Talking points Wednesday : Tyrone Report

Tyrone, Division 2’s main act came to our local Stage on Sunday and they didn’t disappoint.

An impressive number came out to see them play also, Drogheda after its refurbishments to meet Health and safety standards scrubbed up well.


The pitch widened, dugouts are now in the stand and the steps are a lot more visible now that they were painted a nuclear yellow.

11.30> Class Conversion
The real difference on the day, was the Class of the opposition. Tyrone always had another gear and gave us glimpses when they were pushed. The speed of the hands, power of their running and accuracy of their foot passing was frightful at times.

There were times you couldn’t see the hand pass the ball was moving that fast!!

Their goals epitomised this, direct play quick hands powerful running finished with accuracy. Ultimately they were the difference between the two sides, on the pitch and on the score board.

12:20>Total Football With Tyrone you feel you are getting an education on how to play the game, Their Maestro Mickey Harte has a philosophy and his players play to that System.

It helps that they are good footballers with a high Footballing IQ

Example being, we were getting on top in the opening Quarter our midfield was beginning to dominate so they negate our strengths by taking short kick outs.

Joe McMahon on a number of Occasions dropped back to receive a Kick out his marker Paddy Keenan, wasn’t alert enough.
This clever piece of play gave them the possession they need choked us out of the game.  

Sure, they had the possession but like most teams at this level, They don’t give the ball away, Majority of Tyrone players are comfortable on the ball and are well use to building and setting up attacks from the back.

Making it very hard for us or any team to defend, especially with the half back line they had in place. The fact they scored 2-3 combined showed they did so to detrimental effect.

Enough about Tyrone i hear you say! you're right here we go

13:33>Prodigal sons Return

This experiment had two parts, the first was Mick Fanning starting and the second was the introduction of Brian White for Ronan Carroll in the second half.

In the short term both were in effect a failure,

Mick Struggled to hold the Centre of the defense together and sweep in front of the full backline, a tough task for many against Tyrone. Slightly unfair task for him to ship that weight of responsibility on his first game back.
Brian White substitution made little sense, He kicked a couple of wides and eventually got a score but seems well behind fitness wise.

What we needed at the time to win the game was a spark or someone change the momentum and get us a goal. Sure, Whitzer could be that man off the bench in the future but not at the minute.

Looking at the Experiment Long term they and Louth will be a lot better for it.

15:00>Substitutions

So far I’ve discussed the effectiveness of Tyrone and the naivety of playing our two returnee’s (well maybe not playing them but in giving them both a lot of responsibility too soon)

However Defining Factor boils down to the Management and their substitutions.

Ronan Greene for Mick Fanning, Brian White for Ronan Carroll have already been discussed

but a let me add another talking point.
How good was Ronan Greene when he came on? Used the ball well, ideally suited to picking up Penrose. shoots right back up the pecking order now….where did Pops go? Remember him.

Eoin O’Connor for Mark Brennan
with the game effectively over, why Bring on Eoin O’Connor and risk injury when the U21’s play a quarter final the following Wednesday (tonight) or maybe I’m wrapping my players in cotton wool?

The final two Substitutions had a major bearing on the game.

Jim McEnenaney for Adrian Reid & Darren Clarke for Derek Crilly

Reido was always going to be up against it in marking Cathal McCarron a serious operator at right half back. But he kept McCarron under wraps and forced a great save from Devine after a great run.
Being taken off early in the second half totally played into Tyrone’s hands. McCarron went on to score his second point, set up a penalty.

(This is not a Slight on Jim McEnaney, who funnily enough also did well when he came on but I felt Reido’s game is better equipped to deal with McCarron’s attacking role.)

Derek Crilly was on his way to having his best performance in a Louth shirt, picking up breaks and kicking points off either foot then to be taken off unless he was injured would is scandalous. His marker McCaul grew into the game in his absence and getting goal in the second half killing the game as a contest.

If Darren Clarke could come on as a sub?.....To start the second half….why did he not start full stop?

Looks to me like Fitzer avoided making a couple of hard calls before the game.