No I was driving you dipstick.
Yet you were able to reply to that post an hour ago.
Strange, you must have poor wit latency.
You are a sad little man. Iâve been driving between those two replies.
Youâve little to be doing outside of posting inane biased ramblings.
Youâve replied to the same post twice, an hour apart.
Is that down to your slow wit?
I was only in the car and is a hurry. I do apologise if Iâm not prioritising dealing with your stupidnes s over my actual daily life.
Who is going to win the match tomorrow, and how tactically will they win it?
Who do you expect to be the dominant players?
Astonishing disappearence from nembo when he gets asked a straight question.
Heâs at the Sligo-Antrim game.
He was online well after the question. He usually reslonds in super duper fast time.
Does he not have a smart phone?
Itâs two teams on a very similar level so a bit like last year it will be decided on the fine margins.
Tyrone are the most established team right now, Donegal will have 5 lads starting tomorrow (Gallagher, Thompson, McGee, Carroll and Brennan) who will never have started a game of this magnitude before. This is the Ulster Championship and it can be brutally unforgiving if these lads stall. Thereâs not a lot on the Donegal bench that youâd feel can come in and offer much - Gillespie, Lacey and Langan probably the height of it.
I can see changes on the Tyrone side, I think we could see McCarron, McClure, Justy, McCurry or Mulgrew come in. Either way I expect Tyrone to get a much more tangible impact from their bench in the latter stages of the game. McCurry, Rory Brennan and McGeary all came off the bench to hit points in the second half last year and Iâd expect a similar output today. I can particularly see Mulgrew and McClure having a big impact later on.
The match ups will be important.
McCarron took up Murphy last year and it will be interesting to see if he is told to follow him again should he start.
McNamee will likely take up McBrearty as he has done really well on him previously
Hampsey on McFadden
Rory Brennan has had the upper hand on Ryan McHugh in recent years
I think Gallagher will stick Martin OâReilly on Peter Harte
McGrath will take Mark Bradley
Neil McGee will take Sean Cavanagh
It will be interesting to see who Gallagher will decide to task with Mattie Donnelly. Donnelly will likely roam out the middle of the pitch so he has a decision to let him wander of get Eoghan Ban Gallagher to tag him.
Iâm expecting a cagey, tense affair not dissimilar to the previous Tyrone-Donegal, Donegal-Monaghan meetings with the two teams cancelling out each other out and the game coming down to the fine margins. Frees could decide this also which would give Donegal a big advantage,
I see a narrow 2 point victory for Tyrone with a similar pattern to last year, the breeze was a big factor in last yearâs game but I donât think either side can afford to go 4/5 points down in a game like this, as both sides are set up to defend leads and not chase them.
I would envisage one change on each side before throw in
McCarron for McGeary
Gillespie for Brennan
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great post
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The greatest provincial rivalry of this decade has often been damned as excuses for cynicism, over-aggression and downright defensive football.
Yet nothing has come close to Donegal-Tyrone in terms of competitiveness.
Close in proximity, close in familiarity but more than anything else close on the scoreboard, their meetings have been sustaining the first half of the football championship for years when, at least up to this season, there has been nothing worth shouting about.
More of the same is expected in Clones on Sunday.
At this stage, why there hasnât been yet a draw is something of a mystery when itâs in these countiesâ nature never to let the other one too far out of their sights.
Fifteen facts and figures from their five previous Ulster SFC clashes this decade bear that out:
Donegal may have claimed victory in four of the five meetings since 2011 when they scored 2-6 to Tyroneâs 0-9 but the average margin between the sides is 2.2 points.
That margin is all the more interesting when you consider Tyrone have only scored one goal against Donegal in those fixtures â Darren McCurryâs in the 2015 Ulster quarter-final (Donegal 1-13 Tyrone 1-10). Donegal have managed five â Colm McFadden, Dermot Molloy (both 2011), McFadden, Ross Wherity (2013) and Martin McElhinney (2015).
Two of the games â 2012 (Donegal 0-12 Tyrone 0-10) and 2016 (Tyrone 0-13 Donegal 0-11) â ended goal-less when the difference between the teams on each occasion was two points.
Of the six goals scored, three of them have come in the first half â McFaddenâs 32nd minute goal in 2013, a game which finished Donegal 2-10 Tyrone 0-10, and McCurryâs (10th) and McElhinneyâs (35th) in the 2015 fixture.
If you are looking for an indication of what the winning score will be on Sunday, 13 or 14 total points works out as the average with 10 or 11 points as the losing total.
Tyrone may have lost on four of the five but they led at half-time in two of them â 2011 and 2012. On each occasion, they registered six points to four and five from Donegal respectively. Donegal have been ahead after 35 minutes in the last three matches.
The interval difference has been two points on three occasions and one on one occasion, 2012. The three-point half-time lead enjoyed by Donegal last year was the largest in the series. The average difference at halfway is two points.
Donegalâs reputation as a third quarter/second half team has proved undoubted in this fixture â up until last yearâs Ulster final, anyway. In the four previous meetings, they have won the second half by five, three, four and one point respectively. Tyrone turned around a five-point half-time deficit last year.
Both the 2011 and 2016 games were decided by additional time scores, Molloyâs late goal six years ago and Tyroneâs brace of points in Clones last season. Only Paul Durcan and a post prevented another from Martin Penrose in the 2012 game.
Inside the last 20 minutes of normal time, the teams have been level in three of the five meetings â in 2011 they entered injury-time all square before Molloyâs goal. In 2015, Tyrone drew level in the 51st minute while last year the teams werenât separated until the fourth minute of additional time. In 2012 and 2013, Donegal managed to retain a lead from just before the 50th minute until the end.
While a multitude of yellow cards have been shown, just five players have been sent off â Kevin Hughes (2011), McFadden (2012), Joe McMahon (2013), Neil Gallagher (2015) and SeĂĄn Cavanagh (2015). All of the dismissals were for two-card offences.
In the pairâs two duels since the introduction of the black card, only Tyrone have picked them up â Cavanagh when being sent off in 2015 having previously been yellow carded and Mattie Donnelly and Cathal McShane in last yearâs Ulster final.
Not surprisingly, the GAA referees appointment committee recruit the leading match officials for such volatile occasions. Joe McQuillan has taken charge in three of the meetings â 2011, 2014 and 2015. David Coldrick is the man in the middle on Sunday having previously refereed the pair in 2012 and 2016.
Of the 107 scores across the five meetings, surprisingly only 25, all points, have come from frees. A further three have been 45s.
The now retired Colm McFadden is Donegalâs highest scorer in the meetings, having amassed 2-9 (0-3 frees). Michael Murphy is next best having produced 13 points, 10 of them frees and one 45. SeĂĄn Cavanagh is top scorer for Tyrone with 11 points, five of them frees. The retired Stephen OâNeill is second to him with five points. The most scored by one player in a game was McFadden in 2013. From play, McElhinneyâs 1-2 is unrivalled. Nobody shoots the lights out. Nobody does because theyâre not allowed to.
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McCarron for Rory Brennan
Mulgrew for Meyler
Doherty for Ward
E McHugh for McFadden
The boys in the studio look shook in HD
12 week ban already for Mickey harte for slapping the linesman on the shoulder while shaking hands.
McCarron has some egg in the nest going on
Not a 45
The ball never went out. Bad call by the umpire.
Morgan kept that in play, I thought.