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[Before this year I can't remember an Armagh team actually winning a game in Ulster.]

What teams that played/won their championships and played in league two of their counties?

Seems nowadays that clubs much prefer to hang back, or drop down to get a run at a provincial championship or all Ireland run

Needs to be looked at in Croke park, if a club wants to drop down and win their county championship in either intermediate or Junior they can't be playing div one football and then represent the county, it should be a div 2 team for intermediate and a div 3 or 4 for junior

You'd soon see a lot of teams cutting their cloth differently

Can't say I've ever heard a club or players say they want to go down to get a run at a championship in a lower grade. From my own experience lads hate getting relegated.

Me either, but I know that Cullyhanna used it as a kick up the hole to motivate themselves to today. By their own admission standards had dropped to the floor within the squad and they found themselves down. They got themselves organised and committed and look where it got them.

The Armagh grading system is about as equitable as you could get. It's based on performance over the course of a season and linked to League position. It's fair to say it probably hampered Cullyhanna having 3 county players which was a big part in their League form dipping. But there were other factors as well and they most certainly didn't manufacture a situation to get themselves relegated. They were there because they simply lost too many games but it was a perfect storm as they were always too good to be playing intermediate. However you only get one chance to make hay at the lower grades and they took it with both hands and that can't do Armagh football any harm.

Cullyhanna had a number of players who weren't available to them who started today.Mccooey, Donnelly, Murray and Connell would not have been playing whenever they were relegated.In addition to that 3 county men. If you put 7 players of that quality into any team they are going to improve it significantly. Would agree the system in Armagh is fair and the circumstances with cullyhanna was probably a one off.  The Armagh intermediate championship was been the most competitive championship in Armagh for as long as I can remember outside of this year.Before this year I can't remember an Armagh team actually winning a game in Ulster.

Likely because you have to go all the way back to 2011 for the last time an Armagh intermediate team won a game outside of the county. Makes Cullyhanna's achievement all the more exceptional. Fair fucks to them.

Media speculation linking Ferguson to Chelsea

Lazy shite for a gullible audience.

Chelsea have raided Brighton a few times recently, so let's draw the connection again and make up some big numbers. In the real world, Chelsea need to start selling big before they're in a position to buy big again.

But more pertinently, Ferguson signed a long term contract with Brighton a few months back. And it's pretty clear he's been well advised to let his game develop in a stable environment where he'll get plenty of game time. Wouldn't expect a move this side of the 26/27 season.

One by each. Sorry Ringo.

Golden Slumbers
I Me Mine
I'm Only Sleeping

[Leave the World Behind]

Watched Leave the World Behind over Christmas there. Thought it was good, and the ending worked for me. If we're being critical, I'd say there was a wee bit of theme overload at times. But maybe that was deliberate. Interesting stuff.

Also watched The Creator. Topical, looked very nice, but tripped in bog-standard action movie territory too often. Forgettable enough in the end.

Robbery! Ballyhaise will be sick - missed enough to win two games.

Fair play to Cullyhanna though, didn't let their chance slip after Ballyhaise left the door ajar. A bit of work needed on those kick outs over Christmas, but there's much better football in them.

First ever winner from Armagh at this grade. First Armagh team to even win a game in the competition for well over a decade. Huge achievement.

Half time and Ballyhaise making the pre-game odds look very silly. Should be ahead by much more than 3. Superior around the middle and playing effective direct football.

Cullyhanna reminiscent of Armagh this year - struggling to get primary possession and, then when they do get hands on the ball, just fannying around recycling and going nowhere.

Yes, insane to suggest that Roy Keane was anything other than a highly skilled footballer. You don't spend a decade in the engine room of one of Europe's top clubs without outstanding technical ability.

Perhaps the poster means flair rather than skill.

Skill is a necessity, flair is a luxury.

[I just find them all a bunch of amateurs]

Not singling out SF, but the irony of politicians coming out today one after another to express their concern at bank closures in small towns. Whatever the rights and wrongs, they have lost the right to criticise when all they do is sit around getting paid to do nothing apart from bicker.  A press release is a good days work in their wee world.

That's due to one party and their drug dealing bosses. Not SF or SDLP or Alliance or any other party.

Although it was SF last time.  But that's not what I'm driving at.  I just find them all a bunch of amateurs.

+1

Nobody has a good opinion of politicians.

Maybe they think one or two work hard on their behalf etc. but as a colletive, they get no thanks.

That's the way it works, the world over.  Ireland is no different.

Where do politicians rank? Worse than bankers, estate agents or traffic wardens???

 

Hard to know. On one hand I do know some here that work their arse off and if you needed something they'll do their best to help you out. They get the blame at times for everything that goes wrong when a lot of the time its the system rather than the individuals. Of course there are plenty of downright nasty c***ts of politicians (most of the DUP and the Tories) Any local ones I've ever had dealings with have been decent enough, from across the parties.

Would be great if politicians (from all parties) spent as much time trying to find common ground and work together to actually improve peoples lives as they do slagging each other off and point score at each others expense.

That happens much more than any of us realise. In fact, it's the only reason anything ever gets done in places like the north.

But we've all been conditioned to consider compromising and collaborating with political competitors as weakness, so politicians tend to keep quiet about the working together stuff.

It impresses us goons in the electorate much more when they appear to be tearing strips off each other.

[Chris Hughton]

Luxembourg picked up 17 points in their group. Having a plan goes a long way. Chris Hughton would be as good as Ireland could hope for. Ogbene and Ferguson could at least be a decent attack.

About to get the chop from Ghana it seems. Lost today to a couple of small islands near Madagascar. Grim.

Only drew at home to New Zealand tonight that should be the final game with Stephen Kenny in charge.

Next manager odds


2/1 Neil Lennon

4/1 Lee Carsley

5/1 Roy Keane

11/2 Steve Bruce

9/1 Sam Allardyce

12/1 Gus Poyet

20/1 Chris Hughton

A grim list outside of Carsley - the clear first choice. If the FAI were in any way competent he would have already been sounded out. Anthony Barry might be another not totally depressing option.

Kenny is a genuinely good guy in a sport full of shitheads. That's why the players continue to speak highly of him even though they must know he is toast. There's no point kicking him when he's down and when he has a foot out the door anyway.

But it has to said that he was probably never the man to lead efforts in such a transformative change to the way Ireland try to play football. He needed more charisma, and to be able to spin a more convincing narrative about what he was trying to do. The diehards bought into it, and there was always good support in the stands, but he never really seemed to bring the masses onboard.

To be fair to him, he seems to have had his share of misfortune. The pandemic restricted access to players in his early days, making it difficult to bed in his philosophies. Results had been poor from before he took over, and then continued to get worse. He never got those 3 or 4 good results on the bounce that may have kickstarted some momentum. The difficulty of the draw for the latest qualifying campaign was a final kick in the balls.

But I feel like Kenny's biggest problem was always that the promising group of players that he tried to bring through over the last few years have almost to a man failed to live up to their potential.

Kelleher, Omobamidele, Knight, Molumby, Parrott, Idah, Connolly, Smallbone, Obefemi, and probably others. All of these lads looked like they had the world at their feet at one point or another, yet they've all been disappointments. Either happy to waste careers on sub benches, or not mentally equipped to get into the head space of being a top tier footballer. These are the men who were due to lead Kenny's revolution.

And these are also the men that the next guy in the hotseat will need to turn to. I wouldn't hold hope for much improvement.

The playoffs section here shows how awful the BIG's current Nations League ranking is in group B after just 2 wins against Gibraltar.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2024_qualifying

Recent form has had no impact on the Nations League ranking. That was decided last summer.

It's the points dropped in 2022 against Ukraine and Armenia, rather than those recently dropped against Greece, that will see Ireland miss out on a playoff spot.

Whatever about which two duds United decide to name at centre back for any given match, it's beyond mental that the club haven't managed to acquire a decent full back in well over a decade.

The two lads tonight are so painfully out of their depth at CL level. They're both 90% players. Look grand most of the time, and might even do several good things, but the other 10% is brain fart time. Brain farts that cost goals and lose games.

And unfortunately, United are full of similarly flakey boys. That's why there's no spine nor identity to this team - it's missing anything resembling a reliable, consistent core that maintains and drives standards. Putting that in place will take years. There are no short cuts - the club tried that with Varane and Casemiro and it's only made things worse. Everything is a mess.

Burns is a loss. Maybe not a definite starter, but his versatility meant he would be involved more often than not. Bit of a sense that we were still waiting to see the best from him.

Started out for Armagh at midfield, but drifted through a lot of games and eventually lost his place there. 

The move to the wing was inspired and he was very effective in 2022. Armagh got a lot of joy from his trademark charge down the left followed by a cut inside to take on a shot with his right. Or to win a free, which he was quite good at.

But opponents seemed to have that all figured out by 2023, and he was left charging down a lot of dead ends. Refs weren't as charitable to him either.

Maybe he figured now was a good time to step away and reset. Still young enough to come back and earn a starting place somewhere.

[but he at least gets stuck in]

What's going on with McTominay?  He's far from  world class , but he at least gets stuck in. 

He's got 6 goals for Scotland in qualifying already ,  and by all accounts is playing well for them , so Clarke is obviously getting the best from him. Yet he can't  get any time for United. Bizarre

He really, really does not. He's quite lazy, very slow, and has a desperate first touch for a midfielder.

He's never been good enough for a top PL side, and he's definitely not the solution right now. A freak run of goals for his national side doesn't change that. He had a whole one international goal prior to March - he's revert to that mean soon enough.