Laois v Armagh, NFL Div 2, Round 1, Sat 2nd February

[laoislad]

Given the history from last years game most players and managers would have tried to keep things low key to avoid any further controversy but not Mr. Sheehan. Obviously on his a managers instructions he moved at the start of the game from wing forward to centre forward to be marked by McKeever. For the next five minutes or so rather than play football he decided the best course of action was to face down McKeever constantly shouldering him in the chest, standing on his toes and whispering sweet nothings to him. McKeever for his part was quite obviously trying not to react and stood with arms outstretched appealing to the referee and linesman to do something. When nothing was done and Sheehan realised he had free reign he continued. The tactic quite obviously worked as McKeever had one of his poorer games for Armagh. I am sure many will think this is fair game as is evidenced by Laois radio commentators suggesting McKeever is over rated. However, it is my opinion that after the comments our president made on sledging and the problems encountered in the same match last year that these tactics were out of order. Many in Armagh are of the opinion that this game was played on a Saturday night at the start of the league in Laois, when they also met in Laois last year, was just to get the game out of the way with as little controversy as possible. If Armagh get a chance to meet Laois later in the summer I have no doubt that Laois and Billy Sheehan will see that McKeever is far from over rated.

Billy doesn't care.........

[armaghniac]

Billy doesn't care.........

I tbink that says everything about the problems in the GAA and in some quarters in particular.
Someone posts about sledging and generally offensive and unwelcome behaviour and so called "fans" make posts with smiley faces approving of it all.

[laoislad]

 

[Throw ball]

Billy doesn't care.........

I tbink that says everything about the problems in the GAA and in some quarters in particular.
Someone posts about sledging and generally offensive and unwelcome behaviour and so called "fans" make posts with smiley faces approving of it all.

Another Laois poster made similar comments earlier and I decided it was best not to rise to the bait! Have never been fond of Laois since Croke Park in 2005 when I saw a grown man in a Laois jersey squirt his water bottle over a ten year old because he celebrated Stevie McDonnell s coring a goal. This was after about twenty minutes of abuse telling us to xxxx off back to Britain.

[under the bar]

Apart from Cavan, would Armagh fans feel confident they would get the better of any other Ulster team come the championship without Jamie Clarke??  Serious question

[stew]

Given the history from last years game most players and managers would have tried to keep things low key to avoid any further controversy but not Mr. Sheehan. Obviously on his a managers instructions he moved at the start of the game from wing forward to centre forward to be marked by McKeever. For the next five minutes or so rather than play football he decided the best course of action was to face down McKeever constantly shouldering him in the chest, standing on his toes and whispering sweet nothings to him. McKeever for his part was quite obviously trying not to react and stood with arms outstretched appealing to the referee and linesman to do something. When nothing was done and Sheehan realised he had free reign he continued. The tactic quite obviously worked as McKeever had one of his poorer games for Armagh. I am sure many will think this is fair game as is evidenced by Laois radio commentators suggesting McKeever is over rated. However, it is my opinion that after the comments our president made on sledging and the problems encountered in the same match last year that these tactics were out of order. Many in Armagh are of the opinion that this game was played on a Saturday night at the start of the league in Laois, when they also met in Laois last year, was just to get the game out of the way with as little controversy as possible. If Armagh get a chance to meet Laois later in the summer I have no doubt that Laois and Billy Sheehan will see that McKeever is far from over rated.

Billy doesn't care.........

Would you not just take your victory, without having to be a dick about it. A wannabe Laois man from Kerry
(Billy Sheehan) who called Michael Murphy british last year in a League game last year -  since when was Donegal British?

Says it all about Billy Sheehan and the Laois supporters,who constantly be at that crap.

Although an ugly fcuker billy boy is still better looking than half the wemen in that God forsaken County, ugliest bitches in Ireland that Laois lot.

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

Jesus. I've never come across such pessimism as I've seen from the Ard Mhachians on this thread!

There's simply very little to be positive about. We've lost 8 of our last nine matches, replaced a floundering manager with a selection of the previous two regimes and enter into Saturday's match without our star forward, missing our best corner back, full back and arguably also our most talented midfielder. We field without a recognised man marker in the starting XV.

That said, 15/8 about an Armagh victory is probably big enough.

Who`s that?

It must be a Paul McGrane comeback?

Thought the same myself

To clarify I was referring to Charlie Vernon. Full strength team at home beats side without around half our likely strongest XV was the moral of last night's story. Ethan Rafferty was a positive, could have added another couple of points to his tally. The defence were under huge pressure given our struggles at midfield but given the circumstances i thought James Donnelly did reasonably well. At least there was a bit of spirit in the second half and this was probably our toughest fixture but I suspect we're unlikely to mount much of a promotion challenge.

As for Mr Sheehan, I'm sure growing up as a young fella in Kerry, his dream was to be able to gesture to a Portlaoise crowd after a couple of points in a run of the mill league match in February.

[laoislad]

This is great stuff, but like Laois had it last night a bit too easy.
I'm especially delighted to see that tool stew make an arse of himself.

[armaghniac]

Apart from Cavan, would Armagh fans feel confident they would get the better of any other Ulster team come the championship without Jamie Clarke??  Serious question

Jamie Clarke can do wonderful things with the ball, but even he cannot do much if he does not get the ball. So it is not clear that he is the solution to the problem of midfield etc.

I'm sure we'd beat Antrim though.

[theticklemister]

Apart from Cavan, would Armagh fans feel confident they would get the better of any other Ulster team come the championship without Jamie Clarke??  Serious question

Jamie Clarke can do wonderful things with the ball, but even he cannot do much if he does not get the ball. So it is not clear that he is the solution to the problem of midfield etc.

I'm sure we'd beat Antrim though.

Play Jamie Clarke at mf to buck.
Dont let hardstation hear ye say that; he is full at the moment singing rebel tunes after todays victory over Cavan who are the best team in Ulster.

[Dont Matter]

Armagh fans obviously don't take defeat too well. I always used to think they were decent supporters but that was back when they used to beat us.
No matter what you think of Billy, it's still an amatuer sport. He has a day job to go to and the story last year did him no favours. Can you blame him for celebrating at the end especially with Armagh fans jeering him and shouting abuse?

[theticklemister]

What did big bad Billy actually do?

[laoislad]

What did big bad Billy actually do?

He put McKeever in his back pocket.

[BennyCake]

Armagh fans obviously don't take defeat too well. I always used to think they were decent supporters but that was back when they used to beat us.
No matter what you think of Billy, it's still an amatuer sport. He has a day job to go to and the story last year did him no favours. Can you blame him for celebrating at the end especially with Armagh fans jeering him and shouting abuse?

There was no abuse directed towards Billy Sheehan or any other Laois player, from any Armagh fan last night. In fact, the game was a very sporting contest.

[Dont Matter]

Oh the game was a very sporting contest but there was some vicious abuse thrown at Billy, some Armagh fans really let themselves down especially with plenty of kids around to hear what they were shouting.