Ulster Final 2008 - Armagh vs Fermanagh

[Onion Bag]

I 100% agree, S kernan was good against Cavan and Down, so what he had a stinker yesterday along with another 10-12 players. It was maybe the wake up call required to go on ahead lift the anglo celt

[under the bar]

Next week will tell a different tale and there is no way we can play that bad again

Why not? You've been playing like that for about 2 years now!

[Onion Bag]

We are still in the c'ship, and we played absolute shite, doesnt say much for the opposition, We had a rotton year last year with injuries but we are regrouping, new manager, An ulster title would be nice this year and anything after that would be a bonus

[bloody mary]

'Yes I would' - what do you mean about 'don't get me started about that kane fella on bbc'? Every week someone says that here but I never see it so I was wondering what yourse are on about!

[naka]

manager hadnt a good day at the office yesterday, his substitutions didnt work at all
i felt that common sense would have told him that fermangh were making good use of the short kickout whilst we persisted with long kickouts when the pressure was on ffs we had an extra man in the defence whilst fermanagh had an extra man at midfield,
turning point I thought was mallon`s wide cos they went up the field and scored a goal 
looking at the game again last nifght , a kernan, poor,s kernan poor, vernon poor, c mc keever poor and we need to reconsider the use of aor as his man caused a lot of damage and contributed 2 points
all in all clarke and  stevie scored 1-7 between then with no other forward scoring clearly room for improvement

[mackers]

AK is getting an awful lot of stick, Since Aaron made his debut i never seen him play a bad match, he is human and humans make mistakes, the sort of shite i was listening to on the way out of clones yesterday you would have thought some of the players had murdered someone. but everyone needs to get behind these guys and rally them, we are still in the c'ship. We played absolute shite and still got a draw, Fermanagh people were celebrating after the game, they were happy with the draw, they must have had 70% of the possesion in the 2nd half and couldnt make it count, imagine the shoe in the other foot, it would have been like Dublin Wexford. Next week will tell a different tale and there is no way we can play that bad again

Onion Bag, AK is getting criticised for his performance yesterday, and from what I understand of Aaron I'd say he would be the first man to put the hand up to admit he didn't play well (is he above criticism?). That said, I would fully expect him, among others, to stand up next Sunday and improve dramatically. As I said earlier he has rarely let us down in the past. To a large extent it's irrelevant now, but what price would you put on the two McEntee's fighting for ball in the midfield? There were quite a few Armagh supporters who criticised them in their time.

[barryownsafarm]

I'm not sure if i'm disappointed or disgusted with some of the posts on here. "doesn't say much for the opposition" wtf. look at the end of the day you can either play shite or the other team can play well. in my eyes armagh dominated for 30 minutes and fermanagh dominated for 30 minutes (first 10 minutes pretty even). to say that yous played shite is wrong.  I can't comprehend all the comments saying "we can't play as bad again". You's didnt play that bad. yous played as good as you can play for much of that game and still didn't win. A lot of Fermanagh men had bad games yesterday. we WILL improve. armagh's record in replays means nothing. historical statistics about replays and favourites winning means nothing. fermanaghs lack of success in replays means nothing. Peter Canavan is wrong. Pound for Pound we are every bit as good as Derry and every bit as good as Armagh. Do you think we will give Armagh an eight point start the next day? Do you think we will miss 14 yard frees? Will Stevie McDonnell be allowed to dictate again? You all talk of Armagh improving.  How will that happen? We have a better midfield.  We have better men at winning breaks. That won't change in seven days. Bellew can be exploited. It was shown yesterday and Malachy will have seven more days to think of how best to exploit it. Ok Mallon, McD and Clarke are among the best footballers in the country.  But beyond that what have you got in excess of Fermanagh? For me I think Goan, Kelly, Maguire, Keenan and even Tommy to an extent had quiet or poor games yesterday.  These are our most consistent players. they will not be as poor the next day. people say "if only we (fermanagh) had a mcdonnell to kick 8 points" this is rubbish to an extent. of course we'd love to have a man like mcdonnell but our system is based on finding a man in space and that man being able to kick it over from 30 yards. it can be any man. thats how it works. thats the beauty of it. 9 different scorers yesterday. granted the freetakin ability (or lack there of) nearly cost us yesterday and this will need to be looked at. But mark little will score the next day. eamon maguire will score, mcelroy(s) will score, womble will score and kelly will score. we are a fitter team (by some margin). we are prob the fittest team in ireland.  we are a hungry team. we are prob the hungriest team in ireland. yesterdays celebrations were not because we were happy with a draw it was because we were 8 points down with half hour to go and 3 points down with ten two minutes left. We were overjoyed with the magdnitude of the comeback. We were overjoyed in the realisation that we WILL win this the next day. To be honest I think the nerves will sit with Armagh the next day.  They seem to fear us. When we get going they don't know how to cope. The pressure is on Armagh. Fermanagh have the momentum. Fermanagh by three. Fear Manach Abú

[Onion Bag]

I'm not sure if i'm disappointed or disgusted with some of the posts on here. "doesn't say much for the opposition" wtf. look at the end of the day you can either play shite or the other team can play well. in my eyes armagh dominated for 30 minutes and fermanagh dominated for 30 minutes (first 10 minutes pretty even). to say that yous played shite is wrong.  I can't comprehend all the comments saying "we can't play as bad again". You's didnt play that bad. yous played as good as you can play for much of that game and still didn't win. A lot of Fermanagh men had bad games yesterday. we WILL improve. armagh's record in replays means nothing. historical statistics about replays and favourites winning means nothing. fermanaghs lack of success in replays means nothing. Peter Canavan is wrong. Pound for Pound we are every bit as good as Derry and every bit as good as Armagh. Do you think we will give Armagh an eight point start the next day? Do you think we will miss 14 yard frees? Will Stevie McDonnell be allowed to dictate again? You all talk of Armagh improving.  How will that happen? We have a better midfield.  We have better men at winning breaks. That won't change in seven days. Bellew can be exploited. It was shown yesterday and Malachy will have seven more days to think of how best to exploit it. Ok Mallon, McD and Clarke are among the best footballers in the country.  But beyond that what have you got in excess of Fermanagh? For me I think Goan, Kelly, Maguire, Keenan and even Tommy to an extent had quiet or poor games yesterday.  These are our most consistent players. they will not be as poor the next day. people say "if only we (fermanagh) had a mcdonnell to kick 8 points" this is rubbish to an extent. of course we'd love to have a man like mcdonnell but our system is based on finding a man in space and that man being able to kick it over from 30 yards. it can be any man. thats how it works. thats the beauty of it. 9 different scorers yesterday. granted the freetakin ability (or lack there of) nearly cost us yesterday and this will need to be looked at. But mark little will score the next day. eamon maguire will score, mcelroy(s) will score, womble will score and kelly will score. we are a fitter team (by some margin). we are prob the fittest team in ireland.  we are a hungry team. we are prob the hungriest team in ireland. yesterdays celebrations were not because we were happy with a draw it was because we were 8 points down with half hour to go and 3 points down with ten two minutes left. We were overjoyed with the magdnitude of the comeback. We were overjoyed in the realisation that we WILL win this the next day. To be honest I think the nerves will sit with Armagh the next day.  They seem to fear us. When we get going they don't know how to cope. The pressure is on Armagh. Fermanagh have the momentum. Fermanagh by three. Fear Manach Abú

We did play shite, noone was happy with the performance, Our lack of break ball, free kicks, side line balls, unforced errors all over the field from players who you dont asscoiate with making mistakes, missed tackles, there will be a huge improvement in our performance next week, so fermanagh people hold on to your caps

[Onion Bag]

I'm not sure if i'm disappointed or disgusted with some of the posts on here. "doesn't say much for the opposition" wtf. look at the end of the day you can either play shite or the other team can play well. in my eyes armagh dominated for 30 minutes and fermanagh dominated for 30 minutes (first 10 minutes pretty even). to say that yous played shite is wrong.  I can't comprehend all the comments saying "we can't play as bad again". You's didnt play that bad. yous played as good as you can play for much of that game and still didn't win. A lot of Fermanagh men had bad games yesterday. we WILL improve. armagh's record in replays means nothing. historical statistics about replays and favourites winning means nothing. fermanaghs lack of success in replays means nothing. Peter Canavan is wrong. Pound for Pound we are every bit as good as Derry and every bit as good as Armagh. Do you think we will give Armagh an eight point start the next day? Do you think we will miss 14 yard frees? Will Stevie McDonnell be allowed to dictate again? You all talk of Armagh improving.  How will that happen? We have a better midfield.  We have better men at winning breaks. That won't change in seven days. Bellew can be exploited. It was shown yesterday and Malachy will have seven more days to think of how best to exploit it. Ok Mallon, McD and Clarke are among the best footballers in the country.  But beyond that what have you got in excess of Fermanagh? For me I think Goan, Kelly, Maguire, Keenan and even Tommy to an extent had quiet or poor games yesterday.  These are our most consistent players. they will not be as poor the next day. people say "if only we (fermanagh) had a mcdonnell to kick 8 points" this is rubbish to an extent. of course we'd love to have a man like mcdonnell but our system is based on finding a man in space and that man being able to kick it over from 30 yards. it can be any man. thats how it works. thats the beauty of it. 9 different scorers yesterday. granted the freetakin ability (or lack there of) nearly cost us yesterday and this will need to be looked at. But mark little will score the next day. eamon maguire will score, mcelroy(s) will score, womble will score and kelly will score. we are a fitter team (by some margin). we are prob the fittest team in ireland.  we are a hungry team. we are prob the hungriest team in ireland. yesterdays celebrations were not because we were happy with a draw it was because we were 8 points down with half hour to go and 3 points down with ten two minutes left. We were overjoyed with the magdnitude of the comeback. We were overjoyed in the realisation that we WILL win this the next day. To be honest I think the nerves will sit with Armagh the next day.  They seem to fear us. When we get going they don't know how to cope. The pressure is on Armagh. Fermanagh have the momentum. Fermanagh by three. Fear Manach Abú

One of which scored a goal which was a clear SQUARE BALL, so you should have been beat

[corn02]

Observations from my advantage / disadvantage point in front of the box:

AK had one of his worst perfromances in an orange shirt. Onion bag people are saying he played bad because he did, every player gets criticised. He has set very high standards and no doubt he will be back to hisbest next week.

SK was poor but should be a lot better next time out.

McKeever might have been quiet but he bombed forward at important times.

I would like to see McKinney in for the replay. Hearty could be better suited to Croker with the bigger spaces. His booming kick-out could be more important then.

MOR was very busy when on and was substituted too early. You can be sure that the Fermanagh momentum would have been disrupted if he was on be it a great break ball or something.

McDonnell was superb, his points were from the op drawer.

Mallon, Bellew and Moriarty all made forrays forward, never seen that from an Armagh side.

BC I see McKenna came on, would you think he is up to that yet?

[inisceithleann]

I was greatly encouraged by our second half performance yesterday, and it clearly indicated the heart and determination that O'Rourke has instilled in the players this season. I wasn't surprised at McCabe starting, but like many others was at a loss to explain why he faded so badly after a great opening 20 mins. James Sherry, nor the Fermanagh management seem to know where his best position is. He caught two marvellous catches in the first quarter, but struggled badly when put into full forward. Next Sunday, I expect Barry Owens to start at full forward with Sherry probably starting at CHF. However Shaun Doc in the his cameo at the end is a real option there.

Ryan Keenan won a lot of ball yesterday, but unfortunately like nearly all the other Fermanagh forwards does not pose a scoring threat. If anything, he is there for his free taking and when that goes wrong his place is in jeopardy. Tom Brewster or Mattie Keenan starting to simply take the frees is something O'Rourke will strongly have to consider.

In the defence, it was a solid enough performance. Shane Goan had a difficult afternoon, but he's been a rock in there for the last 4 seasons so his place will be safe enough. Damien Kelly never really got going yesterday, which was disappointing considering his performances to date. Shane Lyons did very well when introduced and will be pusing very hard for the jersey next weekend.

I feel we've gained more than Armagh did after the draw. We definitely have the momentum going into the replay and hopefully should have enough to turn over Armagh next Sunday.

[orangeman]

It was a really strange result yesterday - this might sound silly - but did Armagh get TOO FAR in front yesterday too early ?

Joe Kernan's teams were always able to close out games with small margins - Joe's teams were able to close out games with 1,2,3 point leads - maybe it was strange territory for Armagh but their midfield collapse was unreal.

I thought some Armagh players treated Fermanagh with little or no respect and it nearly came back to haunt them.

[FermGael]

Just after watching the game again there now.
The first half was defiantly not one for the purists.
Fermanagh turned the game in the second half by utilizing McCluskey in an attacking role and by pressing Armagh in their own half of the field.  Armagh scoring the goal at the start of the second half meant Fermanagh had to go for it.  It meant we had to attack and Clucker stopped trying to read the balls going into Clarke and McDonnell. 
The amount of turnover ball Fermanagh forced Armagh to concede was huge.  The way to stop McDonnell and Clarke is to cut of and spoil the ball going into them.
That's exactly what we did in the second half.  We pressed them in their own half and put the Armagh backs under huge pressure
But we kicked far too many balls into the keepers hands and took the wrong option especially in the last 10 minutes.  For all our procession we were 3 points down with 5 minutes of normal time to go.  Armagh had 2 opportunities to hit insurance points and they missed both.  McDonnell from a free and from play i think.
Owens was great when he came on.  Have watched Bellew playing on  numerous occasions and he has rarely put a foot wrong but he certainly did not look comfortable marking Owens.  Do not know if Barry would be fit for the whole match but he really could be an option up there.
Armagh will definitely not concede as much possession in the midfield third the next day but then again i do not think that the Fermanagh forwards will be as wasteful.

On another note i am hearing today that there was a complete balls up with tickets to the hill.  People with hill tickets being sent behind the goals and others not getting in.  One fella i know was told the hill was full and he would have to go to the pub and watch it. 

[T Fearon]

I can see a repeat of the 2005 scenario when Aramgh were lucky enough to get a draw with Fermanagh in the Ulster Championship but won the replay handy enough.

PS Saw Peter Mc Ginnity and Jim Cleary deep in conversation at the back of the Gerry Arthurs stand after the game yesterday. Some day Fermanagh will reach an Ulster Final and not have to fact the might of Armagh

[orangeman]

Just after watching the game again there now.
The first half was defiantly not one for the purists.
Fermanagh turned the game in the second half by utilizing McCluskey in an attacking role and by pressing Armagh in their own half of the field.  Armagh scoring the goal at the start of the second half meant Fermanagh had to go for it.  It meant we had to attack and Clucker stopped trying to read the balls going into Clarke and McDonnell. 
The amount of turnover ball Fermanagh forced Armagh to concede was huge.  The way to stop McDonnell and Clarke is to cut of and spoil the ball going into them.
That's exactly what we did in the second half.  We pressed them in their own half and put the Armagh backs under huge pressure
But we kicked far too many balls into the keepers hands and took the wrong option especially in the last 10 minutes.  For all our procession we were 3 points down with 5 minutes of normal time to go.  Armagh had 2 opportunities to hit insurance points and they missed both.  McDonnell from a free and from play i think.
Owens was great when he came on.  Have watched Bellew playing on  numerous occasions and he has rarely put a foot wrong but he certainly did not look comfortable marking Owens.  Do not know if Barry would be fit for the whole match but he really could be an option up there.
Armagh will definitely not concede as much possession in the midfield third the next day but then again i do not think that the Fermanagh forwards will be as wasteful.

On another note i am hearing today that there was a complete balls up with tickets to the hill.  People with hill tickets being sent behind the goals and others not getting in.  One fella i know was told the hill was full and he would have to go to the pub and watch it.  

[/b]


I hope you're making that up as that simply could NOT happen !