Down v Armagh. June 4th

[brokencrossbar1]

Here's a novel idea...both teams are shite...one just slightly less white than the other?

Isn't that racist? 

How about all county teams are shite. Dublin are just less shite than everyone else.

Haha...resisting temptation to make a smart magpie reference 😉. 

[Nanderson]

Down have a poor defence,in particular 2 & 3.

Doherty was making not only his championship debut but his full county debut and he didn't do too bad considering he saved a certain goal. Ryan McAleenan pretty much had the corner back spot nailed down all year but his injury allowed Doherty to step forward. Also McGovern at 3 has proved himself in both club, county, college and province colours to be a talented full back who could probably play anywhere up to the half forward line

[Targetman]

Had to laugh at this "We're a sleeping giant " from none other than Aidan Forker, in a coma more like!!

[elk]

Down have a poor defence,in particular 2 & 3.

Doherty was making not only his championship debut but his full county debut and he didn't do too bad considering he saved a certain goal. Ryan McAleenan pretty much had the corner back spot nailed down all year but his injury allowed Doherty to step forward. Also McGovern at 3 has proved himself in both club, county, college and province colours to be a talented full back who could probably play anywhere up to the half forward line

Mc Aleenan is a superior player and is unfortunately injured. Apart from the finger tip save the two of them could have cost Down the game in the first half as they didn't defend the small box very well. Thank god the management were able to sort things out at half time

[StGallsGAA]

Armagh could have had 5 goals in the first half aloneagainst a team with supposedly the best half back in Ireland and 2 of the best defenders in Ulster. The second half they had more possession than Down but admittedly were clueless in finding a way through the Down blanket defence. Down just repeatedly slowed them Down 60 metres from goal and broke quickly to pick off scores.  There is very little between the teams and to say otherwise is daft.

Another take on that would be that Armagh were virtually out of the game with just 10 mins gone and had to resort to going for goals in order to stay in touch.

[armaghniac]

Armagh could have had 5 goals in the first half aloneagainst a team with supposedly the best half back in Ireland and 2 of the best defenders in Ulster. The second half they had more possession than Down but admittedly were clueless in finding a way through the Down blanket defence. Down just repeatedly slowed them Down 60 metres from goal and broke quickly to pick off scores.  There is very little between the teams and to say otherwise is daft.

Another take on that would be that Armagh were virtually out of the game with just 10 mins gone and had to resort to going for goals in order to stay in touch.

Which is exactly the problem. What was Armagh at for the first half of the first half?

[Orior]

I was one who never saw us losing to Down, I thought that because we have the players to beat them, we do, what we do not have is a coach that allows them to play devoid of mistakes, these players were tight and seemed to get no enjoyment from the game, I have never seen any team from any county refuse to shoot in front of goal more than we did on Sunday last, it was infuriating and disgraceful, Geezer needs to move on and McEntee, John McEntee should be offered a three year deal to right the ship and get us contending for a place in Division 1 football and challenging for an Ulster title, we have the players, we just need the coach and geezer is most assuredly not the man to get the job done sadly.

Why shoot when the ball will only drop into the keepers arms? Or go wide? Personally, I thought Armagh were trying to be patient and waiting either for a good shooting opportunity or pass to someone making a run. The problem seemed to be that nobody was making runs into space.

[imtommygunn]

Lads I'm afraid to burst your bubble but Armagh were crap

Down went into an early lead and Armagh had about 2 attacks in the first 15 minutes
2 goals in the space of 5 minutes made things look respectable

With 10 minutes gone in the second half the game was over

All the talk about Armagh have a division 1 forward line and a division 3 defence?
Who are these division 1 forwards?

Bit over the top with mooney thou

Armagh could have had 5 goals in the first half alone against a team with supposedly the best half back in Ireland and 2 of the best defenders in Ulster. The second half they had more possession than Down but admittedly were clueless in finding a way through the Down blanket defence. Down just repeatedly slowed them Down 60 metres from goal and broke quickly to pick off scores.  There is very little between the teams and to say otherwise is daft.

I don't know where you have heard down have supposedly the best half back line in ireland and two of the best defenders in ulster. The most ardent of down fans wouldn't be even close to agreeing with that. Their defense is ropy and they know that themselves.

I am neutral but i could not believe how bad that armagh team was. Why wouldn't their forwards shoot for points in the second half? I don't believe they are that bad though - has to have been a one off.  I imagine that has to have been one of their worst ever championship performances. Definitely in living memory anyway.

[Armamike]

Lads I'm afraid to burst your bubble but Armagh were crap

Down went into an early lead and Armagh had about 2 attacks in the first 15 minutes
2 goals in the space of 5 minutes made things look respectable

With 10 minutes gone in the second half the game was over

All the talk about Armagh have a division 1 forward line and a division 3 defence?
Who are these division 1 forwards?

Bit over the top with mooney thou

Armagh could have had 5 goals in the first half alone against a team with supposedly the best half back in Ireland and 2 of the best defenders in Ulster. The second half they had more possession than Down but admittedly were clueless in finding a way through the Down blanket defence. Down just repeatedly slowed them Down 60 metres from goal and broke quickly to pick off scores.  There is very little between the teams and to say otherwise is daft.

I don't know where you have heard down have supposedly the best half back line in ireland and two of the best defenders in ulster. The most ardent of down fans wouldn't be even close to agreeing with that. Their defense is ropy and they know that themselves.

I am neutral but i could not believe how bad that armagh team was. Why wouldn't their forwards shoot for points in the second half? I don't believe they are that bad though - has to have been a one off.  I imagine that has to have been one of their worst ever championship performances. Definitely in living memory anyway.

I can remember a few bad uns over the past 7 or 8 years!

[Dougal Maguire]

Donegal at home 2 years ago when Geezer decided we'd park the bus in the second half and defend a 10 point deficit must be up there

[outinfront]

Who said Down have the best half back line in Ireland?

[brokencrossbar1]

Donegal at home 2 years ago when Geezer decided we'd park the bus in the second half and defend a 10 point deficit must be up there

I remember that game...I was away and listening to it with some lads from Monaghan...we just sat laughing with incredulous awe at how stupid Armagh were.

[maddog]

I was one who never saw us losing to Down, I thought that because we have the players to beat them, we do, what we do not have is a coach that allows them to play devoid of mistakes, these players were tight and seemed to get no enjoyment from the game, I have never seen any team from any county refuse to shoot in front of goal more than we did on Sunday last, it was infuriating and disgraceful, Geezer needs to move on and McEntee, John McEntee should be offered a three year deal to right the ship and get us contending for a place in Division 1 football and challenging for an Ulster title, we have the players, we just need the coach and geezer is most assuredly not the man to get the job done sadly.

Why shoot when the ball will only drop into the keepers arms? Or go wide? Personally, I thought Armagh were trying to be patient and waiting either for a good shooting opportunity or pass to someone making a run. The problem seemed to be that nobody was making runs into space.

I was there and to see intercounty forwards refusing to shoot from 25 yards was infuriating. We might as well forget about it if the plan is to get as close as possible and only shoot when sure. You won't see too many points from 40 metres if thats the case. This was not the case during the league. Let the players play.

[illdecide]

I'm actually mixed on all this...i do believe KMcG has had his chance and failed and people are calling for John MAC and i suppose he'd be grand but i'd prefer the other twin Tony MAC and maybe they could do a joint manage job...who knows?.

On the other hand as much as i think we have good players i don't think they're as good as what Armagh fans think they are, at best we'd be a mid division 2 team but division 2 or division 3 wouldn't matter a big lot TBH come Championship time. So far judging by this and previous seasons our summer will be over very quickly (hope not). KMcG will be under big pressure to remain in the hot seat for next season...time will tell.

[mackers]

In fairness I have yet to hear any Armagh fan say we are any higher than a mid division 2 team.  That's where we should be at but we're not.  I wouldn't expect to have beaten Monaghan but I did expect to beat Down (a low division 2 team).  Even in our run in 2014 we only beat mid tier teams (with the exception of Tyrone, that was just a bonus ).  We beat Cavan,Roscommon and Meath who (at that time) were not division 1 teams.  Again, I didn't expect to beat Donegal in the 14 QF but was happy we were competitive in that game.
We simply want to play to our potential (say a 12th or 13th ranking in the country).