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[Same people complaining probably spend a few hundred pound to fly to england and watch 90 mins of 0-0 scoreline and lads falling like they broke their leg]

I for one enjoyed the game, having went to Clones expecting Down to be on the wrong end of a heavy beating, I was hoping to see what the Management where tactically capable off in order to make a much less physical and skilfully developed team cope with a top 10 team and thats exactly what I got. It was tactically spot on! Frustrated a team in every area they thrive on and hot them for scores outselves, only issue is our pack of ability to shoot from distance. In fact, the final score from Armagh there was a foul on Doherty that the ref didnt call. Was it great free flowing football? no because we would now be reading comments about how poor we are and unable to put it up to better teams if we had of tried. Tyrone and Donegal have won Ulsters playing frustrating football, you do what you have to. There are no rules that will change football back to the 90's. Coaches and backroom teams are too smart and  professional now to use rules to advantage. Just leave game alone. Same people complaining probably spend a few hundred pound to fly to england and watch 90 mins of 0-0 scoreline and lads falling like they broke their leg and walk with the ball. Least we get it for £20

Did u not watch Doherty on Saturday diving around the place?? It was embarrassing - I think he got 1 free out of 4 diving attempts. But in the Down club championship he gets all of them frees as our referees fall for them every time.
U20s win the Leo Murphy cup tonight - Laverty should introduce a few of them to the panel going into the B cup. Time a few were cut adrift as they are not getting near the match day squads. 

I seen celim Doherty obstructed by an Armagh player as Duffy set himself up for the winning score. I havent had a chance to see it again. Should this have been a free? Great win for u20s....

Swings and roundabouts.

Should Down have got a free when Duffy clearly didn't pick the ball off the ground in the second half? Definitely not.

Could Armagh have had a penalty in the first half when McElroy was pushed in the back? Possibly.

Beat by 1 or beat by 10, still BEAT

We were expected to get beat by 10 by most people and we should have won and in the process gave our biggest rivals a reality check..their footballers are no better than ours. Next year we can fully expect to turn them over.

In what sense 'should' Down have won? In the last ten minutes they went into their shells and Armagh got on top. As for giving Armagh a 'reality check' - you have seen Armagh in recent years? Lost every tight game they played and have struggled under any kind of pressure. If anything it'll have given Armagh a huge boost to come out of that game with a result, especially one they 'should' have lost according to yourself.
You keep celebrating your one point defeat though and another missed opportunity to make it into the All Ireland series.

The perception particularly among Armagh Folk on the run up to this game was that there a high gulf on class between the 2 teams.

I think most people on the Down forum agreed. When the game was there to be won Armagh's subs were able to make the difference, scoring each of their sides last 3 points - there's a clear gulf between the depth of both squads.

That was not apparent yesterday. Yes we lost but I am not worried how about it. We have closed the gap in laverys 2 year spell and I think this group has more potential to develop into winners in coming years. It's taken mc geeney  close to 10 years and yesterday showed they have a bit to do yet.

Down are certainly on an upward trajectory, which was probably to be expected. Laverty took over the team when they were at a very low ebb and the only way was up. I don't think using Down's progress as a tool to somehow talk down Armagh makes much sense however - they won the match, and it's the first time in quite a while they've come out on the right side of an attritional type of match. They'll have got a lot more out of yesterday's game than last years Ulster semi final. Hopefully, it can give them a bit of belief that they can win games going forward without playing well.

They may snatch an ulster but certainly not an All Ireland.

I don't think anybody is expecting Armagh to win the All Ireland, and I expect them to be underdogs in the Ulster final too, regardless of the opposition.

Armagh folk think they are top class team. As you seen today they are certainly not. We should not fear them anymore and a similar plan with a few tweaks in attack will beat them....

I'd say the vast majority of Armagh fans certainly don't think our team are 'top class'. They're a decent side though and probably considered to be among the second rung of teams, below Dublin, Kerry, Derry etc, but similar to Galway, Mayo, Monaghan, Roscommon etc.

I could read your post and throw a similar generalisation at Down fans - go close in one tight game and it's as if you took a great step forward.

In a game that Laverty and his team turned into a war of attrition (and rightly so) you still lost - this game was your third attempt at getting yourselves into this years AI group stages (Meath last year, Westmeath in the Div 3 final and yesterday) and you've developed a similar habit to Armagh in recent years of losing tight games when they're there to be won. I'd be more worried about that going forward than Armagh fans opinions of their own team.

Armagh have shown glimpses of the 2022 championship form this year but I'd still be worried that they will slip back into last years negative mindset when faced with better opposition. The same thing happened in the League final again when the stakes were heightened and the fear of losing took over. 

The Ulster final, should we get there, could well be the defining game of the season because they won't be winning an All Ireland title. For a lot of those players it's probably the last chance saloon to try and win meaningful silverware.

Is it meaningful silverware?

It definitely is, anybody who says otherwise is deluding themselves.

McGeeneys mighty men will be expected to thump us

In the same way they did last year you mean?

GOAT in a sporting context - ten years ago it was only ever used in American sports but now we hear it being used in GAA to describe Clifford etc.

[though O hare didn't cover himself in glory either.]

Very poor performance. Dissapointing leaving croke pk. That all too familiar feel of defeat. Westmeath showed that they've been playing at a higher level. They're very well set up defensively, Down didn't get a clear goal scoring chance at all. Westmeath had a few. Was Ryan Johnson injured? Massive loss tonight. Rory Mason should've been on much sooner, if not starting. He never let's the team Down. McGovern given a start was very poor.

McGovern showed poor awareness for the first goal ended up as last man totally caught ball watching, though O hare didn't cover himself in glory either. Downs lack of people able to kick the ball over the ball from thirty yards is worrying, continually ran the ball into blind alleys and passed up opportunities to take on responsibility.

He looked like a nervous wreck throughout.

Laois v Leitrim- Laois by 6
Down v Westmeath - Down by 9

Donegal v Armagh - Donegal by 5
Derry v Dublin - Dublin by 3

Rd 7 Games on 23/24 March.

Derry
Dublin
Kerry
Mayo

Cavan
Cork
Donegal
Louth

Wicklow
Down
Offaly
Westmeath

Carlow
Laois
Longford
Leitrim v Tipperary DRAW

[/quote]

Rd 6 16/17 March

Dublin
Tyrone
Kerry
Mayo

Armagh
Donegal
Meath v Cork DRAW
Fermanagh

Wicklow v Limerick DRAW
Clare
Sligo v Offaly DRAW
Down

London
Laois
Tipperary v Wexford DRAW
Longford

Rd 5 Fixtures 2/3 March

Derry v Dublin AWAY
Mayo v Roscommon HOME
Kerry v Tyrone HOME
Monaghan v Galway DRAW

Fermanagh v Armagh AWAY
Cavan v Meath AWAY
Donegal v Louth HOME
Cork v Kildare HOME

Limerick v Clare DRAW
Antrim v Westmeath AWAY
Down v Sligo HOME
Offaly v Wicklow HOME

Carlow v Wexford HOME
Laois v London HOME
Tipperary v Waterford HOME
Longford v Leitrim HOME

EDIT 1 March:  The selection rules state highlight a team or print the team name...see every other prediction.  Despite more than one PM, ranch has not resubmitted his picks.  This is the second week he/she/they have done this.  I don't have time to go over every single selection. 

I will include the picks this week...but if next week's are not in the proper format I'll just delete the post.  I will give some leeway as the email addresses used to register accounts are often ones rarely used.  I will also restate the rules when giving Rd 6 fixtures.

Mod5

Rd 4 24/25 February

Tyrone v Mayo AWAY
Dublin v Kerry DRAW
Galway v Derry AWAY
Roscommon v Monaghan HOME

Fermanagh v Cork AWAY
Louth v Cavan AWAY
Meath v Kildare HOME
Armagh v Donegal DRAW

Down v Offaly HOME
Clare v Wicklow HOME
Sligo v Antrim HOME
Westmeath v Limerick HOME

Wexford v Waterford HOME
Longford v London HOME
Carlow v Leitrim HOME
Tipperary v Laois AWAY

Rd 3 17/18 February

Derry
Dublin
Mayo
Galway

Donegal
Cavan
Louth
Armagh

Down
Sligo
Offaly
Westmeath

Longford
Laois
Tipperary
Leitrim



[/quote]

Owen Mulligan didn't go to uni to my knowledge, but he has a great collection of medals. Inter county provincial and all Ireland medals at minor, u21 and senior. National league. Club championship (intermediate) at county, provincial and all Ireland level (x2). Senior championship in London.
All Ireland Vocational schools with Tyrone as well as an all Ireland with Holy Trinity in 1998. Pretty much won the lot.