awh for god sake will everyone stop with the hard luck stories, the pat on the back, well done for trying rubbish.its non-sense.Its not good enough at this level.When the big teams lose they dont go on praisin their team for the effort.The win is what counts and Monaghan fall short too many time.and its not a coincidence or hrad luck or referees.its solely down to them.

anbhoth15 (Monaghan) - Posts: 103 - 28/03/2010 17:20:37    601386

We did bottle it 2day.!!Same old story.!! What the hell was freeman doin in the backs?! He fouled consistent!! No forwards and midfield was poor!!
Back 2 division 2 , im certain of that!! We simpley just dont have the players for division 1.

Na_Clairsigh (Monaghan) - Posts: 70 - 28/03/2010 17:44:03    601416

But thats the most frustratin thing- WE DO HAVE THE PLAYERS.look at the likes of K.Hughes and Walsh and Greenan and i thought they were brilliant for the most part.Its the more senior lads lettin the team down.Silly tackles like as u mentioned from Tommy and wasted chances in the 1st half when we were cruisin.Hanratty, Hughie and Tommy all guily of wastin chances.This lack of knowledge and know how to close out games is drivin the supporters mad.How have they not learned from their mistakes after years and years of making the same mistake?

anbhoth15 (Monaghan) - Posts: 103 - 28/03/2010 18:02:04    601450

We were very naive at the end of the first half. Time was up after the three minutes of added time. Keeper should have been instructed to kick the ball straight over the sideline. Instead it was kicked into the middle of field, Mayo broke and scored a goal. Instead of a 5 point lead, a 2 point lead. Learning some very harsh lesson in this division. Hopefully will stand to us. Frustrating result but there were positives.

Mighty Mon (Monaghan) - Posts: 5 - 28/03/2010 19:00:12    601542

Just back from the game. Monaghan played fantastic for 50 mins, but it's true what they say "goals win games." Once our defence was under severe pressure, I always had a fear that Mayo would score goals, they penetrated our full-back line easily enough. Thats something we need to improve on. Mayo's goal before half-time came aprox. 5 mins into injury time, but no point moaning about it, these things happen.
On the positive side, we showed that are able to play a decent game of football & we can look forward to perhaps a reasonable championship campaign.
In the short term, if we tighten up at the back, there is no reason why we cannot go to Tralee & cause a little shock to some of our national pundits!
That will be some game, winners WILL stay up, losers probably go down!
ps; one defender who was superb again was Darren Hughes. By the way I reckon he must have been 65+yds out for the free he pointed in the 1st half!

Monaghan Exile (Monaghan) - Posts: 444 - 28/03/2010 19:11:04    601554

and another thing.although or defence did reasonably well in the first half, ANYTIME a team attacks Monaghan you just always feel something is goin to come of it and the other team will score.there just doesnt seem to be any solidity in the backline.

anbhoth15 (Monaghan) - Posts: 103 - 28/03/2010 19:15:34    601563

Monaghan Exile u sum up everything that is wrong with the attitude-

'we showed that are able to play a decent game of football & we can look forward to perhaps a reasonable championship campaign.'

Nothing like settling for mediocrity.

I look forward to a 'reasonable championship campaign'

so if we win 1 or 2 games we should have a party???reminds me of the farce that was Ireland bein knocked out of the World Cup in 2002 by Spain in the second round.They were greated with an open top bus through Dublin and a packed reception in the Phoenix Park.laughable

anbhoth15 (Monaghan) - Posts: 103 - 28/03/2010 19:32:02    601580

lost the game at the end of the first half during the 4th min of extra time

fair play to Mayo

ochonlir (Cavan) - Posts: 4343 - 28/03/2010 19:34:26    601584

The lads played great stuff today for the first 50 minutes especially the U21 boys who have really grown during this campaign. I dont know why the team seemed to fade badly in the last quarter whether its heavy training or what would be good to get some views on this. If our fitness levels improve a bit and we get a solid back line and quit conceding goals the team can do things this summer. To all the doom and gloom heads would be good to hear what ye would say if we were in Div 3 or Div 4. Do ye not know this team is punching way above its weight for a county with the playing resources we have. Bring on Kerry we will be total underdogs and have a feeling it will suit the team to be in that position.

seanie08 (Monaghan) - Posts: 1909 - 28/03/2010 19:59:39    601635

Still cant understand y freeman was put out the field?!!! Any1 know y??!!
You would never see this with gooch cooper or goulding??

Na_Clairsigh (Monaghan) - Posts: 70 - 28/03/2010 20:25:49    601657

I was at the match today and I think Monaghan looked very good. They totally dominated the first half in all areas and were unlucky to be only 2 points up at half time. Monaghan came out for the second half and pushed 6 ahead again. I think Mayo's fitness and experience came to the fore at the latter stages to help them win, but a draw would have been a fair result, and one I would have settled for 15 minutes into the second half.

Monaghan will give Kerry a great game, and I wish them luck.

By the way, I was sitting amongst a few Monaghan supporters today and the craic was great. They are passionate about their football. The atmosphere was like a championship match as the game was very lively from the outset.

bringbackmc (Mayo) - Posts: 30 - 28/03/2010 21:18:53    601740

Im annoyed tonight as i sit here and write this. In my opinion one change was needed at half time dermot mcardle subbed and replaced by jp moen. Vinny is not back to full fitness and throwing him in was crazy. Ive long been a banty fan but today him and his selection team lost it for us and maybe even our place in division 1. All the big manageers in GAA make big calls - Tommy Freeman stayed on the field all the time. His perfromance in the campaign has been poor. IS it a case that some players are bigger than the manager? And as usual jinx was pulled ashore the workhorse of the team. Conor mcmanus is by far our best forward and in my opinion ciarain hanraty does not deserve his place - how many time does he need to prove himself. The blame lies firmly at banty decisions today. Pure and utter frustration can anyone blame mcquaid for walking - weve become predicatable!!

cmxu (Monaghan) - Posts: 28 - 28/03/2010 21:45:22    601800

Completly agree cmx. I sat in castlebar yest in frustration as i could see our lead slippin and slipping away and what does banty do? Put on V Corey. Hanratty is going to have to be dropped from panel in my opinion, he simply is not of county standard never mind div 1 footballing standard. I would be the very one to look on the positives but we all have to face facts, we are heading for div 2.

It also seems as if Jap is starting to loose heed, as if he is sick of carrying the team on his shoulders. Anotherwords that he has to do everything. Hope that is cut out sooner rather than later. No player is bigger than a team!!!!!

MuineachanAbu (Monaghan) - Posts: 661 - 29/03/2010 10:39:05    601932

in fairness, we wont be writing home about that game.

voiceofreason (Mayo) - Posts: 588 - 29/03/2010 11:19:40    601981

didnt get to the game but watched it at home, it makes me so mad that i can sit at home and c all the tings going wrong, and banty is there as close as it gets and he cant c anyting,.

yoyoyo22 (Monaghan) - Posts: 167 - 29/03/2010 11:27:21    601997

have been one of Tommy's greatest fans over the years but yesterday his heart did not really seem in it like it used to didnt really look a threat at all to Mayo

maybe the prospect of putting one over Kerry will motivate him

seanie08 (Monaghan) - Posts: 1909 - 29/03/2010 11:39:38    602008

Tommy floating around the half back line resulted in at least two scores that he gave away to Mayo - two free's in front of goal - one which was missed and his man passed him by and slotted over another - he also picked up a yellow card - I mean this has to be finger pointed back to Banty and Co

Jacky08 (None) - Posts: 136 - 29/03/2010 11:43:20    602012

An earlier poster made a good point in relation to the timing of the first mayo goal and that maybe Duffy should have driven his last kick-out into the stand for half time, just like the Mayo keeper did at the very end. Can the goalkeeper, or any player for that matter ask the ref if the time is up, and then decide to knock it out of play. The time is still up to the ref and at the moment he is the only one who knows if it is the last play or not. Anyway that aside that goal was a sickener. 5 up at half time was a good lead going in at the break but 2 didn't seem like it was going to be enough considering the breeze. The start of the 2nd half was brilliant from monaghan knocking over 3 or 4 unanswered points but I think every monaghan fan in the place thought our full back line was in trouble and JP Mone should have been thrown on. By the time he did come on the momentum was in the green corner and most of the major damage was done.

Tim_NicebutDim (Monaghan) - Posts: 347 - 29/03/2010 11:49:26    602019

I was over at the game yesterday and thought that we played really well for most of the game. The young fellas are getting better as the league goes on. Colm Greenan had the better of Aidan O'Shea right up until O'Shea scored the goal. Mayo were trying to get the ball to him at every opportunity during the first half to their detriment as they passed up good point scoring opportunities to try and go for a goal.
Banty made a mistake by panicking then and taking young Greenan off him and putting Darren Hughes marking him instead as Greenan was generally in control and Darren was missed from the midfield area. Colin Walshe put in another good performance and Kieran Hughes played some fantastic football. He is moving the ball quicker than he has done before and showed some great tackling, interceptions and heads up football..he has stopped his messing around and is playing more for the team. Dermot Malone won a lot of the breaking ball until he went of injured. Dessie put in one of his best performances in ages and had the better of Conor Mortimer.
Where we lost it apart from the goals was that Paul Finlay went out off it in midfield, he was injured in the first half and didn't really compete on the kickouts after that, along with Dermot Malone going off and Darren going into fullback, this seriously weakened the team in this area. Finally with 10 mins to go the team looked out on their legs, whether it was they had already put so much effort into the rest of the game or it's to do with their current training regimen we lost shape and stopped playing. at one stage there was 3 Monaghan forwards inside trying to work the ball in from the sideline, they were surround by Mayo defenders, which eventually they lost, meanwhile there was 4 Monaghan men standing in the midfield area with hands on their hips watching and no mayo men anywhere close to them. I also think that Banty was premature in taking off Hugh McElroy, Ciaran Hannarty didn't prove to be any better, and when he had two men running in on goal in the first half, he passed it out wide to Malone instead of passing down the middle for him to run onto it and score a goal. He has the skills but so has McElroy. and McElroy makes better decisions.

Farney (Monaghan) - Posts: 819 - 29/03/2010 12:47:18    602157

Surely for half time stoppage time there should be no incentive for any player to kick the ball over the line. There is still another 35 minutes to be played. Surely this instruction should come from the line in any case. Anyway from watching it on TV, the Mayo point before the first goal was after the 3 minutes of injury time had been played and should have been blown up then by the ref. As it was and despite the delays in the 2nd half the ref saw it fit to only award 2 minutes for stoppages. Bizarre. We seem to be forever doomed to be the nearly men. Always a good show but never good luck!

GerryD (Monaghan) - Posts: 338 - 29/03/2010 12:47:27    602159