Ulster U21 Football Championship

[oakleafgael]

Unforunately I hold out no hope for Derry tonight. I fear a repeat of the Ulster final a few years when Armagh completly bulllied Derry out of it. Apart from Lynch and the others mentioned there are no big names in the Derry team, although Lynn at corner forward has the making of a good footballer. Armagh by 5+

[Armagh Exile]

Anyone know if tonight's game is being broadcast from Casement Park.

[Bogball XV]

Armagh won by 0.11 to 0.08

[armaghniac]

Well done Armagh, there is some hope for the future.

[Orior]

Good result for Armagh. And they seem to have plenty on the bench too.

Dyas stretchered off middle of second half which looked more like a severe bruised knee than anything broken.

Enjoyed the Calamity Jane antic by the Armagh keeper in the first half when he gave the ball away when he was 30 yards out of goal, but otherwise great kickouts and strong under the high ball.

Wind in the first half favoured Derry hi, but they failed to make use and 4 points each at half time.

Derry not the same team in the second, or else Armagh just got better. I never know which.

Stephan Forker put on a good show in the forward line. David McKenna looked a bit like fish out of water at full forward, but I guess he's too good to leave on the bench.

Two more party boys came on in the second half, Paul Kernan and Hanratty.

Didnt see O'Neill. He's either under the thumb or wife sent him shopping.

[Armagh Exile]

Orior,
Have you the lineout by any chance.
Great win and another Ulster Final.

[Orior]

Sorry, I was in too late to get a programme.

[Armagh Exile]

Armagh go through to U21 decider 
Armagh defeated Derry 0-11 to 0-8 in the Cadbury's Ulster under-21 Football Championship semi-final under the lights at Casement Park on Wednesday.
Full-forward Stefan Forker was the hero for the Orchardmen with four well-taken points as Derry kept pegging back many people's favourites for the title.

Mark Lynch was a livewire for Derry who finally bowed out as Armagh struck in the final stages for victory.

Armagh now face Monaghan in the final on Friday 13 April.


From BBC

[armaghniac]

Armagh now face Monaghan in the final on Friday 13 April.

Good day for the job. Where is this, Omagh perhaps?

[corn02]

Just back from Casement, a very good game even if the shooting was poor.

Best for Armagh were Lavery, Forker, ONeill  (who got MOTM award from UC) and Kevin ORourke.

Armagh played poorly I thought and only a very poor second half performance from Derry got them through.

Lynch was excellent for Derry as was the number 13? not sure of his name, a wee blonde fella.

[Rufus T Firefly]

Great result, and hopefully this is a step to bigger and better things. Best wishes to young Dyas and Tony Kernan for speedy recoveries, which will be of vital importance in the future.

By the way - the BBC (ceefax) have the final down for Saturday 14th April!?!

[David McKeown]

Thought Forker, O'Rourke and O,Neill played well as did young Dyas before he got injured.

Don't agree about Mark Lynch I thought his final ball was very poor tonight and it was one of the poorest performances I have seen from him recently.

On a quick note about the referee, although I thought he had just an ok game letting too much go, I would like to congratulate him for sending a player off for an off the ball incident.  Too often we see referees booking for a strking offence that only a linesman or umpire see, which drives me mad.  Tonight it was nice to see the referee listening to his other officals

[bennydorano]

I thought it a very frustrating game to watch and Armagh made very hard work of the win, I always felt that Armagh had that bit of extra class but couldn't make it count on the scoreboard;  instead of taking fairly handy scoring opportunities in the first half Armagh insisted on trying to walk the ball into the net, nearly every move broke down and gave Derry counter attacking opportunities everytime as Armagh had committed players to intricate overlapping, and ultimately fruitless attacks.  Armagh clearly have an abundance of talent, but there's defintely a case of trying to fit square pegs into round holes in a few positions, McKenna at FF didn't work, Vernon & Courtney at WHF is a very dicey experiement IMO ( I thought both were poor eventhough between them they were responsible for 3 of the last 4 points). Playing a natural defender and MF'er in the forwards is lessening your scoring options.

Gareth O'Neill was named as MOTM over the PA system at the end and while he put in a good shift he wasn't in the same league as Dyas, I would safely say it's one of the most complete HB performances I have witnessed(until retiring hurt with 10 to go), excellent in the tackle and fantastic going forward.  Derry's tactics did leave Armagh's FB line exposed  a lot of the time and on another day we could have been punished, but most of the defence played ok, Toner was sacraficed in the second half for Paul Kernan but I thought he had put in a decent shift.  Tony McClelland was excellent but seems unsure of himself going forward.  Dyas' replacement MCKeown from Cross looked like a boy who'd be on the beer for a few days and could have cost Armagh.  MF never dominated as much as they should with the physical superiority that we had, but LAvery and O'Neill both accquited themselves ok.  In the forwards only Forker really stood out, Kevin O'Rourke and Conlon were  poor enough.  Hanratty came on with about 10 to go and he played as if he'd partied hard previously.  Derry missed a fair few handy chances, their tactic of isolating 3 nippy forwards against Armagh's FB line was successful and Armagh rode their luck at times.  the Derry N13 was their best player IMO, and MF broke pretty even, Lynch took a few good scores but he ultimately didn't have enough quality players around him.

The final will be interesting now, as a physically strong Monaghan team will be hard to beat.  Armagh need to start playing their best team and not necessarily their best players.

I think that Friday 13th date for the final is wrong, the programme has the final as Saturday 14th.  What will happen there? Armagh should toss for it, if we win it's Cross if we don't it's Clones, sure we cant lose

[corn02]

David like Benny I thought that Lynchs downfall was having poor men around him. On the trot he could not be stopped. Although I appreciate your comment that his passing was poor tonight.

Derry flooded the defence in the first half and through Armaghs want for goals and overcrowding it worked. In the second half they seemed to leave alot more space in defence which helped Armagh get the vital scores.

Benny while your report is very accuarte, one thing I must disagree with is your view that O Rourke was poor, I thought he was exceelent and he done alot of tracking back which probably went unnnoticed by some.

Dyas was very good but I thought Oneill was better. The one thing about Dyas, he is always in the right place at the right time and is one of the best attacking half backs around.

[Orior]

Armagh manager Peter McDonnell on the radio this morning chastising the team for failing to take first half scores. Bit harsh I thought, given that kicking into that breeze meant balls falling short into the keepers arms. What annoyed me was the couple of great solo runs to the 20 yard line followed by the pass backwards. Some people just didnt know what to do when they got that far up field :-0