Messages

Murtagh left the panel this time last year as well, did he not?

You should give credit were credit is due. Ireland were missing Dunne, Duff and Doyle away from home in an arena were we dropped points previously with much better teams. In the build up to the game there was attention on the players who pulled out but over the last 10 years the commitment shown by Given, Oshea, Kilbane, Dunne, Duff, McGeady, Doyle, Keane amongst others has been excellent. Sadly in the future this is unlikely to be repeated as the newer breed of professional footballers seem to have lost interest or pride in playing for their country. I really hope I am wrong though.

Russians 2-1 ahead now with 30 mins left.

Russia drawing 1-1 at ht with Armenia. I thought the Russians would win handy, plenty of time left though I suppose.

How did Connacht qualify for the heineken cup next year, I thought Ireland was only entitled to 3 entrants and these were picked on the league positions in the magners league.

I presume it's because there is a place reserved in the Heinken Cup for the winners of the previous year so Leinster are in on that basis and don't need to take up the place they receive from Magners' League Qualification.  So there is a spare place going for an Irish team....

Why didnt they get in before when leinster and munster won the heineken cup before

How did Connacht qualify for the heineken cup next year, I thought Ireland was only entitled to 3 entrants and these were picked on the league positions in the magners league.

I presume it's because there is a place reserved in the Heinken Cup for the winners of the previous year so Leinster are in on that basis and don't need to take up the place they receive from Magners' League Qualification.  So there is a spare place going for an Irish team....

Same would have happened if Munster had of won the Challenge Cup.

Can anyone correct me on that??

You are correct.

Tom Hayes is actually a converted 2nd row from number 8. Good player but not international class imho.

If Ambrose was fit Fitzpatrick wudnt be starting in my opinion. In fact I think he has been lucky to have played as much as he has done I would prefer to see Murphy involved, he always done well for down before, regardless of what position he was selected for.

How did Connacht qualify for the heineken cup next year, I thought Ireland was only entitled to 3 entrants and these were picked on the league positions in the magners league.

Although we had a reasonably good league campaign, what did we learn from it? There was little or no experimentation with players at all. After Saturdays defeat people are calling for Gordon to be moved back to midfield, but surely he should have played some of the league partnering both Fitzpatrick and King to see who he gels with most.
Fitzpatrick and King have been our midfield almost exclusively since Ambrose got injured, seemingly in the hope they would get better with each game, unfortunately this hasn't been the case. We are going into the qualifiers now and some changes are going to have to be made but you could argue it isnt the right place to be experimenting.
I still wouldn't rule us out of having a good summer if we can get a decent draw to start with and get a bit of momentum going, we still have a good squad but we were outfought and well beat by Armagh.

The amalgamation has probably come a couple of years to late for a few of the Ardglass players, a couple of years ago Chris "Rat" Deegans, Aaron Beattie, Chris Teggart and Eamonn McEvoy would have made the team. Philly Gill has transferred to Tir Connail Gaels in London and would easily have made the team, a very good player. Chris Laird and Stevie Smith are good players who have moved away in recent years as well and would be more than capable of playing senior football, Stevie is actually playing senior football in Co. Leitreim at present.

The majority of the team will be Kilclief lads alrite. Mick Magee and Liam Mullan are the 2 players that no1 mentioned before that would make his team. But Stevie Deegans will be a certainity as well; Sean Paul Halpin, Malachy Crangle, James Telford and David Pullen would be pushing for a place as well and Mark Armstrong in nets would be an option.

I would imagine a couple of challenge games would need to be arranged fairly soon and a squad picked from that, I still havent heard who the selectors or management are. There is a decent team on paper there alrite but how they gel together is anyone's guess.

He played midfield last night alrite, I thought he mostly played chf but I could be wrong I only see Kilclief play occassionally.

Ardglass were well beat by a strong and experienced Kilclief team last night. However we had nine players u21 starting and it will take them a while to find their feet at this level. We have a few lads to come back into the team and avoiding relegation would be our priority at this stage of the year.
Rosie Sloan was outstanding last night probably one of the best preformances iv seen in div 3 for a few years. He controlled the game from start to finish, picked the right option all the time and some of his passing was top drawer.

This is the first time that this down team goes into a championship game carrying the favourite tag, how they react to this situation is unknown. I am not as confident as most down supporters about the game next week, I believe we are good enough to win but Armagh are not the mugs a lot of people seem to think they are. We seem to have a few players carrying niggling injuries or just coming back from injury which is not ideal, im looking forward to this game and am predicting Down by the skin of their teeth.

thanks groucho

Its been a long time since I was at the Athletic Grounds, what is the crack with car parking in Armagh city. Is their secure parking near the ground?