Armagh v Longford - Athletic Grounds Sat 2 Mar at 7pm (Live on Setanta)

[Qwerty28]

. But I'm disgusted at the cynical fouling by Armagh and the clear denial of two goals by thuggish tackles. It pisses me off to see it.

Those deliberate rugby tackles to stop a goal need to be a red card and a penalty no matter where the foul occurs.
Did the Armagh fb get 2 yellows??

Longford player punching Lavery in the ribs on the sideline was the most cynical thuggish thing that happened at that match

Armaghgeddon, as an Armagh supporter for years, shit like your above quote only embarrasses the county. James Lavery acted like a complete Ballbag with his poxy dive when he got his ribs tickled. I question is this the same hard man that tries to bully young fellas when playing for Maghery but cows away from the tough stuff when required like tonight.

Shamrock Shore I completely understand where you are coming from with the cynical following, its not pretty but it is effective. You cant blame a player for doing it when there is no punishment for it and I am sure if Jamie Clarke was bearing down on goal you would rather your corner back stop him by whatever means.

This is an issue for the GAA to resolve but until they do we have to except it from Armagh and every other county also.

I wasn't shouting for the player to be sent off or for a free to be given. I was pointing out that the intentional striking of a player was also a thuggish act.

Fair play to you Pbat for pointing out thatLavery barely got his ribs tickled!  No way was Mulligan's "strike" a sending off offence, Longford problem is that they are sometimes too nice....look at some of the cycnical fouling and hard hits put in by Armagh compared....Im all for playing by the rules but soemtimes a nasty/cute streak is needed especaily at even Div 2 level where as has been pointed out we need a break ahving lost 3 games by a total of 5 points

[Throw ball]

Qwerty. If you watched Tyrone v Donegal today you would see how fouling is done at the top level. Amazing how many half fouls there were and how much play was stopped around the middle. As the rules stand a lot of teams are following suit.

[haveaharp]

Striking, be it to the ribs or the face is a sending off offence is it not? How can a ref judge the force of it.
Hauling a man that is clean through on goal to the floor is not. Those are the present rules as they stand although i disagree with the latter punishment. One was adhered to one was not. Armaghdeddon has a bit of a point.

[Applesisapples]

This was a shambolic performance from Armagh and Jamie saved their blushes. The policy of only introducing Cross players if you take one of must stop. Johnny Hanratty was hooked (even though he was by no means the worst player on the pitch) to introduce Tony Kernan. I don't know what this plan Big Paul has to leave Armagh in better shape when he is done, but it doesn't seem to be working. As we enviously watch Harte and Tyrone evolve almost seamlessly evolve there can be no excuse for Armagh not doing the same given the amount of money put into development squads. The county needs to get over this aversion to Cross, and Cross also need to step up to the plate and balance their own needs with those of the County.

[brokencrossbar1]

Sometimes you have to wonder about people.  I will willing put my hand up and say I am one of the biggest critics of the Armagh set up but even I can acknowledge that the win on Saturday was more than just about playing football.  This is the first time since last summer that this group of players has been able to play together so for people to think that they will start pulling up trees is deluding themselves.  There are a lot of new faces in the team, there are a lot of returning players from Cross/injury and there are still a good few '1st teamers' to come back.  They may not have played brilliantly but they still won and when the pressure came on near the end they held their cool. 

There were positives and negatives but let's face it at the minute this team is a 2nd division team.  What would be best in my view is that they consolidate themselves in the mid table position so that the management can 'develop' their style of play, 2 wins should see that consolidation.

[Shamrock Shore]

Anyone know if I could see the full or a half decent highlights package of the match again as it was live on Setanta.

The RTE 'highlights' were just the goals - I'd love to see the few incidents highlighted above again so that I can prepared my petition to The Hague if I feel it is warranted 

[Mont]

was at a loss and decided 2 go see this game.big mistake.
rmagh have gon backwards so quickly in last few yrs i am nerly feeling sry for them.

jamie clarke apart there wer no other players worth watchin.

can anyone here tell me if Armagh have a gameplan or what it is?
Pass to clarke seemd the only option and once longford dbl marked him ther were no other ideas.

grimley has a lot to answer for if he cant get the team tryin to play a gameplan

will be lucky to stay in div 2

[mackers]

This was a shambolic performance from Armagh and Jamie saved their blushes. The policy of only introducing Cross players if you take one of must stop. Johnny Hanratty was hooked (even though he was by no means the worst player on the pitch) to introduce Tony Kernan. I don't know what this plan Big Paul has to leave Armagh in better shape when he is done, but it doesn't seem to be working. As we enviously watch Harte and Tyrone evolve almost seamlessly evolve there can be no excuse for Armagh not doing the same given the amount of money put into development squads. The county needs to get over this aversion to Cross, and Cross also need to step up to the plate and balance their own needs with those of the County.

No harm to you apples that conspiracy theory is only present in your head.  Finnegan and Hanratty were rightly taken off.  In fairness Hanratty was lost in at full forward and could have been better used in midfield.  However, on Saturday night our midfield pairing were ticking along OK (much to my surprise).  I cursed Finnegan at the match on Saturday night for being caught for the goal but after looking at it again on the Setanta coverage credit has to go to Barden for an excellent pass in.
I think that a very poor second half performance has tinted some of the comments on here.  I would say that there were some very encouraging passages of play in the first half where our kick passing was good.  We don't have the physique to play a running game trying to break tackles (a la Tyrone/Donegal yesterday) and I hope we persist with the quick kick passing game.  We lost our way in the second half and overcomplicated things at times. 
Our FB line was a major concern but is this really a surprise when we played two midfielders and a debutant in the full back line?  Ciaran McKeever had his hands full with an excellent player and Donaghy looked very rusty.
I was impressed with Lavery, who I have been sore on, hopefully he will build on this performance.
Jamie Clarke transforms our forward line (as he would with any county team).  He gets praised (rightly) for his silky skills but I think his ball winning ability is underestimated.  Last week when some decent ball went into our FF line it was coming straight back out again.  This week a similar standard of ball into our FF line stuck.  Forker played well off him and hopefully this partnership is allowed to develop.
Jamie would be the first to say that he was one of the players that overcomplicated things in the second half.  When your team haven't scored in twenty odd minutes simple tap over points are worth much gold and he kicked one bad wide with his right and he spurned, along with others, a few simple point taking opportunities going for goal. 
We badly need a few more experienced players back for what will be a very difficult trip to Derry.

[drici]

The full game is being shown again on Wednesday at 4-00pm.

[Armamike]

I think the frustrating thing is that year in year out since 2008 we seem to be constantly chopping and changing, drafting players in and out and moving them around the pitch while giving some really flat performances and getting on the end of some bad defeats (in each of the last 4 years Armagh has left the championship on the end of a drubbing by some poor to average outfits - we're not talking Kerry, Dublin, Cork, or Donegal here).  So far this year we've had a couple of midfielders tried out at full forward (Kingham and Hanratty), a forward at CHB (Forker), a midfielder at FB and CHB (Donnelly), a forward at corner back (McCooey), a half back at corner back (McKenna) and it goes on. The time for experimenting is over lads.  If you could see a semblance of a plan or work in progress you could live with the early exits and the poor results. No one's in dreamland about our chances, supporters just want to see a fairly well drilled, organised outfit with players comfortable in their positions and the vast majority of the best players in the county making themselves available and given a call up. I come from a junior club, An Port Mor, that got to the all-Ireland semi final this year because for the first time in our history we managed to get the available players out playing to a basic plan - nothing too complicated.  If a junior club can come up with a game plan and stick to it, i can't see why a county side can't.  For the past few years Armagh sides seem to be playing off the cuff, players don't seem to know what to do when they have the ball - they've few options around them.

Coaches and managers can't do much about the natural ability of their playing resources or make up for a lack of athleticism or speed, fielding ability, or ability to put the ball over the bar or in the back of the net - and Armagh aren't exactly blessed in those areas right now, but they can ensure that the players know what their roles are in the team, that they do the basics like working hard for the team, closing down the opposition and moving, covering and supporting each other on the pitch. I haven't seen that with Armagh the past 5 or 6 years but i'm hoping (dreaming) by the end of this season it will be a different story.

[Shamrock Shore]

The full game is being shown again on Wednesday at 4-00pm.

But.......but........but.......I don't have Setanta at home 

[Harold Disgracey]

Gif of Jamie Clarke's goal.

http://ballsdot.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/gallery/gaagifs0403/clarkegoal.gif

[stew]

Sometimes you have to wonder about people.  I will willing put my hand up and say I am one of the biggest critics of the Armagh set up but even I can acknowledge that the win on Saturday was more than just about playing football.  This is the first time since last summer that this group of players has been able to play together so for people to think that they will start pulling up trees is deluding themselves.  There are a lot of new faces in the team, there are a lot of returning players from Cross/injury and there are still a good few '1st teamers' to come back.  They may not have played brilliantly but they still won and when the pressure came on near the end they held their cool. 

There were positives and negatives but let's face it at the minute this team is a 2nd division team.  What would be best in my view is that they consolidate themselves in the mid table position so that the management can 'develop' their style of play, 2 wins should see that consolidation.

Correct. Some boys here really trying hard to outdo each other in the misery stakes. A bit of perspective and all that.

For a couple of decades we had a tremendous midfield, from McKinstry to the Grimleys and McGrane etc, we have not got that anymore, who the hell could replace the likes of Stevie and Francie as well  McGeeney and Marsden.

Swings and roundabouts and all that, we have good underage sides and a handful of top notch players, we will get better and once Grimley gets a settled side we will se a big improvemt, as long as the players come together and believe in each other and management.

The future is bright, the future is orange!

[armaghniac]

15 Minutes into the Longford game there was a dramatic improvement from one week earlier, and I was happy enough. Things went down from there on rather than up, but the curates egg analogy is about right. If there is a bit more of the good bits each week then that will constitute progress. It'll not be easy to get the points though.

[bennydorano]

Bit Like Paddy & his pot of stew that someone took a dump in, he had to throw the half of it out.