Messages

I believe Stephen Kernan was injured and not togged out. He had a knee operation earlier in the year.

Although I do not believe the 4 Kernans are good enough to start for the county some of the criticism they get is unwarranted. When Cross were in the All Ireland series last year three of them still made themselves available for Armagh for a couple of games - while other players have not in the past. Also when Armagh last won the Ulster under 21 title Tony Kernan made himself available for the first round game against Tyrone, got injured and missed the All Ireland club final. Their commitment cannot be questioned. I also thought that Paul Kernan played well last night when he was on Ronan Clarke.

Can add Parkinson was no. 3 and Conor Clarke at 15. Ciaran Hughes played at 10.Not an Ogs man so not sure of other two.

Was a very poor game of football with Oisin having as bad a game as I have seen in a long time. But then he has had so many good days he was due a bad one! Ogs full backline were superb and never gave the Cross forwards any room.

For Cross I thought only Paul Kernan and one of the McEntees(could not tell which one) had fair games and Jamie Clarke tried very hard up front. The rest were below their normal standard but much of this had to do with the effort the Ogs were putting in.

For the Ogs I think it is hard to pick out players but from a county perspective McKinney realy played well in goals and looked alot more secure than Hearty ever did. Although he was well marshalled I think Ronan Clarke had two key moments which swung the game the Ogs way. First when the Ogs were struggling in the second have he got a ball, went on a run and scored a great point which let to a couple of more scores. Then near the end with Cross looking a goal he made a great catch under his own crossbar. Great to see a great player standing up to be counted when needed.

Have to say I thought the Ref was fair enough - apart from his interpretation of overcarrying. He did miss a clear cut foul in the incident that people are suggesting was a penalty, although it may have been outside the square.

Finally, I think congratulations are due to Cross on their magnificent run and they did lead  an example to all clubs. At the end of the game it was noticeable how so many of their players went out of their way to congratulate the Ogs players. Champs to the end.

What is it with Down underage teams this year and late goals? Well done. It is good to see Ulster teams doing well. Hope Down get to meet Armagh in the final - with Armagh winning off course. 

I do not think Paul McGrane, Gerry Davidson or Eugene Young will take any of the crap being hinted. We have to give the process a fair hearing. It is beyond reproach until proved otherwise. Afterall Paul is a professional Chartered Accountant who has the training and experience in business that will suit this procedure. Gerry runs his own accounts business, and is an Ogs man so is well used to dealing with crap.  Eugene is an outsider with no known preferences and the county board men are no fools and after the grief experienced previously will obviously want the process to be transparent. Although I hoped that Paul Grimley would have been approached first this appears to be the next best solution. To take a soccer comparison Newcastle fans got the manager they wanted last year in Kevin Keegan and look at them now. Maybe this process will unearth a gem if Big Paul will not let his name go forward - hopefully he does though!

Due to cicumstances conspiring against them I think Down will find it hard to win through in this match. Having seen Kildare play Dublin must be useful enough to have beaten them.

Remember 92 final well. Was sitting in the old Cusack Stand in the middle of a pile of Dubs and when O'Hagan took that final free there was a massive cheer when everyone thought the ball had ended up in the back of the net. Turned to complete silence when we saw the Meath players celebrating! Armagh's lack of 'cuteness' caught them out. Still it did pave the way for our greatest day 10 years later. Having seen them beat a useful Kildare team in Breffni I think they have an excellent chance on Sunday week. Sadly I am going to the match with a Tyrone man so will have to sit on my hands for the senior game. 

From Armagh. Would support any Ulster team when they are outside of Ulster (except Tyrone!) and always enjoyed the Dubs. Would like to see Mayo win this year as their supporters have gone through enough.

Would cheer any team against Tyrone - except Kerry (the experts in ciinical football when Armagh and Tyrone were getting all the blame). Also must admit to having a dislike for Laois since I saw one of their supporters pour water over an eleven year old in 2005 quarter final when he cheered when Stevie scored a goal. That and them telling us dirty British B*****ds to go home. (By the way Pillar was a real gent that day)

In hurling admire Kilkenny but always like to cheer for Tipp.

Heard it was Cross 3.15 Noose 0.10

One of the best games I have seen this year, although the rain tried to spoil it for the second half. Although McVerry will rightly get the plaudits I thought some of the passing from Grugan were top notch. He really can find a man. Also the forward running off the ball was very good. I was also surprised to see no subs introduced until so late in the game. Overall I think Armagh had the better forwards and Kildare the better defence. McKenna played well in every position, Murnin and Carragher did well until they tired. Up front apart from McVerry and Grugan I thought McParland played well. Actually thought Tasker had one of his poorer games, although he obviously has bags of ability. For Kildare I thought the number 11 (Cribben?) looked a real star.

Not often I would say this but I agree with Pints. With no obvious new candidate and outsider may be the best.

Thanks Benny

Due to having to wait on a mate coming from airport missed the minor match yesterday. Who played well and did the scoring? Someone sent off? what for?

I have been watching Armagh for over 30 years and yesterday for the first time I wanted to leave before the match was over. In fact after about ten minutes of the 2nd half I said to my brother I wanted to leave as I could not watch this crap any more. Some posters won't remember the bad old days when Armagh did not have a great team but yesterday was worse than any of that. We have good players but no system and to see so many players cramping up while Monaghan were still going strong was very worrying. Last night I said I was not going to another Armagh senior match as long as the current set up was in place and I have not changed my mind (yet). We will have posters from other counties coming on and saying that we just do not have the players anymore. To me that is total crap. The team that won the All Ireland did not contain 1 player who had won an underage All Ireland. Last night we had players who won an under 21 All Ireland. Prior to 1998 we had not won an Ulster U21 we have now won three and were unlucky to not win another this year. We have also an Ulster minor title not too long ago and are in the final this year. The players are there. Maybe not to win an All Ireland in the short term but definitely to at least reach quarter finals.

Many people would have been happy if we had have shown progression this year but all we did was show what is bad with football. We have footballers why play the crap we did yesterday. We need to play to win not play because we do not want to lose.

As for the team I was cursing McAvoy in the second half. If Hearty had have been in goals Monaghan would have got a goal and we would not have had to suffer extra time! He played quite well. Mallon and Donaghy were the pick of the defenders. I thought Toner played quite well and up front Mallon was the pick. As for the substitutes I could not understand why Lavery was taken off. To me, and I am a great fan of his, I thought Vernon lacked match sharpness and should have been taken off much sooner.

I could go on about Monaghan tactics and the ref etc. but much has already been said. Suffice to say that before the match I thought that if the match was played as a football match I thought Armagh would win but if it became niggly then Armagh had no chance. Sadly I was right.

Finally I share other peoples fear that Clarke may quit. The abuse he gets in matches is unreal and some of the decisions given against him today were shocking. The new rules were forwarded to help the skilful player yet refs let Clarke take so much abuse and Tommy Freeman gets banned for eight weeks. Something is wrong!

I would agree that Monaghan have gained a reputation for 'rough' football but Derry were no saints today. The match was nothing but a bad advert for football (Ulster football in particular) and another gift card for those in favour of the experimental rules used in the league. We need a good game soon to set the record straight. I just hope Armagh can step up to the plate next week because we all know Tyrone will.

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