Can't see anything other than a very comfortable win over a struggling Louth team on Saturday night at the Athletic Grounds. Onwards and upwards to Division 2.
Would seem so, Agent Orange, but it's Louth, and they seem to make a habit of tripping us up. In derby matches, the underdog often gets revved up and plays with greater intensity. Hope you're right and that we make it back to Division 2.
I expect Armagh to win this but it may be close, Louth are not a bad side and can rack up a big score their biggest problem is they're conceding more than they're scoring(Einstein moment there...lol). There's no doubt they'll lift their game for Sat nite and as long as Armagh match their intensity we should win
I'd be interested to hear the Louth posters' opinion on how their new management is working out. There were constant gripes last year regarding Aidan O'Rourke and how they couldn't wait to get rid of him. Things don't seem to have improved since he left. Is this all down to Paddy Keenan's retirement?
Armagh Senior Team 2:14
Armagh B Team 1:15
Ciaran McKeever and Jamie Clarke are back in the Armagh line-up for tomorrow's NFL local derby against Louth at the Athletic Grounds.
The experienced duo are part of two changes to the side that defeated Clare by 3-11 to 1-11 in the last round with Mark McConville and Caolan Rafferty giving way.
Kieran McGeeney's side need just one more point to secure promotion.
Armagh (NFL v Louth) - Paddy Morrison; Mark Shields, Charlie Vernon, Michael Murray; Ciaran McKeever, Finnian Moriarty, Andy Mallon; Aaron Findon, Peter Carragher; Tony Kernan, Miceal McKenna, Aidan Forker; Jamie Clarke, Ethan Rafferty, Andrew Murnin.
Armagh 0-01. Louth 0-00. Clarke pt
Armagh 0-01. Louth 0-01
Armagh 0-03? Louth 0-01. E Rafferty free and O'Hanlon
Armagh 0-03. Louth 0-02. Burns free
Armagh 0-04. Louth 0-02. Clarke
Clarke misses a penalty--goalie saves
Armagh 0-04. Louth 0-03. Burns
Armagh 0-04. Louth 0-04. Scoreboard has Louth ahead by one?
Armagh launching high ball into the square
Clarke points and the commentators correct the score
Armagh 0-04. Louth 0-04
Kernan misses two close-in frees
And Rafferty misses a close free too!
Armagh 0-04. Louth 0-05. Burns free- all Louth scores from fress
Armagh 0-05. Louth 0-05. HT. Finally T Kernan converts a free. That was a miserable first half by Armagh. Should be ahead by 7 or 8. Louth proving to be a banana skin for Armagh yet again.
Quote from: Oraisteach on March 28, 2015, 07:42:20 PM
Armagh 0-05. Louth 0-05. HT. Finally T Kernan converts a free. That was a miserable first half by Armagh. Should be ahead by 7 or 8. Louth proving to be a banana skin for Armagh yet again.
Possible nerves with the promised sight of promotion in view by Armagh?
Starts second half with T Kernan missing a free
Armagh 0-06. Louth 0-05. O'Hanlon pt
And E Rafferty misses a close free
Mallon and Maguire get yellows
Morgan booked too
Armagh 0-06. Louth 0-06. Burns free
McParland on for Murnin
Broadcast unclear, but believe Louth player got walking cards
Another Armagh free, another wide!!!
McVerry replaces Kernan
Armagh 0-07. Louth 0-07. Burns free--don't think Louth have a point from play. McParland points.
Donaghy in for Moriarty
Armagh 0-8. Louth 0-07. Forker
Armagh 0-08. Louth 0-08. Maguire
Carragher on
Armagh 0-09 Louth 0-08. Forker
S Forker on for McKenna
Armagh 0-10. Louth 0-08. O'Hanlon free
Armagh 0-10. Louth 0-08. Melee
Armagh 0-10. Louth 0-08. FT. Dreadful weather and what sounded like a dreadful match.
Awful game
Louth really are awful and armagh matched them tonite
Missed penalty and at least 7 scorable frees. As well as at least 6 other misses
Ethan and tony k having a competition who could miss the most opportunities
Hard to believe that Armagh team will be playing division 2 football next year.
Hard to believe that Armagh team will be playing division 2 football next year.
Armagh at home,drew with Fermanagh and extremely lucky to beat both Tipp and Louth.Referee tonight was even worse than both teams
Armagh struggled at home. They had enough chances to win a couple of games. Tony Kernan was great against Clare but awful tonight. Jamie Clarke was great at everything except shooting. I think it took Louth until about 5 minutes to go to get their first score from play. They did feel hard done by because they did not get a goal at the end. The mini melee seemed to start when an Armagh player appeared to be kicked as Louth tried to scramble a goal. Do not think personally that it was deliberate.
Much has been said about the poor state of football. Tonight conditions were terrible for football which undoubtedly contributed to some poor play and shooting. However, the worst performer tonight was the referee. A match that started with both teams playing hard and fair ended with a bit of a melee as players became frustrated with a large number of his decisions.
horrible game. The conditions can only be blamed so much. Shocking lack of quality from both sides. With and against the wind Armagh have no clue of how to get a full forward line into the game. Run and run centrally seems to be the extent of the playbook. Least said about Louth, the better.
The performance of Ciaran O'Hanlon was the only bright spark in Armagh's worst performance this year to date. Aaron Findon was the only other Armagh player to emerge with any credit. Referee was rank bad.
Quote from: mackers on March 28, 2015, 09:56:41 PM
The performance of Ciaran O'Hanlon was the only bright spark in Armagh's worst performance this year to date. Aaron Findon was the only other Armagh player to emerge with any credit. Referee was rank bad.
Agree totally. Kick outs improved too.
The quality may have been poor but tonight's division one game on the best pitch in the country was hardly a thriller. Weather like that tonight can really lower the spectacle.
I didn't think Louth were any worse than Armagh.In fact they could take scores against the wind,and had a game plan Armagh struggled with all night
Quote from: T Fearon on March 28, 2015, 10:02:24 PM
I didn't think Louth were any worse than Armagh.In fact they could take scores against the wind,and had a game plan Armagh struggled with all night
Honestly feel that one another day Armagh would have won quite easy. They missed a bagful early on and then appeared to snatch at everything. Only O'Hanlon's shooting was anywhere near par. Limerick are the only team I have seen this year that were worse than Louth. Armagh have been very, very poor at home all year though.
Quote from: Throw ball on March 28, 2015, 10:08:09 PM
Quote from: T Fearon on March 28, 2015, 10:02:24 PM
I didn't think Louth were any worse than Armagh.In fact they could take scores against the wind,and had a game plan Armagh struggled with all night
Honestly feel that one another day Armagh would have won quite easy. They missed a bagful early on and then appeared to snatch at everything. Only O'Hanlon's shooting was anywhere near par. Limerick are the only team I have seen this year that were worse than Louth. Armagh have been very, very poor at home all year though.
Are you seeing any grounds fro optimism for the summer?
Quote from: smelmoth on March 28, 2015, 10:10:04 PM
Quote from: Throw ball on March 28, 2015, 10:08:09 PM
Quote from: T Fearon on March 28, 2015, 10:02:24 PM
I didn't think Louth were any worse than Armagh.In fact they could take scores against the wind,and had a game plan Armagh struggled with all night
Honestly feel that one another day Armagh would have won quite easy. They missed a bagful early on and then appeared to snatch at everything. Only O'Hanlon's shooting was anywhere near par. Limerick are the only team I have seen this year that were worse than Louth. Armagh have been very, very poor at home all year though.
Are you seeing any grounds fro optimism for the summer?
As much as I did this time last year!
It has been very hard to judge this year. A lot of players have been tried this year presumably with the assumption that we would still get promoted. Which we did. For example, Murray and McConville played well over the last couple of games but did not play tonight. A number of big players are injured too. Still we have now got 2 goal keepers that appear competent with good kick outs. We have a bigger selection of defenders who are very mobile. In McKenna and O 'Hanlon we have blooded a few quality forwards. To do anything in the championship this year though we may need a good bit of luck.
Louth were always likely to try against Armagh, conditions and the referee were both awful and changeable. But all of that said, Armagh have a lot of work still to do to be credible for the summer, although perhaps if things had gone differently in the first half they might have won more convincingly. The only bright light is that O'Hanlon is now beginning to show the potential many believed he has and hopefully this also benefits the U-21s.
The famous big screen no longer shows the game, if you are up the city end of the ground it is sometimes useful to see things at the other end on the screen.
Some seriously naive comments on the game tonight. Armagh got the job done, but should have won by 10. The shooting was as bad as i've ever seen. How many penalties has Jamie missed now? Armagh owned the ball but a mixture of sloppiness and the conditions led to moves breaking down at the worst possible time. Great to see young O'Hanlon finally showing his worth at senior level, that lad has a bright future.I'm heartened also to see Morgan getting a start and also thought Morrison done rightly. As far as i'm concerned there is a lot of positives to take form the season. The competition for places should be intense in the run up to the championship and i'm quietly optimistic about the summer.
2 points was all that mattered tonight. Promotion secured with a game to spare. Onwards and upwards.
Really poor game tonight, the conditions were terrible but Louth seemed to adopt to them better than Armagh. The shooting from T Kernan was brutal but in his defense he's normally sound, I actually commented during the game that Armagh's record at home since the Athletic Grounds was re-developed is v poor (has someone got stats for that). Div 2 will bring the young lads on in this team next year but as someone stated earlier i think we'll have a decent summer.
Match in Croke Park in 25th of April will tell the tale.If Armagh were to lose this if will not bode well for the Championship
Quote from: T Fearon on March 29, 2015, 11:59:57 AM
Match in Croke Park in 25th of April will tell the tale.If Armagh were to lose this if will not bode well for the Championship
I see a lot of similarities with us and where Cavan were twelve months ago. Cavan had a really good Championship (2013 for them) and followed that up with a good league campaign in Division 3 (100% record I think) before they fell to Roscommon in the final in Croke Park - their Championship turned into a bit of a disaster. I'm hoping that's not an omen for us.
I've only seen our home matches in the league and I'd have to say I've been distinctly underwhelmed. We were lucky to beat Tipp, could not beat Fermanagh and made very hard work of beating Louth. My only hope is that Geezer has his eye on bigger matches ahead which is a reflection on our current performances.
By the way - out of curiosity, is there an episode of the Toughest Trade coming up involving a Louth player? That looked very like Schalk Burger lining out for the Wee County last night!!
Quote from: Rufus T Firefly on March 29, 2015, 12:22:22 PM
I've only seen our home matches in the league and I'd have to say I've been distinctly underwhelmed. We were lucky to beat Tipp, could not beat Fermanagh and made very hard work of beating Louth. My only hope is that Geezer has his eye on bigger matches ahead which is a reflection on our current performances.
I think this sums things up quite nicely. Positive expectations for the summer can only be based upon hope, a faith that McGeeney is working on something in the the background that will mature in time for championship or a repeat of last year (where championhip style, performance and results bore no resemblance to a shocker of a league campaign). Positive expectations for 2015 cannot be based on what we are seeing in the league. How many points our performances to date would have accumulated in Division 2. Its a hypothetical but a relegation dog fight would probably have been unavoidable.
The Sligo match may be used to blood a few more but the league final will hopefulyl see much needed championship zip and accuracy.
The other point that probably won't go away for the championship is that we are very poor quality viewing
What is "safe-it-tea"?
There is man a man on the pitch before Armagh's home matches who makes announcements about health and safe-it-tea. Looks a little too old to be David McSavage but presumably there is some link to gravy-tea and sin-shit-ivy-tea?