Fermanagh v Kildare

Travelling up tomorrow, what is it journey wise, about 2 hours?

2 hours 30 mins journey depends what way you go

Team for tomorrow night
Donnellan, Dempsey O'Grady, D Hyland, Murray, Doyle, K Cribben, Feely, Masterson, Slattery, Conway, Hartley, Tyrrell, McCormack, N Flynn

Game tomorrow night will be a completely different game to the league game a few years back (different manager) and the qualifier game last year (Fermanagh put all there eggs in winning an Ulster final last year and simply weren't motivated enough to put up a fight in Navan)

I'd actually make them slight favourites tomorrow night. Home advantage, wet, windy weather and heavy pitch all give them the natural advantages. They'll be happy enough with how their first 2 games have gone but will have targeted their home games to ensure survival.

We've shown we're a better team with better individuals in attack but everything is set up to be a defensive dogfight tomorrow and no better team or manager to take advantage than Fermanagh and Gallagher.

Hopefully we get it right tomorrow night but it will take a better performance than against Armagh and Cork get the 2 points.

Patience, discipline and accuracy will be key tomorrow night. They've scored 13 points in their opening 2 games so it's vital we do not give up handy scores through lazy or silly frees. Stand them up and make them shoot from play should restrict them to low scores.

In attack we have to stay patient and wait for the openings. A wide ball is treated like a point to a defensive team. It might mean taking less shots but if we can move the ball quickly and probe when the time is right, we can disrupt their cover.

When we get a chance, we have to be accurate.

This is another great test for us. If we want to challenge the Monaghans and the Galways of this world, we have to work out ways in game to overcome defensive setups. Tactics and strategies are great but in games like tomorrow nights, you have to think on your feet and make the right decision / see the right play when an opportunity opens up.

A win would be a great result and set us up perfectly for the 2nd half of the campaign.

Looking forward to it!

Also another point for tomorrow night - and indeed for rest of year - can we please keep our discipline & have no stupid sendings off. We’ve been TERRIBLE on this over past year.

Enough is enough!!

Great preview FB. Talking to others it seems like a decent crowd travelling. Playing 3 weeks in a row in heavy conditions at this time of year can take its toll and I think our bench might get us over the line. Safe travelling to everyone.

Is Jimmy injured ?

Fermanagh bringing cynical to a whole new level

Fermanagh are a team we are man-for-man far superior to.
We knew exactly how they would set-up tactically.
We knew they would be cynical.

And yet, drawn into rows, can't break down mass defence, and beaten. Pop goes promotion.
Love to know what preparation was done during the week for this, if any. Because either lazyness or cluelessness from on high.

One step forward, two steps back.

Tipperary scored 2-5 (11pts) against Fermanagh, Cork scored 1-5 (8pts).

We scored 6 points.................................Division One? in our dreams!

Fully agree, how did they approach it like that, absolutely clueless.

Once Conway got us level, game was there for the taking - but yet again (a theme of O’Neill’s tenure) no composure in a crunch situation. Also no pace to attacks throughout - basically everything we needed, we didn’t have.

As with Carlow last summer, we have been tactically outfoxed by an off-the-shelf, cookie cutter blanket defence. Absolutely galling stuff.

Overall an abject game & performance that I want to forget about as quickly as possible. Next up - a Clare team who always trouble us. Grim.

If we can't win games like that then we have no business in Div 1. Probably would come straight down again like the last time. As for my earlier optimism regarding survival in the top tier I clearly hadn't thought it through!

Would agree Murof if we can’t those games we’d be eaten alive in Div 1. The likes of Mayo, Kerry, Dublin would hand us our arses. Trying to find a single shred of positivity from that game but can’t locate any. Disgusted.

We are probably the number one reason blanket defences survive!! Just stick 15 in the other half and we are absolutely clueless.

I'm actually livid about this result. Not because we lost I'm well used to that but there wouldn't be one person in the footballing world who wouldn't know how they would play. For God's sake Gallagher did an interview on RTE a couple of weeks ago and said exactly how they would set up. And yet it looks like it came as a shock to us.
What have they been told in training all week. I bet Fermanagh couldn't believe their luck. Discipline once again non existent. Might as well just start with 14 from now on as we always finish with it.

I am / was a fan of O'Neill but today was scandalous. Have we improved at all in three and a half years. I'm doubtful. The Mayo win has kept him in charge but other than that win we have been generally poor.

What's more our chances of promotion have been pissed away. But as has been said we have no business being near Div 1. Questions need asking whether they will us another thing.

What a load of rubbish.

The Mayo win kept O’Neill in the hot-seat but there is no papering over how atrocious that performance was.

We know we’re not Dublin or Kerry but we have decent underage success this decade, and the idea that we can only score one point from play in a full game, and make a rudimentary blanket defence look like an ingenious tactical masterclass, is simply not on.

I’m sorry but it’s unacceptable. Serious soul searching required in next fortnight.

Too right. We dont have a coherent fucking plan. We cant fucking tackle. We cant fucking defend. We play with no fucking tactical nous at all. We are a bunch of highly talented athletic players lacking completely in tactical awareness, and direction.

We need to get Geezer back. At least we played like a team with a purpose. O’Neill’s imprint is not on this team. I disagree with Hauted Graffiti, we can compete with Kerry. We outplayed them last summer until flynn was sent off and we must compete with Dublin because if we don’t/can’t few or no-one else fucking will. We need a manager with a track record or coming up with a plan and implementing it and knocking some fucking discipline and tactical nous into the players. If we have a full panel, professional set-up, full S&C and manager with proper tactical nous these players are athletic and talented enough to beat any team in the country (including fucking fernanagh and including fucking Dublin).

Too right. We dont have a coherent fucking plan. We cant fucking tackle. We cant fucking defend. We play with no fucking tactical nous at all. We are a bunch of highly talented athletic players lacking completely in tactical awareness, and direction.

We need to get Geezer back. At least we played like a team with a purpose. O’Neill’s imprint is not on this team. I disagree with Hauted Graffiti, we can compete with Kerry. We outplayed them last summer until flynn was sent off and we must compete with Dublin because if we don’t/can’t few or no-one else fucking will. We need a manager with a track record or coming up with a plan and implementing it and knocking some fucking discipline and tactical nous into the players. If we have a full panel, professional set-up, full S&C and manager with proper tactical nous these players are athletic and talented enough to beat any team in the country (including fucking fernanagh and including fucking Dublin).

Well I’ll certainly give you Fermanagh...

Our underage record this decade: three Leinster minor titles; an U21 Leinster; one U20 Leinster & AI. Plus club provincial titles for Dempsey & Masterson and U20 Footballer of the Year for Hyland.

Fermanagh’s record: no minor titles, no U21 titles and no All Irelands. Plus no club titles & no footballers of the year.

But, like, they play a blanket defence which as we know is completely unheard of in modern game.

Seriously we cannot delude ourselves that that performance is any way acceptable. As Rex says, time for some hard questions to be asked.

Seriously what is the point in all of us supporting these successful underage teams, if at senior level we just keep failing abysmally when it comes to the crunch.

Like Carlow game last year, whole enterprise just feels like complete waste of time. Ugh.

Fluctuations in form under O’Neill are genuinely astonishing, confounding.

In the same managerial tenure, we have had one of all-time greatest Kildare wins over Mayo, as well as the three worst Kildare championship performances I’ve ever seen (Wexford & Westmeath 2016 and Carlow last year).

It is GUBU stuff.

HauntedGraffiti wrote:

Seriously what is the point in all of us supporting these successful underage teams, if at senior level we just keep failing abysmally when it comes to the crunch.

Like Carlow game last year, whole enterprise just feels like complete waste of time. Ugh.

Playing under 20 is not the same as playing at senior level...

Not a bit shocked we lost that.. nothing much between any of the Teams in this Division.
0ne point from play won't win to many games.

Snowwhite wrote:

HauntedGraffiti wrote:

Seriously what is the point in all of us supporting these successful underage teams, if at senior level we just keep failing abysmally when it comes to the crunch.

Like Carlow game last year, whole enterprise just feels like complete waste of time. Ugh.

Playing under 20 is not the same as playing at senior level...

Have to pull you up on that. Man of the match tonight in Dublin Kerry was Moynihan who u20s contained fairly well in that all ireland semi last July.

In danger of these u20s becoming afflicted by the malaise and brain dead football that has long afflicted the seniors under O’Neill