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Some great defending in the London/Carlow match.

Not anymore! Its Carlow 3-5 - 0-3 London at half time in Ruislip

We after last Saturdays game will be well afraid of London next weekend. Last year when we lost to ye over there, we were struggling to get 15 guys over for the game. That loss was no surprise at all. Things were at an all time low then.

How come things were so bad last year? Was Hayes in charge or was that the year before?

No it was 2005 & 06when Hayes was in charge. Last year we had Andy Shorthall, who got no respect, lasted 5 league games...all defeats & then they go for John Kearns a former co goalie. He lost 1st game, then beat Longford, then went to London & lost by 11pts
Championship came we lost to Offaly by about 10 points, then barely got 15 to travel to Waterford to lose by 8-10 to 7 pts!!
Out of the best 15 players in Carlow...id say we were doing well if we had 5 for that champ game v Offaly. As for the TM Cup game, if i had a pair of boots & travelled to Waterford, i wud have got a game!! Thats how bad it got...there was phone calls, texts flying around that morning to round up 15 for the game!! 
But Bealin seems to have got things in order this year. All was going great til Offaly game, but nxt wkends response in London will tell a lot!

It will be an interesting game for Carlow next week when they go to London. Both sides have been well beaten by Offaly so far in the league, although London only had about half of their first choice team available that day and it was their first game of the year of any description. I'm not sure if they will be any better this time out, but they couldn't be any weaker that's for sure.
I know Carlow are a far superior team than London, but when Carlow were at their lowest ebb last year they came to London for a league game and were hammered. It was in fact London's first since 2004 in the league... their previous victory was again against Carlow. So London are a  bogey team for the Carlow boys and on top of that, despite the obvious great work that Bealin has done in pulling all the troops together, if they have a soft centre, and who knows, if they treat the London trip as  a novelty, then their could be a shock in the offering.
Having said that though, given that London are still trying to get everyone back together (they only had a couple of their Tir Chonaill Gaels players available) and have only played one game all year, Carlow would need to be very bad to lose it.... but they've done it before.

We after last Saturdays game will be well afraid of London next weekend. Last year when we lost to ye over there, we were struggling to get 15 guys over for the game. That loss was no surprise at all. Things were at an all time low then.
Interesting you point out that other time London beat Carlow was 2004....that was the year we beat Dublin in the O'Byrne Cup!!
Thats a lot of what we are basing our hope on this year...beating Wexford away, drawing away with Dublin...but it was all O'Byrne Cup.
We thought we got a great result in league in Clare last wkend, but now we see they lost to Tipp too...so maybe we were getting hopeful too soon.
That Offaly 2nd half on Sat brought us crashing back down to earth...word is players who were taken off early say they wont go to London etc. Usual Carlow Sh!te...but if Bealin & co can sort that out we should easily win in Ruislip Saturday

What do you mean?

Who me??? I think its obvious what i mean about Carlows display yesterday!

That was good effort by Mayo today. As far as i know they led for a good part of that game. Not bad v a team that got to the Div 2 league final last year.
3rd place in that division should be the aim for Mayo as id say Westmeath & Wicklow should be top 2. Tough enough division all the same with Kildare & Kerry there too. Roscommon should end up bottom. Seems that 2A is lot tougher than 2B. Any of 5 teams could top 2A. Only Down, Carlow & Meath would have a chance in 2B id reckon.

Good win for Armagh, If you went to it Bandit post up a quick report, whi played well etc. Down held at home by Carlow, not a great result for them and Derrry thumped by Meath could Armagh be on course to be the top ulster team in this division?

Id reckon Down will end up being top ulster side in that Div 2 easily enough. You say it wasnt good result to draw with Carlow, but this year Carlow really expect to do well. Promotion from Div 2 & winning the Christy Ring should be very possible with the set-up in place this year. We've got Jim Greene from Mount Sion in Waterford in charge, and according to players the prepartions etc have been top class. With a few of the minors who got to Leinster Final in 2006 coming on board this adds quality. Even the challenge games have been encouraging....beat Birr by 8 points & beat Laois last week by 2 points. So at Div 2 level thats not bad. Was kind of expecting to get a win from the Down game, but i guess a draw is decent start.

Great win for Armagh though today. That result should mean Armagh will at least survive in the division as its hard to see London winning a game, unless maybe Derry if they have them in Ruislip.

Some result for Offaly today, as far as I know it was 1-7 to 0-6 at half time, what happened to Carlow in the second half I wonder?

A day later im still trying to work out what happened to us aswell! Hard to believe we fell apart and gave up so easy in the 2nd half.
1st half was a fairly even game. Ok Offaly were 4 pts up at HT, but they had a goal chance and took it. We had 2 goal chances & both were brilliantly saved by the Offaly keeper. That was only real difference is 1st half. And with wind behind us for the 2nd half, we were confident of getting the win.

But who knows what happened them from then on, Offaly came out and knocked over about 4 points in 4 minutes after the break. And all the Carlow heads went down, most just gave up even trying bar 1 or 2 of the lads. From about the 40th minute to the end it was a joke, Offaly strolling up the pitch, no pressure on them. Kicked 2-12 with only 2 late points from us in reply! It was shocking to see after so much promise so far this year.

Ok Offaly are very good, not a Div 4 side on that display for sure, but for us to totally give up and let them hammer our scoring difference could well come back to haunt us later in this campaign.
Was just like last year all over again, just when we thought those kinda days were over for us 
Suddenly next weeks trip to London is looking tricky after that display.

Total overaction to this. Media have blown it out of all proportion. The damage was done by a few very drunken young lads, and it was nowhere near as bad as reported.

The team played a game last night & it didnt even get a mention at that. Only today once papers gone a sniff of this, its all kicked off.
As for players being banned for life, thats total rubbish. Wont happen. Players are paying for the damage, have been seriously told off & thats it.
Preparations for game v Longford in 2 weeks go ahead as normal.

Yes we actually have more of the team that beat ye in the qualifiers a couple of years back playing now than last years side.
Last year we had basically a Carlow reserve team playing...all the best lads stayed away. And results were that London lge game, the Offaly horror show & by the time we got to TM Cup V Waterford i could have got a game. Txts were being sent that day to get 15 down to Waterford. Result we lost 8-10 to 0-7 & papers loved it!

But as you know AZ this weekend will be different story. Carlow are on a high...winning in Clare & Wexford already...drawing in Dublin. We are confident. But we know Offaly is the team to beat in Div 4. If we can win this game...we are well on the way. Offaly on the other hand, would expect to beat the likes of Carlow im sure. To be honest with the panel ye have, it should be Offaly promoted + 1 of Carlow, Antrim, & maybe Wicklow or Clare.
But still 10/3 are crazy odds in 2 horse race!! Im gonna have to have a bet!

Im sure u AZ will be in Dr Cullen Park Saturday...u reckon Offaly will have much of a crowd down?

I said i may join eventually!! Been on hoganstand & fearrua 4 ages. Been looking in here for a while, so said id add a Carlow voice to the site!

Brian Farrell, a quality Fb or corner back...been a rock in defence for us 4 years got the straight red. Was his 1st game back after injury & he was 2 mins on the field when he went to block down a shot with both hands...ball went past him...his hands got the Clare guy in the face & the crazy ref gave him straight red. The ref..2 mins later gave a Clare guy a 2nd yellow for a slightly late tackle. 14 v 14 was when we took over, played so well & banged in 1-4 without reply all into a serious wind & rain at the time.
We stayed well in control...Clare lost another guy about 10 mins left...straight red for something he said Seemed harsh. But by then they had no way back.

Game Saturday should be interesting. As an Offaly guy im sure you were at that joke of a championship game last June in Portlaoise!!! We were a total mess then, but Paul Bealin & his selectors have really got things going here...and we'd fancy our chances of winning despite the crazy odds being offered by PP.
10/3 Carlow v 2/7 Offaly!!
Good odds i might add to the 33/1 i got for us to win div 4 in december. Now only 7/1!!

Yep AZOffaly is dead right. 1 & 2 in each div go to a final.
Top 2 in 2,3 & 4 get promoted. Bottom 2 in 1,2,3 get relegated.

Out of all divisions, its the bottom 2 that will mean so much to the teams involved. If you can manage to get top 2 in Div 4, its qualifiers in summer & not TM Cup. Theres a world of difference, in when u get knocked out of provincial champ whether u stay in the proper championship (qualifiers) or get thrown in with the likes of Kilkenny & London in TM cup where nobody wants to be.
This affects Div 3 big time too as the bottom 2 in that div will end up in TM Cup, not qualifiers.
TM cup means nothing, Wicklow won it last year...so what! Im sure they would have swapped it for a crack at qualifiers anyday.
Thats why strange as it might seem the lower divisions are who the league will mean the most too this year!!

The Carlow-Offaly game this Saturday is huge in Div 4. I reckon its 2 of Carlow, Offaly & Antrim for promotion. So whoever wins Saturday is well on the way to Div 3 & stayin clear of that dreaded Tommy Murphy Cup!

Offaly had the expected win last weekend, not much can be learned from that kinda game. Carlow had a great win down in Clare. 5 minutes into 2nd half we were 2 pts down, a man down & playing into a gale force wind..it looked bad for us. Clare then got a man sent off, so it was 14 v 14. And in the next 10/15 mins the Carlow lads played brilliantly and hit 1-4 without reply to go 1-10 - 0-8 ahead. Then in the last few mins Clare lost the head & got 2 guys sent off. It was as good and commited a Carlow performance as ive ever seen. Long way from our last league game where we lost by 11 pts to London, or our TM Cup game in June where we conceded 8-10 to Waterford!

So Saturdays game should be close, hopefully we get back a couple of the guys who picked up injuries in the draw with Dublin in Parnell Park. Simon Rea our top forward & Paul Cashin the captain, might be back. That would be good boost. Looking forward to game & it will tell so much about where both teams are at.