offaly shirtscoring 3 points, I thought Scott Brady was brilliant aswell he won a huge amount of ball in the defenceo .Ciaran McManus was brilliant aswell he scored a great long range free in the second half and he was still running as hard as ever in the 70th minute the man is a machine how he is able to go at the pace he does at 35 years of age is incredible.Jope Quinn at full back has a great game and drove up the field well on a few occassions.Offaly were very disciplined in defence and gave away very few frees against probably one of the best free takers in Ireland.The one disappointing aspect of Offalys play was the support play which at times was poor on numerous occassions there were huge gaps through the middle and all it needed was a support runner to make himself available and a cross field ball would have resulted a fair few scoring chances.Also the lack of support for Offaly was embarassing there were twice as many Monaghan fans as Offaly fans and I dont think that the hurling in Cork is any excuse as there cant have been a huge amount of Offaly fans at that.Faithful county me hole
Unfortunately Niall Darby looked to have picked up a serious injury at the end of the match.Is there any update on this
Agree with DAF on all of that. Everyone was superb tonight and a great win. Mulhall was solid in goals, Quinn and Pender were excellent and Darby was lively aswell. Scott Brady was brilliant( He had a great amount of tackles) Lonergan scored a couple of points. At midfield, both lads did well, although Smith could have been sent off for throwing the ball away. Pretty much the entire forward line performed very well, causing trouble all game.
It's true, Monaghan outnumbered us by 2:1 I'd say, their scores raised much bigger cheers.
Would it be fair to say the monaghan support numbered around 3 to 1 the offaly contingent. Let this take nothing away from an excellent performance and proof that offaly football is alive and well
Great performance from Offaly tonight. I thought they played good, intelligent football, using the ball very well. They also worked hard when they didnt have the ball and won several good turnovers - especially Scott Brady who put in some great tackles. Brady and Lonergan were excellent. A special word of praise to Ciaran McManus who looked the fittest man on the field. Also Richie Dalton put in a real workmanlike preformance - a great example of a player repaying the manager's belief in him, despite repeated criticism of the player over the past year.
On the negative side, when Monaghan put on a ten-minute spurt near the end of the first half Offaly look all over the place. In fairness, they recovered their composure well and scored the last 2 points of the half. I actually thought some of the support play was quite good especially from the likes of Niall Darby. There were a few occasions in the second half where the player in possession seemed unsure what to do because of the number of options being offered by colleagues running into space. At other times support players were not spotted.
All in all a very encouraging performance. It was a great contrast to the Wexford game. There will need to be further improvement the next day, regardless of who we draw. Monaghan it must be said were very poor on the night. This Offaly team is a work-in-progress and from this display the emphasis is very much on progress.
Great display from 1 to 15. I was proud of Offaly tonight. They drove on through adversity when Monaghan came back to level in the first half and then kept their foot to the floor throughout the 2nd half.
I hope that Darby is o.k. - he was flying all night.
Alan Mulhall looked very solid. Great team performance overall. The only thing I noticed was Bernard Allen was used as the main inside forward a lot but was probably a bit light for this role. I was not impressed by Dalton all year, do mainly at centre back, but he certainly shut up.
lads i hope iam proven wrong but were are we good are were monaghan so bad today hopeless in midfield and they had no clue up front. this was a big inprovment on the wexford game. Maybe now is not the time for this we should enjoy a good win but lets not get carried away someone is after posting we wont fear anyone now.well done today lads
What a result. Well done Offaly and congrats to Cribben for rallying the team. The amount of stick that Offaly footballers have taken recently - some of it deserved, but some of it unwarranted - has been unreal. Fair play to them they responded to it the best way possible with a great win. Onwards and upwards now.
