McCartan keeps his focus on home goals

GAELIC FOOTBALL ALL STAR TOUR 2009 All Stars 10-8 2010 All Stars 9-11(2009 win 4-1 on penalties): THAT'S NOT a misprint – and it's understandable that some people take the annual GAA All Star game a little more seriously than others. So even though James McCartan acted as the winning manager here he certainly wasn't getting carried away with himself.

Down’s defeat in the All-Ireland football final last September was the more relevant subject of our post-match analysis here on Saturday, and McCartan hardly disguised the fact it still hurts.

Down had a good year, yes – but McCartan knows all too well that, in football terms, and especially Ulster football, you really are only as good as your last game.

“Obviously the disappointment is still there a wee bit,” said McCartan. “When you lose an All-Ireland final it is not a nice place to be. There is some satisfaction that we did reasonably well, but at the same time we still came home with no silverware.

“Tyrone, who at all these end-of-year awards seem to be somewhat overlooked in the All Stars, etc, but they have the Anglo Celt Cup. I would have been very happy to have come home with that . . .

“We put our head above the precipice to a certain extent, but now we are right back in. As you guys know when talking about the favourites for the All-Ireland next year we are not one of them . . .

“Normally when we have a reasonable year we then go asleep for a couple more years. Trying to ensure that that doesn’t happen is something we’re going to look at. We have probably now encouraged all the teams in the pack that it can be done, as we probably did in 1991 – encouraged Donegal, Derry and other teams from the north that this is achievable . . .”

It’s clear McCartan is already planning for 2011, the thoughts of the coming season are already on his mind: “Last year, when we started this gig, it was a case of try and stay in Division Two and win a championship match.

“For me our goals will not have changed. It is stay in Division One and win a championship match. We have to go to Armagh, and going to Armagh in the first round of the championship is huge. Especially as we are like a sitting duck to Armagh at the moment. They are seeing us off on All Star trips and it is set up beautifully for them.”

In the meantime, if by chance Down meet Roscommon at some point in the championship next summer McCartan will know to watch out for Cathal Cregg. The young Roscommon forward was top-scorer in Saturday’s game, hitting 4-2, although he ended up on the losing side.

Cregg was introduced as a first-half substitute and all four goals came in the second half of a game that was decided by a penalty shoot-out after the sides finished deadlocked at full-time following a 19-goal spree.

While Cregg dominated the second-half scoring, 2010 Player of the Year Bernard Brogan was the star of the first half and finished the half with 1-3 from play.

The other highlight of the first-half was the point scored by Asian All Star Nguyen Ngoc Quynh – a journalist by trade who only took up Gaelic football three months ago and plays second division soccer in Vietnam.

In the end the 2009 All Stars were awarded the winning trophy after a penalty shoot-out, triumphing 4-1, the deciding goals coming from Donie Shine, Donncha O’Connor and Leighton Glynn – with Donncha O’Connor replying for the 2010 All Stars.

2009 ALL STARS: A Quirke (Cork); K Lacey (Donegal), M Shields (Cork), B Cahill (Dublin) (1-0); R McMenamin (Tyrone), K McKernan (Down) (1-0), J Miskella (Cork) (2-0); N Murphy (Cork), S Scanlon (Kerry); L Glynn (Wicklow) (1-0), P O'Neill (Cork) (1-0), J Sheridan (Meath) (2-0); D Goulding (Cork) (2-3), D Shine (Roscommon) (0-3), M McCann (Antrim) (0-1). Subs: Nguyen Ngoc Quynh (Vietnam Asian All Star) (0-1).

2010 ALL STARS: B McVeigh (Down); P McMahon (Dublin), Justin McMahon (Tyrone), C Harrison (Sligo); P Kissane (Cork); A Moran (Mayo), Joe McMahon (Tyrone); P Keenan (Louth), A Walsh (Cork) (1-1); D O'Connor (Cork) (1-0), M Clarke (Down) (0-2), P Kerrigan (Cork) (0-2); D Kelly (Sligo) (0-1), B Brogan (Dublin) (2-3), B Coulter (Down) (1-0). Subs: C Cregg (Roscommon) (4-2).

Referees: David Coldrick(Meath) and Michael Wadding(Waterford).