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Congratulations to Down on a thoroughly well deserved victory today. Hopefully they can handle the turnaround and reset for Armagh next weekend.
A very disappointing day in what's been a bad week between today and the twenties during the week. Can add in the minors too over the last 8 days. Talk about a challenge not fitting it's purpose between the seniors and the 20's. Langan gets injured and both teams seemingly deflated of energy according to the respective managers. Normally today would not be the end of the world in the grand scheme but a tough road will be tougher without Langan. Very hard to put things and today's performance into perspective as I didn't get to go to the game today (too late looking for a ticket and under 50 given to the club in any event). However the line up did surprise given the league final performance. Congratulations to everyone at Eunans today. The place looked fantastic however given our record there one league game a year is the most I want to see us there in the future.
panamasam (Australia) - Posts: 2942 - 26/04/2026 23:42:39
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Some good excuses on here. The pitch … langan etc clutching at straws lads
veterngaa (Monaghan) - Posts: 1018 - 27/04/2026 07:04:23
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Wil Michael Murphy stay on again next year if he doesn't win the All Ireland this year ? Wouldn't be fair putting any responsibility on gallen and other young men!!!
monaghanmad (Monaghan) - Posts: 478 - 27/04/2026 08:40:34
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Fair play to Down, Played well from start to finish. I hope they go on to win ulster. Congrats.
As for our own boys hard luck, you kept fighting to the end . I'm sure you will regroup and be in the hunt later on in the championship.
ulsterrules (Donegal) - Posts: 274 - 27/04/2026 09:15:25
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Well that was a sore one. Down were thoroughly deserving winners and we can have no complaints. There were a few gripes about the referee, but they weren't the losing of this match.
For whatever reason, I think we were flat yesterday and lacked the same kind of zip and vigor that Down played with. Far too often we got to the arc, and proceeded with long, slow lateral passages of play and Down were content to sit in. They were very well organised and tuned in. On the flip side, when Down got into the same kinds of positions, they repeatedly pierced our cover and got inside for easy scorable chances. I don't think we scored any handy points yesterday, other than a couple of frees? I suppose that's testament to Down's organisation, fair play to them.
Michael Langan is obviously a huge loss. We can only hope that his injury isn't as severe as rumoured.
We await the All Ireland draw with bated breath. It's a tough road from here. But how often have we wondered if winning Ulster was detrimental to our All Ireland chances? We'll get our asnwer in the coming months I suppose.
Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 10309 - 27/04/2026 09:44:48
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Just an aside - what is it with Monaghan supporters sticking the knife in? If I was from a county that lost every league game and just about dispatached a poor Cavan outfit I wouldn't be squawking like a goose about anything.
Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 10309 - 27/04/2026 09:47:39
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Replying To veterngaa: "Some good excuses on here. The pitch … langan etc clutching at straws lads" Must be another slow day in moanaghan....
totalrecall (Leitrim) - Posts: 1224 - 27/04/2026 09:52:44
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Replying To Lockjaw: "Just an aside - what is it with Monaghan supporters sticking the knife in? If I was from a county that lost every league game and just about dispatached a poor Cavan outfit I wouldn't be squawking like a goose about anything." They know full well they will be battling to avoid division 3 and Tealteain cup in the years ahead. But if a Donegal defeat cheers some of them up, isn't it great!!
NORTHMEN (Donegal) - Posts: 34 - 27/04/2026 10:55:55
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I don't buy this stuff about a break being good etc. We played a heap of games last year and sometimes back to back to back, and before the final our only flat performance was Tyrone at home. Players will always tell you they prefer preparing for a game than they do a block of training. Who is the happier squad this morning, Down will be bouncing in to the week to take on Armagh this weekend, our lads will be very deflated. The 4 week break didn't seem to do us any good yesterday for energy levels or getting lads up to fitness I can tell you that. I would be a little worried now depending on the draw for that first day out in 4 or 5 weeks time.
That's the doomsday in me but at the same time I would trust Jim and the leaders in the squad to get themselves right. Very rarely have I thought they didn't put in a big performance or keep fighting. Even yesterday the energy just wasn't there at all but Mogan's 2 pointer brought us within a score in the final few minutes. So they will keep going and they are great ambassadors for Donegal in that respect. They just need to get the preparation right now. Gallen needs to get a full 70 minutes in him, he's so good when he gets in to the rhythm of things. The one in the 2nd half yesterday off his left was just a thing of beauty. Ciarán Moore was clearly nowhere near his best yesterday. O'Baoill couldn't get in to the game at all with his first appearance back after injury. Shane O'Donnell was quiet and didn't look himself. Jason I thought floated in and out of the game, a big big two pointer but other than that was he as good as he had been in the league? No I don't think so at all. So a lot of players who you'd consider very important for us to get up to speed, I trust them to do it, and if the rumour about Langan is true then frankly they have no option but to do it, they all need to step up big time.
Just a word on O'Donnell Park as well, it looked great yesterday fair play to Eunans, but god I would love just a little bit of a terrace, it would elevate the ground to a live option for more regular intercounty games big time (even though I think I've only seen us win twice there in all my years!) That side of the ground is not a comfortable place to watch a match at all, as brilliant as the stand and the pitch looked.
CCFabu (Donegal) - Posts: 322 - 27/04/2026 11:00:19
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Replying To Ulsterchamps_32: "If it was completely do or die then maybe fair enough on gallen but he's only just back from injury and he is injury prone. It also did take him a while to find his rythm today. That game was also probably gone anyway and if he stayed on and got injured what would you be doing then. If donegal are to have any chance later in the year then they need mister gallen on full tilt.
I think you're being harsh on the panel. No team would want to lose a langan and no team has a suitable replacement for their top players. The likes of moore and obaoill do need match sharpness, some club football might help them. Malone did show someting when he came on for gallen as well and does anyone really think the whole of the ball was wide before he passed it across." It was wide, but was a good effort. I wouldn't lay any blame at feet of Malone, but he was effectively nullified from the moment he came on bar a 2pter when the match was lost.
We lost the game on poor defensive structure and bad mismatches. Hugh McFadden and Finbarr Roarty appear to be the only starters capable of standing men up and forcing turnovers, and even then Finbar was very lucky not have conceded a penalty rather than a 13m free as it was a clear foul on the corner of the box.
Simply put, we don't have the right men in the right positions. Galway exposed that in 2024. Kerry isolated the same weaknesses last summer that was never rectified. Down drove home the point again yesterday. Different players same profile mismatches.
Really strong performances from McGonagle, McFadden, McGee. They were box-to-box all day long and rarely put a foot wrong. Unfortunately you can't have McGonagle and McFadden in both boxes at once. Needed another full back and a full forward from the start to support our midfield.
SurelyToGod (Donegal) - Posts: 520 - 27/04/2026 11:01:41
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Replying To CCFabu: "I don't buy this stuff about a break being good etc. We played a heap of games last year and sometimes back to back to back, and before the final our only flat performance was Tyrone at home. Players will always tell you they prefer preparing for a game than they do a block of training. Who is the happier squad this morning, Down will be bouncing in to the week to take on Armagh this weekend, our lads will be very deflated. The 4 week break didn't seem to do us any good yesterday for energy levels or getting lads up to fitness I can tell you that. I would be a little worried now depending on the draw for that first day out in 4 or 5 weeks time.
That's the doomsday in me but at the same time I would trust Jim and the leaders in the squad to get themselves right. Very rarely have I thought they didn't put in a big performance or keep fighting. Even yesterday the energy just wasn't there at all but Mogan's 2 pointer brought us within a score in the final few minutes. So they will keep going and they are great ambassadors for Donegal in that respect. They just need to get the preparation right now. Gallen needs to get a full 70 minutes in him, he's so good when he gets in to the rhythm of things. The one in the 2nd half yesterday off his left was just a thing of beauty. Ciarán Moore was clearly nowhere near his best yesterday. O'Baoill couldn't get in to the game at all with his first appearance back after injury. Shane O'Donnell was quiet and didn't look himself. Jason I thought floated in and out of the game, a big big two pointer but other than that was he as good as he had been in the league? No I don't think so at all. So a lot of players who you'd consider very important for us to get up to speed, I trust them to do it, and if the rumour about Langan is true then frankly they have no option but to do it, they all need to step up big time.
Just a word on O'Donnell Park as well, it looked great yesterday fair play to Eunans, but god I would love just a little bit of a terrace, it would elevate the ground to a live option for more regular intercounty games big time (even though I think I've only seen us win twice there in all my years!) That side of the ground is not a comfortable place to watch a match at all, as brilliant as the stand and the pitch looked." Hats off to unanswered agree re terrace, the banks are terrible place to watch a game, lack of investment since Dr jimmy gave them the big lump for the stand
totalrecall (Leitrim) - Posts: 1224 - 27/04/2026 11:18:01
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Congratulations to Down, deserved winners yesterday, without a doubt the better team on the day.
Excellent tactical execution by Conor Laverty and Tony McEntee, they let us have short kick-outs, because they had done their homework on our regular attacking gameplan, and had deployed a defensive strategy to reduce our attacking effectiveness. They bypassed our midfield duo of Hugh McFadden and Jason McGee, and also were able to nullify our support player with the exception of maybe Peadar Mogan and Oisin Gallen.
After Conor Laverty mentioned that the Down squad had given up their lives for the past 10 days to fully prepare for this game, including the trip to Kerry. It definitely did the trick.
Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1786 - 27/04/2026 11:33:20
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Replying To CCFabu: "I don't buy this stuff about a break being good etc. We played a heap of games last year and sometimes back to back to back, and before the final our only flat performance was Tyrone at home. Players will always tell you they prefer preparing for a game than they do a block of training. Who is the happier squad this morning, Down will be bouncing in to the week to take on Armagh this weekend, our lads will be very deflated. The 4 week break didn't seem to do us any good yesterday for energy levels or getting lads up to fitness I can tell you that. I would be a little worried now depending on the draw for that first day out in 4 or 5 weeks time.
That's the doomsday in me but at the same time I would trust Jim and the leaders in the squad to get themselves right. Very rarely have I thought they didn't put in a big performance or keep fighting. Even yesterday the energy just wasn't there at all but Mogan's 2 pointer brought us within a score in the final few minutes. So they will keep going and they are great ambassadors for Donegal in that respect. They just need to get the preparation right now. Gallen needs to get a full 70 minutes in him, he's so good when he gets in to the rhythm of things. The one in the 2nd half yesterday off his left was just a thing of beauty. Ciarán Moore was clearly nowhere near his best yesterday. O'Baoill couldn't get in to the game at all with his first appearance back after injury. Shane O'Donnell was quiet and didn't look himself. Jason I thought floated in and out of the game, a big big two pointer but other than that was he as good as he had been in the league? No I don't think so at all. So a lot of players who you'd consider very important for us to get up to speed, I trust them to do it, and if the rumour about Langan is true then frankly they have no option but to do it, they all need to step up big time.
Just a word on O'Donnell Park as well, it looked great yesterday fair play to Eunans, but god I would love just a little bit of a terrace, it would elevate the ground to a live option for more regular intercounty games big time (even though I think I've only seen us win twice there in all my years!) That side of the ground is not a comfortable place to watch a match at all, as brilliant as the stand and the pitch looked." Re Langan. Jim said after the game it was a rolled ankle so shouldn't be long term. He also walked off the bus into the changing rooms as he normally would. I know myself having had a couple of bad ankle injuries you wouldn't be walking normally for a while after. Someone here also said Patton was gone for the season which isn't the case. Some have been calling for a more concentrated run at the All Ireland and this is the opportunity. If we can get over the first game then I'd be hopeful we can get rolling then.
panamasam (Australia) - Posts: 2942 - 27/04/2026 13:05:00
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