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If the youth of today watched the feckn news, they would have heard of child soldiers long before this. Reality tv is a crime, children, teenagers and early 20's should be forced to watch at least 7 hours of news or current affairs a week.

TV news is great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUSsEqOXYbw

It'll be something shite, like this.

It's surprisingly watchable. Some funny bits, some awful bits, some bits that are so awful they are funny.

Armagh's best 15.

1. Paul Hearty

2. Brendan Donaghy
3. Paul Kernan
4. James Morgan

5. Aaron Kernan
6. Ciaran McKeever
7. Andy Mallon

8. David McKenna
9. Malachy Mackin

10. Tony Kernan
11. Stephen Kernan
12. Aaron Cunningham

13. Jamie Clarke
14. Stephen McDonnell
15. Oisin McConville

Ah, here...

Did I just read Evra would make the city team?  Lol he's easily been Uniteds worst player this year.  He has cost United a lot of goals this season.  It's one area were Fergie needs to improve, unless one of the twins can replace him.

He hasn't been that bad, and Gael Clichy is no world beater himself.

Interesting letter in the Sindo today from a lad that played three years of minor football for Kilkenny around the turn of the millennium. He claims that after coming off with a head wound in a championship game against Carlow, he was left sitting alone, topless (the man that dropped him off asked for his jersey 'so that it could be washed') in the local A&E for several hours until someone from the Kilkenny county board got round to ringing his mate to go pick him up. Pretty disgusting stuff from Kilkenny if true.

I don't know how the armagh ones were so on the back of the ref, he gave about two soft frees to both sides, mackins in the second half was diabolical and there was one against caff in the 1st where he got pulled for a push when his two hands were clearly away. Mayo tackled well, at one stage got a free out when they had 6 players round the man in possession, the crowd seemed to thing that wasn't allowed.

Didn't think the ref was that bad. A few dodgy calls for both sides, nothing out of the ordinary. Getting on the back of the ref seems to be a feature of the new Athletic Grounds, if it swings us a couple of decisions every once in a while then I won't complain.

Had a feeling Mayo would do us tonight. Disappointing after the feel good stuff of the last month or so.

Thought there were three periods of the game that killed us: the beginning of the first half, the beginning of the second half, and the last five minutes. That Mayo did feck all outside of these short spells, and still won comfortably, is fairly damning. Though, it was a very efficient showing from them. They were especially clinical from frees.

Was always going to be an uphill struggle after going seven down. The concession of another goal from a mishit 50 was a real killer. We played fairly well for the remainder of the half, with a lot of high tempo pressing paying dividends. But then we let all that hard work slip early in the second half, allowing Mayo saunter right through the middle repeatedly until they had rebuilt their seven or eight point lead. The efforts of our midfield and HB line left a lot to be desired during this phase, with several Mayo attacks failing to attract a single respectable tackle. This was followed by another credible comeback, but I felt that once we got within a goal a couple of poor decisions let the game trickle away. There was a missed free to get it down to two. Given his form with the frees tonight, Forker should have taken this. It wasn't really on his side but central enough for him to have a good go. There was then a couple of poor kick outs, which went straight to Mayo lads. For at least one of these a quick kick out to free men out wide was on, but the keeper didn't even look up to see these options.

Not many stand out performers on the Armagh side. Mackin was good again, Forker did alright and was good from frees, Donaghy did well and almost created the goal that would've given us a great platform to push on and win the game, Watters came on and hit a couple of points to his credit, and Lavery made a good impact when introduced - he probably should have replaced Vernon after his injury.

On the other side, the HB line was poor with only Dyas really showing anything at all. McKenna and, surprisingly, Mallon were turned a few times more often than you would like. Didn't think Kingham showed much. Didn't field anything and was over run repeatedly. The increased physical demands from intermediate club midfield to top level intercounty midfield are huge, and you'd have to question if too much, too quickly is being asked of the lad. Mallon and Duffy had their least effective games to date. McParland showed well in the first half and looked dangerous, but he faded as the game went on. Maybe he's not yet 100%, or maybe the ball just didn't find it's way in his direction. Thought that, although Rafferty was enterprising throughout, he never really looked like he was going to trouble the scoreboard. And Campbell seemed to take a knock shortly after coming on, which limited his ability to make an impact.

McKeever was a massive miss. The defence, and HB line in particular, looks a lot more impenetrable with him at the centre of things. The midfield needs work too. Lavery probably merits a start in the next game. Difficult to see us getting anything against the Dubs in Croke Park, but it's a nice fixture to lift the heads again. If we can get back to the positive stuff from the first two games then tonight will be easily forgotten.

What's McParland like compared to McVerry? McVerry a loss or..?

McVerry is a loss. He'd been bedding in fairly well for a newcomer, with his work rate typifying the positive attitude displayed by Armagh in their first two games. That said, McParland is a good alternative. He is probably a bit further ahead in his senior development, appearing in last year's championship, but has been easing his way back from injury. Had McVerry been available I reckon both he and McParland would've started in the corners, with Rafferty dropping out.

Stephen Kernan is a big loss for Cross. Not only is he an important part of their forward line, but also third choice midfield. If anything happens to McKenna or Hanratty Cross could find themselves in a bit of bother around the middle, which would give Garrycastle a fighting chance of an upset. On the flip side, as bcb1 alluded to on another thread, Cross will derive a lot of additional motivation from this, which probably eliminates any chance Garrycastle had of catching them a bit cold.

2500 at it according to RTE.

You forgot Stephen Ward, who's pretty much the first choice LB.

Who is tasker playing for now?

The Armagh U21s.

Fair play to Cullyhanna for doing so well. From the sounds of it, their management deserve a lot of credit for the way they handled things throughout the campaign.

The fact Saturday games allow for more scope for travel means Saturday game are actually preferable in alot of cases.

The GAA should start to regularly schedule afternoon inter-county games on Saturdays.

If you believe that then it further strengthens the case that the club games should have kept their usual Sunday slot. It's a lot further from Killarney to Parnell Park than it is to Portlaoise. Likewise, you'd make it from Crossmaglen to Portlaoise sooner than Sligo. And that's not even getting into the distances any brave souls from the Ulster hurling heartlands would have had to travel if they made the journey to Ballinasloe today.