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id say james knows his best team alright but getting to play them is a different matter!!!!

Due to injuries u could see something like the following

B McVeigh
L Howard
D Gordon
A Brannigan
C Maginn/A Carr
K McKernan
C Garvey
P Fitzpatrick
K King
D Hughes
M Poland
B Coulter
J Clarke
R Murtagh
M Clarke

Put mcginn/carr in half back line as i dont think any other fit squad member is yet fit to play at that level.  Any other suggestions welcome.

Like the forward line but wouldnt have much confidence in the defence.

Out of interest if Armagh do get a hidden against dublin will the pressure start to grow on POR or is the pressure already there or are the supporters willing to give him and the team more time considering the injuries and problems u have mentioned

Anybody at that match this evening? team? please no more injuries!!

Fair play to cross for putting up a great performance against down but i think some of ya may be going a bit overboard. Dont forget this cross team only beat a young and inexperienced burren team by a point.  IMO this cross team wouldnt put a patch on the cross team of old and although they are young i dont think they ever will.

As BC earlier stated there was factors which influenced the final score and at the end of the day it was a friendly match.  Again well done for producing such a result, winning or losing by a point against a county team, but lets get a bit of perspective.  Words like unreal and crazy are a bit overboard IMO.

Thats one bit of good news and he might have to be thrown straight in next wk given the current crisis at the back.  May call for bringing carr back into half back line as well although dont think james fancies him as a defender.

If u hear any confirmation of that friendly MDG lets us no cheers

id expect mckernan, hughes, fitzpatrick and m clarke to come into the team for next wk but thats about it barring some of the injured players coming back.  Any updates on mccardle, rafferty, rooney or garvey.

will he play murtagh or john clarke next wk, cant see both starting

That is an absolute disaster, both of those boys would likely to be starting next wk, really down to the bare bones in defence now.  I really cant see down winning down in mayo with so many defenders out no matter how good the forward line is.

Didnt even no that match was on tonight or i would have headed to it.  Thanks for the update goldenyears, keep us updated if there is another friendly at the wkend.

Carr was very good against armagh, poor against antrim (as was everyone) and only came on very late against st marys

I would start him but dont think he will get in ahead of mark poland and conor mcginn is a favourite of wee james and dont think he sees him as a half back either.  I could be wrong and have been known to be before!!!!

Our team for National league all depends on injuries as currently 3 of the back 6 from last year are out injured.  If they are not fit our options are very limited.  Could be something like this assuming the injured boys are not back and James Colgen is suspended.

Brendan McVeigh

Dan McCartan
Dan Gordon
AN Other

Aidan Brannigan
Kevin Mckernan
Kevin Duffin

Kalum King
Peter Fitzpatrick

Danny Hughes
Mark Poland / Aidan Carr
Conor McGinn / Mark Poland

Benny Coulter
Ronan Murtagh / John Clarke
Martin Clarke

Not sure on the other corner back, could be Luke Howard, Colm Murney, darren ohagen or he could bring aidan carr back into the half back line given his embaressment of riches up front where james has some big decisions to make.

On the league itself it all depends on the start we make and injuries.  I expect us to win all our home games but it may be a bit much to expect them to be in the top 2 3 years in a row in 3 different leagues.

Not much to report from today or not much to take out of it should i say.

St Marys were as bad a university team as i have ever seen, james and co could have learned very little from today.  Doyle played first have and looked as classy and composed as ever on the ball but when the number 13 who was playing CHF ran at him he struggled a bit which is to be expected.

Dan Gordon was at FB and him and Dan McCartan were the only starting back 6 from last year that were starting.  John Clarke scored 2 goals but none of the forwards impressed that much IMO.  Im sure MDG will post up team and scores later.

All in all id say james would be pretty disappointed with McKenna cup in terms of performance and finding new players.  Id say if he had all of last years team available for mayo he would probably play them with the exception of 1 or 2 but he is unlikely to have them all available.

I wasnt talking about any board member in particular, i was talking about some of our down supporters in general given the fickle nature of alot of them.

So ur telling me u would start doyle at CHB and mcpolin at corner back then?!?

Or Howard at 7? His performances in the last year wouldnt merit a starting place IMO.

Agreed, hasnt been the same since his injury IMO

Anybody got tonights teams, QUB in particular

I wasnt talking about any board member in particular, i was talking about some of our down supporters in general given the fickle nature of alot of them.

So ur telling me u would start doyle at CHB and mcpolin at corner back then?!?

Dubh u r on fire son, so i dont no a fella who broke through on the ford team last year fair enough so i must no nothing.  Then again im not the one who mentioned Aidan fagen, John Fagen, Mark Doran as possible selections, uve said enough, please stop for ur own sake

Ok 3 years may be an exageration but if u think any intercounty manager is going to start a fella who has been out of intercounty football for so long in such a key position ur off ur rocker.  The lad even said himself he cant complete full training sessions with the rest of the panel at times.  Give him some time, if he gets a few mins here and there in the league, gains fitness and confidence, plays CHB for the club in the league ( dont think he did this last year when he was fit to play) and comes through all of this unscathed, then he may be an option come championship time.  Some of u boys want him starting in mayo because he his name is Liam Doyle and then if he is getting a skinning in the first 20, yas rip him to shreds and say the man is finished!!!!!

Agree with u one point regarding O'Hagen, plenty of promise but think he would struggle to get into last yeard half back line IMO

Supersub those boys mentioned are all injured, nobody seems to have any info on whether they will be fit for 2 wks time though.  It likely James will have a challenge match somewhere next wk and will field a team which resembles his league team much more than tomorrows team.

Doyle has played 7 mins of intercounty football in 3 years and some people want him to go straight into a division 1 league match away to mayo.  He is not the same player as he was as a minor and its highly unfair on him to think that he is.

Even if those mentioned that are injured arent back for mayo (lets hope they are for our sake) then id say there would be a few named ahead of Mcpolin in the defence.  Brannigan must have done something very badly wrong to go from coming on in an all ireland final to not getting on a head of a half FORWARD in his first hear of intercounty football.  Im not his biggest fan but given our current injuries he should be in there.

Id say lavery and murtagh must be very close to a start as well, john clarke would have to perform tomorrow to get a start in Mayo and still not convinced they will start Carr