Messages

Really shows Barry's character. It would have been acceptable if he had left for champions league football after being a long servant for the club it would have been fair to leave if he could not get the level of football he desires at Villa. it is clear he is only interested in the money. Villa were preparing a huge contract for him, granted they can't compete with City but it would have been more than he deserves and I believe with him Villa would still be closer to Champions League football than City. I am very glad we missed out if this is his attitude.

As for Alonso, if we lose him it will be a huge step backwards, there will be no replacement. Everything must be done to keep him, if we lose him it will be an absolute travesty.

Right Paddy, so this clearly bitter man who won't even go to Clones to watch his own sons never mind his county is to be lauded as a King?

Have to say I had a thorughly enjoyable day out yesterday. Haven't been able to have a few pints before a game in Clones in a long time probably since I was one of those teenagers lying sleeping outside the Paragon. I have always driven in later years but on Sunday, with the weather being so good (yes, I am a fair weather fan) just got up, dragged the youngfella outta bed, filled the car with diesel, threw him £20 quid and told him he was taking us to Clones for the day! (him with an exam on Tuesday)

As for Tony's incident, I suggest you got unlucky. This kind of behaviour isn't the norm.

Its a tricky one the drinking on the bus argument. There is no better craic sometimes than a few tins on a bus heading to Clones on a sunny Sunday and I would be very reluctant to criticise any bus drivers who are lenient enough to allow this.

I understand those who question why someone needs to get shitfaced before a game, its irrelevant to Gaelic football, the wider question would be why does anyone need to get shitfaced before anything? The vast majority of us who enjoy a drink thoroughly enjoy the craic before the game in Clones and the carnival atmosphere.

On that atmosphere, apart from some of the obvious louts (who I may have been oblivious to since I was having such a good day's craic myself) there seemed to me to be a great atmosphere on the streets. The Gards obviously do turn a blind eye to drinking on the street, we were handed plastic cups as we left bars and could move about freely from pub to pub drinking out of a plastic cup - incidently there were plenty of rubbish facilities available and all alcohol was discarded before entering the ground.

It reminded me of the Fleadh a few years ago in Letterkenny, a blind eye turned so that everyone could enjoy themselves freely and as long as you weren't hurting anyone or causing trouble you were left alone. I doubt this would ever happen in Dublin and is probably more of a rural/small town kind of thing. It also probably has a lot to do with the vested interest Clones has in these games, allowing the drinking as the pubs cash in.

I for one think that managed properly then everyone can enjoy themselves in this kind of environment and I would love to get back to Clones this year for another day like that - weather permitting lol.

That article was great reading.

Good man Joe!

[and the likes that i download...]

Did you get a harddrive Nail?  Can you not hook it up to the ps, would save taking up the ps memory


You can with the xbox 
Plug and play.

Aye I got one and I hook it up to the PS3 the od time to watch TV shows and the likes that i download...
But I think I am gonna replace the internal hard drive on the PS3 and keep the other hard drive for my laptop...

Apparently its simple enough to replace the ps3s hard drive, though I will need step by step instructions and will be shitting myself in case I f**k anything up!! Bye Bye Warranty!

The likes? Would these be your 'special' films?

[goalkeeping manual on 'Dealing with a high ball'.]

I see someone said Hearty did well, are you f**king serious? He is terriblle

I have to agree. Any time he got the ball, he hadn't a clue what he was at. More than this, the poor wee minor 'keeper must have read Hearty's goalkeeping manual on 'Dealing with a high ball'.

As in, how completely not to?

Best team won today, to be honest I'm very pleased with the Armagh lads who busted themselves to get that close. I thought Tyrone were 10 points better than us today and should have won by more.

I see someone said Hearty did well, are you f**king serious? He is terriblle, no way is he Armaghs best keeper.

I thought we looked rudderless to be honest, I would get rid of McDonnell right now to be honest if were going to do anything in the qualifiers. Obviously its not going to happen but he is not going to take that team anywhere.

Who captained Tyrone 2day?

Ricey and he won the toss!

In an unrelated point, I have a cousin who has learning difficulties.

[68 pages before a ball is kicked is low key?]

Strangely content this evening, even though we lost. Reasons to be positive though with the minors coming through a really tough test and the sky the limit for them now, and our seniors putting up a decent showing.

Thought the minors just about deserved their win. They looked set to stroll home after opening up a 4 point lead early in the second half but then conceded a really soft goal (an effort for a point from about 35 yards out that flew between the keepers arms). Tyrone then took complete control for the next 15 minutes and only for winning the peno we were beat. The game really hinged on putting the penalty away and Tasker was coolness personified sending the keeper the other way. My only criticism of these lads is that there may be issues with fitness, a lot of them were left chasing shadows for the majority of the second half. I know it was a painfully hot day to play football in, but the Tyrone boys looked far better conditioned.

Seniors did alright, didn't surpass anyone's expectations but didn't embarrass themselves either. They can go on a have a good dig at the qualifiers safe in the knowledge that they were no more than a kick of the ball away from the AI champions. They've no need to fear taking on anyone later on this year. That said, there's a lot of room for improvement. There were 4 or 5 boys that underperformed today, and I wasn't too pleased with the performances of the men on the line today either. Tactics were, once again, shockingly obvious - get the ball to midfield, look for Stevie, Stevie gets it and he looks for Ronan, repeat. Tyrone clued into this early enough and rarely left Clarke on his own, the only time they did was when we worked a quick string of direct passes up to him and he grabbed a goal.

I thought Hearty was good and bad. He came out very well to deal with 3 or 4 high balls and his kick outs generally found their targets. But his shot stopping was questionable, particularly for the first goal when O'Neill looked to have beaten him at his near post. He also fucked about in the first half when he had a chance to clear the ball, giving away a 13 yard free that inevitably lead to a Tyrone point.

The FB line struggled a bit I think. Andy did as well on O'Neill as most corner backs will do, keeping him shackled for long periods. But O'Neill only needs a few scrapes of ball to do real damage to you, and he managed to do Andy for a couple of scores. Didn't notice Shannon much, dunno if that's a good or bad thing. Thought Donaghy did an admirable job on Canavagh, lost him for a few scores but he put in a couple of great tackles and interceptions in and around HB/ midfield. Think Donaghy might be a better option for us further out the field, he seems like too good a footballer to be stuck in at FB.

HB line were largely poor. Aaron and Finn Mo got forward well at times, but their defensive frailties were all on display today. They were both far too loose on their men (this typified by Finn standing off Dooher when he hit his point), and they were too slow to get back when Tyrone hit us on the counter attack. Aaron's passing was way off today too. McKeever was a solid presence in the middle. He seemed to play as an orthodox CHB, as many of us had hoped he would, and, although this meant he wasn't able to play a disruptive man marking job on anyone, it meant he was well position to break down a lot of Tyrone attacks.

Midfield was very surprising. Lavery finally delivered on some of that potential that he showed at underage level. I thought he was the best midfielder on display and was probably in the mix for man of the match at half time. Seemed to tire and fade in the second half, but he's certainly done enough to hold onto his jersey. Toner didn't win a lot of ball but he was a strong presence for us around the middle, in particular he gave another fantastic tackling display. Think it could be a good move to push him back into defense when Vernon returns.

O'Rourke had a bad game in the HF line. Unfortunately for us when Marty is good he can be very good, but when he's bad he is very bad. Today was a very bad day for him. Nothing seemed to go for him, passes were under hit or over hit, he was caught in possession a couple of times, hit a couple of poor shots. Mallon was better, he got involved in a couple of slick moves and looked capable of hitting a score or two (something seemingly alien to most HFs in the county). Thought Duffy was unlucky to be taken off as he was working really hard. He's a good footballer and we could do a lot worse that to have him in the lineup somewhere, that said he's never gonna hit 2 or 3 points a game like a top class HF.

Stevie had an average enough day. Was the link man in a lot of Armagh's attacks but his passing let him down at times. Seemed to find himself too far from goal to have a shot on a lot of occasions when he won possession. Still think we'd be better served putting him back closer to goal and having someone else in his playmaker role. Ronan was abysmal for 45 minutes before he sparked into life and suddenly seemed to have Gormley's number. I don't think his poor early form was entirely his fault, he was being asked to win a lot of unwinnable ball and found himself hugely outnumbered several times when he did get possession. Think he should take a bit of blame for Tyrone's second goal too, why was he back in his own FB line? This only served to allow Gormley to join the Tyrone attack and ultimately grab the goal. KOR showed well at times today and seemed to have a bit of a spark about him. Think he was also unlucky to be taken off as the main problems at that stage were further out the field.

I think with the game plan they had in mind that Tony Kernan should have started in the FF line. If the plan was to hit loads of 50/50 balls in Tony is better equipped to win these than KOR. Stephen Kernan made a decent impact when he came on. He missed a few tackles and seemed slow to track back, but he also showed a bit of class and skill to jink past a few Tyrone men to set up a few attacks. Dunno if he is a good enough all round player, but he certainly offers a much better passing ability than most of the incumbents in the HF line. Good to see Forker hit a point near the end, he's well in the mix for a spot in that FF line.

Reality is that we're still building, but with a better game plan and improved performances from 3 or 4 guys we can give any team their fill of it. Great experience for some of the younger lads today too, some of whom seem to be maturing nicely. Look forward to a bit of a tour of the country now, free from the claustrophobic Ulster championship. Just hope we don't draw another Ulster team in the first round. 

Low key build up on here and in genereal really it seems.

68 pages before a ball is kicked is low key?
The Ulster Championship begins today after 2 false starts, I think we could have the first shock of the championship with Armagh just shading a very tight game.

Compared to say the Armagh v Down match last year where there was a lot more chat about the game on here before the match.

Disappointed with the result today but was happy with the game we showed a bit of character to come back into the match from 8 points down to get within 2 at one stage.

We made a good start going 0-3 to 0-1 ahead but seemed to stop completely then and could have been even further behind at halftime. Thought that, just like last year, we played far too deep. Paul Duffy did some decent work I felt but both himself and Brian Mallon were effectively playing as half backs and Mallon especially just couldn't get into the game. If Brian is going to be an effective member of this team, he needs to play as a genuine half forward.

I doubt Clarke had a worse 45 minutes in an Armagh jersey - couldn't get into the game at all int he first half and I'm not sure what he was doing back in his own full back line for the Tyrone second goal - surely he shouldn't have been so far back - had he kept his position, Gormley wouldn't have been in the position to score the goal. Gormley took the goal very very well though. Clarke was excellent in the last 20 minutes though and got well on top of Gormley who simply resorted to fouling and deserved his red card. Luckily for Armagh McEnaney played advantage after Gormley's foul in the lead up to Clarke's goal.

It was good to see McDonnell was a bit quicker with the changes today compared to last year. probably a good idea to take Stephen Kernan off as he thrives int he space which was opening up as players tired. What annoyed me is that it was Kevin O'Rourke who was taken off despite playing very very well I thought. It was almost as though McDonnell had decided to take Kevin off after 50 minutes no matter how well he played. Also thought he should have made another couple of changes later on. We expended so much energy getting back to within 2, I thought that was the time to bring on Forker and Henderson, rather than taking Forker on when Tyrone had extended the lead to 5 and the game was just about beyond Armagh's grasp.

Thought Ciaran McKeever had a good game and did well when switched onto Stevie O'Neill in the second half. Donaghy was a little too loose on Cavanagh at times. Rest of the backs were ok without being great.

Have to say I was convinced Kevin O'Rourke had scored a point just before Tyrone's first goal. Got a text saying that the BBC pundits thought it was over but apparently Ronan Gallagher had another angle and was sure it was wide? Would definetly want to see it again.

I agree with benny that hearty didn;t have a great game - some poor kickouts and gave away a needless point lifting the ball off the ground when he should have cleared it earlier. James Lavery also had a great match for a championship debutant - inspirational point in the first half. He should definetely start the next day. Charlie might have made a difference but to be honest, we have to admit we were beaten by a better team on the day.

Still hopeful we can build a bit of momentum through the qualifiers and maybe still reach the later stages. It'll be tough to make the quarter finals though, having to win 4 matches on 4 consecutive weekends. Just hope we don;t draw an Ulster team in the first round and particularly not Monaghan!

Good display from the minors as well - should hopefully give Ulster a good rattle now. Thought Robbie Tasker was excellent, scored 2-3, the goals from 2 penalties taken as well as any player I've seen.

Seriously, who actually wants to read all of that?

Armagh = Rudderless

Just purchase the console last night, been meaning to do it for ages so I just bit the bullet. Wanted an extra Sony conbtroller so could only afford one game at the minute, got Pro Evo. What a completely different game from the PS2, I'm so shit at it! On the PS2 I was winning the world cup with Finland and on this I'm spectacularly crashing out of the group stages of the Champions League with Liverpool!

Don't have a whole lot of free time on my hands so I will keep an eye on this thread for tips on how to get the best use out of it, hope I haven't just thrown away a few hundred quid! Very interested in the wireless capabilities, what should be the next game I buy?

To be honest I think Pro Evo is awful.FIFA is a far better game on the PS3.
PS3 defo worth the money,I use it a lot for watching movies that I have downloaded off the net..

Our Nail convinced me to get Pro Evo even tho others had told me fifa was the way to go. I'm a Pro Evo man at heart and so far I've found ti very difficult which for me is a huge plus so I'm gonna withold judgement for a while yet!

Incidently, phones4u are giving away a free PS3 with an Oranfge contract that I was gonna get anyway in the Orange shop! So I phoned gamestop to see if they would refund my PS3, I only bought it yesterday like, has all originally packaging and have only used it once. They said they would only give me the exchange used price as it had been used and they could not refund it? Surely this can't be right? I should be entitled to a full refund if it is within the 7 days and its in perfect condition?

Just purchase the console last night, been meaning to do it for ages so I just bit the bullet. Wanted an extra Sony conbtroller so could only afford one game at the minute, got Pro Evo. What a completely different game from the PS2, I'm so shit at it! On the PS2 I was winning the world cup with Finland and on this I'm spectacularly crashing out of the group stages of the Champions League with Liverpool!

Don't have a whole lot of free time on my hands so I will keep an eye on this thread for tips on how to get the best use out of it, hope I haven't just thrown away a few hundred quid! Very interested in the wireless capabilities, what should be the next game I buy?

So what would all Tyrone 'fans' take if given the choice:

Absolute classic game, one that everyone will be talking about both forward lines on fire scoring points from play and Tyrone lose by a point

OR

Dyer of a game, Tyrone win by 3. Not much football playing more handbags than anything. Basically comes down to frees to win the game

Why would any Tyrone fan chose the first one?

[opposed the numbskull school of gloating that went on]

Firstly congrats to Barcelona. On the night United had no answer to their brilliant midfield artistry and inspired attacking play. As some have mentioned earlier they are a model club. ALWAYS play the game the right way. Do not deface their shirt with sponsors names. Most importantly they are owned by the supporters and not some parasitic businessmen so decisions about the club are related to the game and not motivated by profits or "growing the business". If United had to lose to anyone it makes it slightly more bearable that its them.

Secondly I want to compliment Hound (more later), Corn, Gabhurl, Doogie Browser and Bensars among others who support other clubs (sorry for leaving a few out) but opposed the numbskull school of gloating that went on. I've probably fought with and annoyed ye all over the years but thanks for showing your class. We're probably all guilty of taking it way too seriously (a throwback to childhood I think) but some measure and a bit of respect is no harm. I always think that kicking someone when they're down is a horrible sign of a person and I'm glad many agree with me. My cousin sent me a text last night, a quote attributed by him to the great Sir Matt Busby who would have turned 100 this week if he was still alive – "There should be no conceit in victory and no despair in defeat". Not always easy to adhere to but something to aspire to.
On the game obviously the first goal was poor and left United a mountain to climb. It settled a nervy Barca and once they started to do their stuff United were in bother. There were half chances that could have brought United back into it – the cross that bounced clear over Park's head (did it not seem a really odd bounce?) probably the best. However, Barca ran out comfortable and deserved winners in the end. A lot of things were wrong last night that contributed to United looking so ordinary.

United – what now? Hound has constantly and correctly pointed out how poor United midfield has been this season and they paid for it last night. Hargreaves will hopefully return and it is absolutely crucial he does. I think United need someone else in there now as Fletcher is the best of the rest. Carrick is adequate if he has a strong partner but not good enough to lead in this sector. Anderson disappointed big time last night and the jury is still out. Every time I think he's getting it together and about to establish himself he fails another test. Great servants that they have been but Giggs and Scholes are just not able for the highest level. I could go on for ages...Ronaldo must be kept as should Tevez. Get rid of Berbatov and get another striker. Get rid of Nani and try to get Ribery if possible or Valencia. United played with no wingers last night which is not the United way. Should have got Palacios in the January window – not too many good central mids around.

That said in general terms it wasn't a bad season but I never felt all season that United were playing well. Never looked as dangerous going forward as you'd expect. Ground out the wins rather than won in style. I had myself duped into thinking that they could do it again to Barca on the basis of the Arsenal games but that was a flawed logic. The two Liverpool games were a better indicator perhaps. United won the league this year because their deficiencies only get exploited by good teams. The lack of a serious challenge by Chelsea was also a help. To get the 4 in a row sizeable improvement is required.

Agree with the bit in bold above.............

I would really enjoy seeing the barcodes go down if only for the scenes of fat Geordies bawling their eyes out!

Well spotted Minder

Excellently played.

I'm sure Gnevin et al will love this but anyway!

Just something I've noticed which really bugs the crap out of me about soccer fans here. It's probably more so in the North but maybe some of the Southerners on here can let me know.

When they're in the pub or in a group generally watching a match and they're shouting for their team (have to say it seems to be United fans in particular) they put on an English f**king accent singing the songs or chants!

Heard ones last night shouting 'you scouse bastid!' at some fella in the strongest Manchester accent, made my skin crawl.

Anyone else notice this?

Von...... Two....... Three...... Four......FIVE!

FIVE EUROPEAN CUPS!