Armagh agin Wickla June 27th

[balladmaker]

Poor Armagh performance again, a 10 point win doesn't hide Armagh's inadequacies.  Shocking change of game plan from the expansive kick passing spectacle that was a kick of a ball away from last year's All Ireland Semi-Final.

I've never seen a manager show less emotion on the sideline than McGeeney today, motionless throughout, left any shouting of instructions to others, he just seemed to be there to record each score.

Armagh are at the mercy of the draw, unless what we've seen so far is only a charade by the Armagh management, I live in hope.

[brokencrossbar1]

Scoreline definitely flattered us today and I thought that when the big lad who scored the second goal came on he could cause some more problems. If i had been the Wicklow manager I would have put the big blood lad in with him too as they had a big mismatch there and could have exposed it as the Armagh FB line and keeper at that stage were very uncomfortable under the high ball. Vernon was solid in the first half but was out-muscled too easy for the second goal. As has been said the parts were definitely better than the sum as there didn't seem to be a game plan apart from retreat as quickly as possible when we didn't have the ball. This astounded me as lets face it Wicklow are pure dung. They should have gone man for man and took the game to them. If they had have done that in the first half and pushed Andy Mallon up on the no 11 sweeper to engage him then the game would have been out of sight in the first half. Instead the players played a very laboured and methodical system which was stiffling and frustrating, People have called that certain players didn't play well and I don't dispute that but I get the impression that some of them do not like the way the system is set up. A serious lack of cohesion up front and a good team will punish us if we don't step up. There was one point in the second half when we lost the ball in their half of the field. TK, Soupy, C Raff and McKenna sprinted back and set a 'line' up along the 45 to create a barrier I presume. Wicklow played the ball about a few passes and the no 2 ran from deep with no one on him and broke the 'barrier' without as much as a whiff of a tackle and scored a point. This system will cause them to be caught up. Too often players were retreating with their backs to the ball and not watching what was going on. Stronger teams will kick the ball over their retreating heads into the space that they haven't made it to!

Anyway a win is a win and they're in the next round but there would need to be a serious shift up in gears!

[Captain Obvious]

The damaging defeat against Donegal will take time to recover from. The Armagh performance today if repeated probably won't be good enough to beat many sides in the next round however the win and margin of it might restore some confidence.

[twohands!!!]

Armagh scoring 2-3 and Wicklow getting no score in the final 5 minutes tells a world about this game - maybe McGeeney's gym work does have some benefit after all.

[T Fearon]

Had Wicklow backed at Plus 13.Was feeling smug right up until Armagh's second goal,but very nervous last few minutes

[smelmoth]

Scoreline definitely flattered us today and I thought that when the big lad who scored the second goal came on he could cause some more problems. If i had been the Wicklow manager I would have put the big blood lad in with him too as they had a big mismatch there and could have exposed it as the Armagh FB line and keeper at that stage were very uncomfortable under the high ball. Vernon was solid in the first half but was out-muscled too easy for the second goal. As has been said the parts were definitely better than the sum as there didn't seem to be a game plan apart from retreat as quickly as possible when we didn't have the ball. This astounded me as lets face it Wicklow are pure dung. They should have gone man for man and took the game to them. If they had have done that in the first half and pushed Andy Mallon up on the no 11 sweeper to engage him then the game would have been out of sight in the first half. Instead the players played a very laboured and methodical system which was stiffling and frustrating, People have called that certain players didn't play well and I don't dispute that but I get the impression that some of them do not like the way the system is set up. A serious lack of cohesion up front and a good team will punish us if we don't step up. There was one point in the second half when we lost the ball in their half of the field. TK, Soupy, C Raff and McKenna sprinted back and set a 'line' up along the 45 to create a barrier I presume. Wicklow played the ball about a few passes and the no 2 ran from deep with no one on him and broke the 'barrier' without as much as a whiff of a tackle and scored a point. This system will cause them to be caught up. Too often players were retreating with their backs to the ball and not watching what was going on. Stronger teams will kick the ball over their retreating heads into the space that they haven't made it to!

Anyway a win is a win and they're in the next round but there would need to be a serious shift up in gears!

Playing like they we will not and could not beat any of the teams we could meet in the next round. If a poor 4th division side had a reliable free taker we would be holidaying with Down. Massive improvement needed. The slavish committment to a restricted gameplan seems to obsolved the players of any necessity to think. When Plan A doesn't work nobody seems to be empowered to break ranks and do what needs to be done. I wonder what direction is coming from DH as he hares around the pitch and what Plans B, C have been readied to be called upon. Even basic things like closing down the short kick out option.

The best performances came from those who knuckled down to hard shifts - Vernon, Caolan Rafferty and Murnin.

[ardchieftain]

This new system is, to put it politely, a load of shite. What happened to the kick passing game from last year? Not feeling overly enthused about Armagh's prospects for the next day.

[smelmoth]

And the tackling !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its a fecking epidemic.

I actually think we cannot get away with playing the blanket defence. We turn our back on the play and sprint back to resume our defensive duties but only after we allow the opposition to get within striking distance of the posts. When you see our fouling rate this is a highly dangerous risk.

We seem obsessed by work rate and work rate is exhibited by sprinting back and slapping anything that runs by.

I was amazed again today to see an opponent to to ground on their back whilst in possession our defender (in today's game an experienced player) slap at the opponets arms. Result is a free to Wicklow. Yet the player on the ground was going nowhere and not in a position to get a meaningful pass away. We were at this sort of carry on in the league. School boys won't be at it. Is someone in our backroom looking at the fouling rates of the succesful teams?

[rrhf]

well done

[bennydorano]

According  to Jamie (Sunday Times report) Armagh weren't really playing the style of football that Armagh management want,  that should give the supporters a bit of hope.

[T Fearon]

I presume all 32 county team managers would like their teams to play like Kerry and/or Dublin.