Armagh v Mayo March 3

[Chimley]

That's harsh on Varley who scored 4 points from play. If he got that every day out, I'd forgive him a lot of faults.

[mountainboii]

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.

[Mayo4Sam]

That's harsh on Varley who scored 4 points from play. If he got that every day out, I'd forgive him a lot of faults.

Did he get four from play? Scored a great one from out the pitch late on, maybe got a second then as well, when the game was over. Jut didn't seem to get on the ball, we reckoned he'd be off after 5 of the second half for conroy

[bigpaul]

Felt it a bit ironic, to hear the Armagh supporters booing, when one of our own was blew up for over-carrying when surrounded
by five or six defenders! We used to applaud our defenders for showing discipline and not fouling in those circumstances!

[here comes 6]

Felt it a bit ironic, to hear the Armagh supporters booing, when one of our own was blew up for over-carrying when surrounded
by five or six defenders! We used to applaud our defenders for showing discipline and not fouling in those circumstances!

Iwouldn't say that Armagh suporters Booing is ironic because their reknown for it throughout the country.  That the Soccer mentailty that they got

[Mayo Mick]

Good enough team but would have liked to have McLoughlin available - have doubts about Freeman in half forward line. Still expect we will win by 5 or 6 points against an Armagh team that have probably over performed in first two games and may get a reality check in this one.

Good man mick.Keep takin the hooch!

A simple "apologies Michael - you know your stuff" will be enough SP

[Throw ball]

Felt it a bit ironic, to hear the Armagh supporters booing, when one of our own was blew up for over-carrying when surrounded
by five or six defenders! We used to applaud our defenders for showing discipline and not fouling in those circumstances!

Iwouldn't say that Armagh suporters Booing is ironic because their reknown for it throughout the country.  That the Soccer mentailty that they got

I would not suggest that around south Armagh.

[Throw ball]

Armagh more lost this as much as we won it.
We were 1-4 up without really playing. Some excellent scores especially early in the second half when they moved the ball so fluidly. Armagh were always going to come back at us, the save by Boyle saved us but I'd have hoped we'd have closed out anyway.
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.

I think the problem here was that the referee signalled he was playing advantage then the ball was played to a player surrounded and a free resulted to Mayo. The advantage rule as it is can be a disadvantage. As another example in McKenna cup against Down the referee played an advantage and the player immediately lost the ball and Down went down the field and scored a goal.

I also feel that the rules as they are favour diving and cheating -ala Mackin as you mention. If you stay on your feet while being fouled you are being slowed allowing the opposition time to get players to surround you. If you go down at the slightest touch you get a free. There is something wrong with this. I should also say that I do not blame the referee he is just following the rules- although that may not have been the case during the match!!!



Thought AOS was man of the match followed by freeman, Feeney, keegan & keane. How varley & Conor waited on the pitch is beyond me, neither got into the game.

Lovely pitch by the way, we were comparing it to McHale park, not a good comparison!

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

Felt it a bit ironic, to hear the Armagh supporters booing, when one of our own was blew up for over-carrying when surrounded
by five or six defenders! We used to applaud our defenders for showing discipline and not fouling in those circumstances!

Iwouldn't say that Armagh suporters Booing is ironic because their reknown for it throughout the country.  That the Soccer mentailty that they got

I would not suggest that around south Armagh.

A Mourne WUM, to be ignored. One suspects his username's prophesy could be a long time coming.

Couldn't get to the match tonight because of Scór commitments (ridiculous that GAA events are clashing but that's another story.) I wasn't too surprised or disullsioned by the result. At the end of the day, if you take players of the calibre of Aaron Kernan, Ciaran McKeever, Jamie Clarke and Stevie McDonnell out of any team, they'll struggle. That's arguably our four best players missing (certainly our 3 most important). We performed admirably without the Crossmaglen contingent in the early stages of the League though Cork's own performance wasn't great and I suspect that Kerry perhaps took us a little for granted as their main focus for the early stages of the League was laying down a marker to Dublin in Croke Park. Losing Brookie from an already makeshift side was a massive blow. Absolutely no call to become overly discouraged at getting beaten by a decent Mayo side.

[Keane]

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.

Great post, fair play.

Thanks for all the other first hand reports as well folks, they make great reading.

[armaghniac]

There were periods at the start of each half when there was little sign of the more tenacious Armagh tackling that was evident in better periods. Mayo got their lead in these periods. The Mayo defence was effective and all too often Armagh ran into traffic. I doubt if Grimley could be happy with being Armaghed by the opposition.

[macdanger2]

Good enough team but would have liked to have McLoughlin available - have doubts about Freeman in half forward line. Still expect we will win by 5 or 6 points against an Armagh team that have probably over performed in first two games and may get a reality check in this one.

You have to hand it to Mick, he's on the ball!!!

[sans pessimism]

Good enough team but would have liked to have McLoughlin available - have doubts about Freeman in half forward line. Still expect we will win by 5 or 6 points against an Armagh team that have probably over performed in first two games and may get a reality check in this one
Next weeks lotto numbers please Mick!

[Orior]

Mick's certainly better than my prediction, and this fecking tail between my legs is tickling the arse of me.

[Mayo4Sam]

On the diving, Conor & andy were at it full time, if there was a man near them they threw themselves to the ground instead of putting the foot under it. Fair enough when the free may result in a score but Conor did it on our 45 with 5 mins left when we just needed to clear the ball.

Was impressed with the Armagh forwards tackling (better than the back?) they put our backs under real pressure, which in general I thought they dealt with it well for the most part, no panic or stupid kicks. They still do have an issue with taking frees in the middle & kicking straight to a back, better decision making needed