USFC Qtr Final - Armagh V Down - Athletic Grounds 28th May 7:30pm

[mackers]

When you are as sucessful as we have been it's no wonder counties who have won very little in comparison are jealous, we ll see who's still playing come aug / sept time ! Hardstation you d need to spend more time on jobfinder and less on here son if your not careful you ll miss you benefit cheque

John, there's a number of your fellow Down posters need to spend a little MORE time on here before posting if they think HS is an Armagh man.

[Corcaigh Abu]

This theory that down dont play well in the rain is a load of balls and the only people ive heard or seen mention it is Paul and martin mchugh.  Down happen to get beat by teams when it is raining because the other team are simply better than them on the day or just better than them full stop.  Its pretty much the same case as when it is not raining. I dont no what the ratio is for win/lose in the rain but it would likely to be more to do with the ability of the team or who their opponents are.

The statement that Down dont play well in the rain brings unnecessary attention from the likes Antrim supporters who have nothing else to look forward to other than get a dig at Down at every possible oppurtunity.

On a side note am still waiting for one of these little posts from Hardstation to be actually funny, embarrassingly poor to date!!! Dont give up ur day job son, if u have one that is

Well if you don't know the facts then how can you say it is a load of balls? Just because you use profanities doesn't make your point correct, just like if you write it in capitals doesn't give it any more veracity. Actually admitting you don't know the facts just makes your initial statement sound boorish. What have you based your comment on? At least I have admitted my opinion is based on anecdotal evidence but have answered each time someone has asked about a particular match. But by all means you just stick to swearing, I'm sure everyone will be convinced by that
On the side point I think Hardstation's pictures were amusing. It won't be long before Armagh are beaten and we win again. For now they deserve to enjoy the victory, it was a big one and they did well. Armagh haven't suddenly become serious AI contenders and we haven't suddenly become donkeys. That's partly because Hardstation - we weren't stuffed

I find it funny it' still early June and the Ourmagh boy's are popping the champagne allready.There's a long season ahead and it would be great to see Down turn the tables on them later in the year.While there's no doubt that Armagh have been better than Down post 1994 Down are still ulsters most successsful county along with Cavan.So will the Ourmagh lad's adjust there attitude untill they win a second all ireland nevermind 5 .

[armagho9]

This theory that down dont play well in the rain is a load of balls and the only people ive heard or seen mention it is Paul and martin mchugh.  Down happen to get beat by teams when it is raining because the other team are simply better than them on the day or just better than them full stop.  Its pretty much the same case as when it is not raining. I dont no what the ratio is for win/lose in the rain but it would likely to be more to do with the ability of the team or who their opponents are.

The statement that Down dont play well in the rain brings unnecessary attention from the likes Antrim supporters who have nothing else to look forward to other than get a dig at Down at every possible oppurtunity.

On a side note am still waiting for one of these little posts from Hardstation to be actually funny, embarrassingly poor to date!!! Dont give up ur day job son, if u have one that is

Well if you don't know the facts then how can you say it is a load of balls? Just because you use profanities doesn't make your point correct, just like if you write it in capitals doesn't give it any more veracity. Actually admitting you don't know the facts just makes your initial statement sound boorish. What have you based your comment on? At least I have admitted my opinion is based on anecdotal evidence but have answered each time someone has asked about a particular match. But by all means you just stick to swearing, I'm sure everyone will be convinced by that
On the side point I think Hardstation's pictures were amusing. It won't be long before Armagh are beaten and we win again. For now they deserve to enjoy the victory, it was a big one and they did well. Armagh haven't suddenly become serious AI contenders and we haven't suddenly become donkeys. That's partly because Hardstation - we weren't stuffed

I find it funny it' still early June and the Ourmagh boy's are popping the champagne allready.There's a long season ahead and it would be great to see Down turn the tables on them later in the year.While there's no doubt that Armagh have been better than Down post 1994 Down are still ulsters most successsful county along with Cavan.So will the Ourmagh lad's adjust there attitude untill they win a second all ireland nevermind 5 .

They are not and never have been Ulsters most successfull county.  Not in terms of Senior football anyway

[armaghniac]

Even when Armagh are winning the chip appears on the shoulder. Armagh fans - the Linfield fans of GAA.

Down people have a great interest in soccer.

So will the Ourmagh lad's adjust there attitude untill they win a second all ireland nevermind 5

Why shouldn't we celebrate our 5 successive championship victories over the forces of evil?
Since Down people are such experts in the past, perhaps they would like to tell us how long ago Down beat Armagh 5 times in row?

[Don Johnson]

f**k sake boys this is embarrassing. Take two seconds to check HS's posts and you will realise where he is from!

Internet messageboard 101.

[Dubh driocht]

Well done to Armagh who were good and despite my initial pre-match assessment, should go on to beat Derry and will be in with a big shout for an Ulster title.
The two main things than surprised me were Andy Mallon's eclipse of Danny Hughes and the excellent performances form the 3 half-forwards.
The only surprises from Down were starting Daniel on Jamey Clarke ( a reminder of the NFL final when Aidan Brannigan started on Stevie Mc Donnell and Stevie had a point in 20 seconds which set the tone) and not starting Conor Maginn- I had thought he was injured but if he could play 50 minutes it should have been the first 50 minutes).
John O'C is bang on the money- no need for panic but we do need a few favourable draws to get us to a 'Sligo scenario'.Meanwhile it will be a 13th year of Armagh/Tyrone Ulster domination.

[stew]

You can throw league form out the window when it comes to games like this, Armagh were never going to allow themselves to be embarassed at home at the hands of Down.

Down are obviously a very talented side and we could meet them again and they will have learned a lot from this game but Armagh will take heart in the fact they won every sector despite Stevie being for him, sub par.

Derry next, tough game but Armagh will be rarin to go.

[lawnseed]

just got a read of john morrison in the gazette of course he knew all along that we would win easy what a pity in his match write up he failed to mention micheal o rourke at all. i thought he was good enough to warrant some praise

[PAULD123]

Couple of points

1. Maybe Stevie had a poor game because Gordon actually is not such a bad fullback as he has slated to be. That's twice he's played Stevie and on both occasions Stevie has "been a bit below his usual standards"

2. We can try to calm ourselves down all we like with reassuring statements that we are still a good team with good prospects but realistically until we will do nothing unless midfield is sorted out.

Any defence will struggle if their midfield loses 20 minutes of possession and any forward line will struggle when feeding off scraps. But if we sort midfield then our forwards will get the ammunition to damage any team and scoring around 17 points per game would be realistic (the total needed to win most matches). Similarly if we sort midfield much less opposition attacks would be mounted and keeping the opposition to a maximum of 15-16 points would also be realistic.

[DuffleKing]

Mallon's form has dipped but he's an exceptional man marker. Donaghy is the best full back in ulster at least. McKeever is a class apart. those three are defenders of the highest quality - rare to have in the same team. Dyas has the potential to be our best player. AK and duffy are very good attacking half backs. crossmaglen captain McKeown has tremendous potential too

Donaghy is good, McKeever is good. Mallon was roasted by Down speed and will be roasted again by a fast forward. You didn't even mention Moriarty, hardly surprising given his error count. Kernan is a decent attacker but is hardly a top class defender. Duffy is more interested in trying to get sneaky hits in than playing football. So in fact given Mallon's loss of speed Armagh have in fact two good defenders - Donaghy and McKeever, so as long as the opposition only have two good attackers they'll be fine.

Down have similar defensive issues but our solution is to turn them all into real footballers and train them to work as a unit so as to provide backup.

I don't know why i'm answering you but i suppose there has to be newsround to go with newsnight.

A defence is not built on 6 out and out stoppers. in that regard we have 3 of the best who can also play football - that's 1 or 2 more than most decent defences. take down for example - no defenders individually at that level. other defenders in ulster at that level i would say justin McMahon, Karl Lacey, Darren Hughes, Barry Owens and a firing conor gormley.

Like a forward line, individual talent is not enough. Armagh are not defending as a unit and those three individuals are not playing well at the minute. Both i put at the door of management.

the other defenders on the squad are at least county standard. if you don't think moriarty, dyas, duffy, ak or McKeown can't do a good job on the three lesser threats in any forward line, particularly with the first three in place, then i don't know.

by the way - anyone who says that mallon is struggling because of pace is very poorly informed.

So according to Dufflelking Armagh only need three defenders. Well done, that will take care of teams that only have three attackers. Of course it would need those opposition teams to be awful decent and play their only three decent attackers at CHF for McKeever to mark, Full Forward for Donaghy to mark and one in the corner for Mallon to Mark. I'm sure the rest of the county managers will have no problem accommodating you on this one.

God forbid they may actually put of a strong half forward line like Coulter-Clarke-Hughes. That would just be unfair on poor Donaghy having to waste his time marking the "Weaker" forward Ronan Murtagh who incidentally caught everything on Saturday and scored two points from play against him.

And it would be a disgrace if Cork decided to play a full-forward line of Goulding-O'Connor-Sheehan. Surely one of these boys should be placed at CHF for McKeever to mark, mind you Cork would probably be happy to move Pearse O'Neill in form the right wing to centre just to accommodate McKeever. They wouldn't be so selfish as to have him up against Duffy who is not meant to be defending in Duffleking's system.

Come on now don't be silly. You don't get to choose where the "lesser threats" come from, nor do you get to dictate that the opposition are only allowed to play three good attackers. If you play two non-defensive wing backs then your wings will get torn apart by the top 4-5 teams in the country.

The lord jaysus.

You are making my point for me chap.

More complete tosh from you DK, do you never learn. So I'm making your point for you that Down's average defence is no worse than Armagh's is that so?

DK - McKernan and Gordan are laughably bad defenders
DK - We could actually ship you a load of defenders from beyond our panel who would start for down.
DK - Gordon is filling a hole at full back for down...we prefer our full backs to be able to tackle and stay with a forward when he turns
DK - Armagh have the players. they have better defenders than anyone

Exactly how is that you making the point that your defence is no better than ours? Once again you don't even think before you write something. Everyone can see that you have continually made idle boasts and unsubstantiated claims that Down's defence is "Laughbly bad" while Armagh's is "Better than Anyone". Catch a grip you look like a fool more and more with each post. Best you go away and hide, come back in May when the dust has settled and people have forgotten your ridiculous posts (most of which came afer you lost, yes LOST)

Lets be honest here, on saturday night you have one changing room with a management team who have their team playing to a structured game plan, they have possibly the best football trainer in the country, one of the most knowledgable men in the province and a very astute manager. In the other changing room you have a weight lifter and two men who are extremely limited tactically and a manager whose heart cant possibly be in winning no matter what any Armagh man thinks.

There wont be any shocks, it will simply be a straight forward win for Down by maybe 5/6 points depending on how much Armagh open out towards the end when their chasing the game against a well organised counter attacking down team. Its difficult to know where Down are right now but last weeks game will have helped Garvey and Rooney and brought a bit more stability to a defence who played very well last year, I do feel that after a win this saturday if we can take 3 or 4 points from our next 6 we could be looking at the top 2..  Ambitious but we were the 2nd best team in ireland last year!

Don't disagree with too much of that - bar the over estimation of Tally & McIvor - unfortunately. I do believe, however, that armagh posess better players and on any given day, gameplan & organization can be over ridden by pure performance (down beating tyrone in the marshes). Sadly, we are lumbered with this management for the forseeable future and i think the the players are good enough to produce a decent championship run - which will mean another year with them.

Anyway - Armagh by 3!

[crossfire]

Very good Duffle King.

[Corcaigh Abu]

Couple of points

1. Maybe Stevie had a poor game because Gordon actually is not such a bad fullback as he has slated to be. That's twice he's played Stevie and on both occasions Stevie has "been a bit below his usual standards"

2. We can try to calm ourselves down all we like with reassuring statements that we are still a good team with good prospects but realistically until we will do nothing unless midfield is sorted out.

Any defence will struggle if their midfield loses 20 minutes of possession and any forward line will struggle when feeding off scraps. But if we sort midfield then our forwards will get the ammunition to damage any team and scoring around 17 points per game would be realistic (the total needed to win most matches). Similarly if we sort midfield much less opposition attacks would be mounted and keeping the opposition to a maximum of 15-16 points would also be realistic.

Id say you need to get Dan Gordon back into midfield asap.The thing is before last years all ireland final i was worried that Peter Fitzpatrick and Kalum King would cause us problems but we destroyed Downs midfield in that final.Yet we only won by a point mainly i think because we didn't convert our goal chances which is my main worry about our team.If it's not meant to be for us to retain our trophy i would love to see Down replace us as champions.However i can't see you getting as far as an all ireland semi final mainly because that you're backs are too lose and that to build on the progresss you made last year you needed to win an Ulster title.With that said you might get some momentum going in the qualifiers and who know's what can happen then.

[Applesisapples]

Stephen McDonald had a good game, yes he was well marshalled at times but he create chances and space. His understanding with Clarke was also good.

[borderfox]

Good post Duffleking.
A league victory in February means SFA when it comes to the Ulster championship. Some of these Down boys really do get carried away with league victories lol.

[PAULD123]

Good post Duffleking.
A league victory in February means SFA when it comes to the Ulster championship. Some of these Down boys really do get carried away with league victories lol.

Fair enough, nothing I can say at the moment as it was all said on the pitch on Saturday night. All I will say is that if you don't want to end up with similar egg on your face to that on mine, then you want to be careful how much you gloat now. To paraphrase your own statement - a first round victory in May means SFA when it comes to the third Sunday in September!

Most Armagh posters have been sensible enough to praise their team for the terrific performance without making boasts or gloating. If you want to point out my mistake in doing so in February, then you also might want to learn from it.

Remember one victory does not make you suddenly the best team in Ireland nor does one loss make us the worst.