Ulster Championship 2021

[armaghniac]

Armagh now 'turbo' charged.

[Captain Obvious]

Job done for Armagh. 13 point winners against a side that played in Div 4 is expected outcome. Makes for a very interesting game against Monaghan next

[tonto1888]

Harsh result for Antrim. There's a team there if they all stick together with McGinley. Shame for them there is no back door this year

[JoG2]

Harsh result for Antrim. There's a team there if they all stick together with McGinley. Shame for them there is no back door this year

Was impressed with Antrim. How does Stevie O'Neill have the time to manage club and coach county?

Armagh v Monaghan will be hardy contest

[Schkite]

Yeah the final scoreline is very harsh on Antrim I think, they were well in the game for a long time. That balls up for the penalty just took the wind out of them a bit, and Armagh pushed on as you'd expect a much higher ranked team to do.

Clearly some good work being done in Antrim by McGinley and O'Neill, fair play to them.

[Nanderson]

Absolutely atrocious mistake there to give away a penalty, have to imagine Armagh will push on now with that lead.

Pity, as Antrim were giving them their fill and keeping in touch until that penalty.

Wasn't even a pen. Big mistake from the ref being brushed over

[David McKeown]

Absolutely atrocious mistake there to give away a penalty, have to imagine Armagh will push on now with that lead.

Pity, as Antrim were giving them their fill and keeping in touch until that penalty.

Wasn't even a pen. Big mistake from the ref being brushed over

Was the mistake not the failure to give the black card. From where I was standing it looked like a deliberate trip from the Antrim keeper within the 20m line. I haven't seen any replays yet though.

[Milltown Row2]

Absolutely atrocious mistake there to give away a penalty, have to imagine Armagh will push on now with that lead.

Pity, as Antrim were giving them their fill and keeping in touch until that penalty.

Wasn't even a pen. Big mistake from the ref being brushed over

Was the mistake not the failure to give the black card. From where I was standing it looked like a deliberate trip from the Antrim keeper within the 20m line. I haven't seen any replays yet though.

Very Wenger like

[David McKeown]

Absolutely atrocious mistake there to give away a penalty, have to imagine Armagh will push on now with that lead.

Pity, as Antrim were giving them their fill and keeping in touch until that penalty.

Wasn't even a pen. Big mistake from the ref being brushed over

Was the mistake not the failure to give the black card. From where I was standing it looked like a deliberate trip from the Antrim keeper within the 20m line. I haven't seen any replays yet though.

Very Wenger like

In my defence the screens at the ground weren't showing replays or the match for that matter

[APM]

Absolutely atrocious mistake there to give away a penalty, have to imagine Armagh will push on now with that lead.

Pity, as Antrim were giving them their fill and keeping in touch until that penalty.

Wasn't even a pen. Big mistake from the ref being brushed over

If it wasn't a penalty, it was a goal anyway

[brokencrossbar1]

The game went as expected. Antrim were going to be competitive for the first 40-45 minutes but didn't have the experience, fitness nor quality to push on. They are in year 1 of their project under the new management so they are realistic about it. The reality is that the jump from a team in division 4 to division 1 is huge. They played well and you could see a game plan. They caused problems in the first half and Blaine Hughes kept the score down with a crucial save and a few interceptions. With respect to them I genuinely believe that even if they did get one of those goals they still wouldn't have won but it would have made the second half interesting.

I thought the first half we were simply getting ourselves into the flow of the game. Over kicking passes, a wee bit sloppy on tackling and final decisions were a bit off. Once we settled though and they tired we were basically on cruise control. While the gap is not fair on Antrim in so far as their first half performance went I do believe that it's a true reflection of the difference between the teams. When they had changes to punish us they didn't. When we got changes we were ruthless.

Keeper obviously got the plaudits. Kick outs solid, good work with the ball in hand and a few excellent saves/interceptions. Defence were solid, didn't give away too many scoreable frees but I have to say I thought Hurson was favourable to us a few times with our tackles and was very quick to blow them for over carrying. They were possibly technically correct but we got away with a few and you could see that frustrated them.
Midfield was to be their platform but I think over the hour we nullified it quite well. Nothing spectacular but just lads went about their jobs in a very straight forward, mature way. Funnelled back as needed and linked the play to the forwards well. Settled and effective.

Forwards were kinda the same. Nothing massively spectacular but all out their shift in and got the scores as needed. I think there's an awful lot more in them and that will be needed against Monaghan.

Which brings me to Monaghan. This is a step up as we all know. Physically and skill wise they are a step up but I firmly believe we have it in us to beat them. There is a real chance to push on and get to a provincial final here. To do so we need more out of our forwards. We need our defence to be very sharp in the tackling as Monaghan will punish all free kick chances and we need to be just as ruthless. The most important thing though is for management to ensure that the players don't get carried away about yesterday. It was a good win but it was the win of a Division 1 team over a division 3/4 team so we were always looking at a hiding to nothing as there was no expectation for an Antrim win.
Well done and roll on the semi

[brokencrossbar1]

Absolutely atrocious mistake there to give away a penalty, have to imagine Armagh will push on now with that lead.

Pity, as Antrim were giving them their fill and keeping in touch until that penalty.

Wasn't even a pen. Big mistake from the ref being brushed over

If it wasn't a penalty, it was a goal anyway

Isn't there something new about cynical play that if the defender prevents a goal scoring opportunity then it's a penalty no matter what?  Maybe I misheard that but the same thing happened in the hurling on Saturday between limerick and cork I think it was.

[imtommygunn]

I think that is only hurling? (Isn't it?)

[brokencrossbar1]

I think that is only hurling? (Isn't it?)

I know it's absolutely in hurling. Wasn't sure if it was in football. If not the penalty was a wrong call but the ref should have played advantage anyway as Rian O Neill had stuck it in the net anyway. Keeper should have been black carded.

[Armagh18]

Harsh result for Antrim. There's a team there if they all stick together with McGinley. Shame for them there is no back door this year

Agreed. Sticky enough side, shame their year is over. Should be a second tier championship for first round losers imo.