League 2021

ragingbull

ragingbull

Well-Known Member
gael_force_orchard said:
Morgan, constantly fouls, mc cabe same. Mc Brearty walsed through us at will and donegal left 2-03 behind them in that first half. O hanlon isnt a half back and Mc quillan was anonymous. The difference between donegal and us is that donegal attacked with intent for 70 mins and will kick on when their injured players come back. We wouldnt have fared any better with a full deck becuase we concede heavy every game we play. We cant defend. We either foul, or let players carve us open up the middle. Positionally we are poor and we are sacrificing forwards to try and shore up defence, it isnt working and we really havent kicked on. Im normally upbeat and more positive than most on Armagh football, I just dont see anything improving much at the minute. We will be 4 or 5 up against Roscommon next and then revert to type. Tactically Armagh are a poor outfit and there is deadwood in the team being carried.
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Saying how it is
 
northarmaghgael

northarmaghgael

Active Member
A lot of mixed reviews on here.

Have to say, yes, going on results we have made considerable strides from last year, although not to be negative or shine a light on anything, we have been playing against experimental sides, whilst playing with our closest championship team.

Couple of positives from tonight:

- the use of direct ball into the FF line (particularly in first half)
- performance of our key men (grugan, Grimley, O’Neill’s, soupy)
- introduction of new players

Only negative I have with this group of players/management is their vulnerability to teams ‘running at them’. We cannot cope with a direct style of play. This is where someone like Donaghy, playing as a sweeper in front of FB, IMO would be critical.
 
northarmaghgael

northarmaghgael

Active Member
On a side note. What a mess GAAGO is. Although it is a good service for worldwide Gaels, I couldn’t watch most of the 2nd half of some bizarre reason, which is the 2nd week in a row. Sooner fans are allowed back to games the better !
 
T

Throwball

Well-Known Member
Was one of those privileged to be at the match. Contrary to what I have read on here I felt Armagh defended very well for the majority of the game. That is from watching live and rewatching Eirsport recording.
We really did struggle in last 10 minutes or so. I assume that Murnin wasnt fit enough to be given enough time to help us over the line.
Excluding kickouts I thought Hughes did well - bar one punch he should have caught. As for the kickouts that is a problem for all the players and not just the keeper. As supporters we have to be careful. The grief given to a number of keepers since Hearty retired has led to a number to walk away. I cannot see an obviously better keeper in the county. Others may know differently.

As for pluses. The biggest for me is that I felt disappointed we didn't win when we left the ground. Things are improving and it was great to be back cheering on Armagh!!
 
T

Too Long Ref

Member
Throwball said:
Was one of those privileged to be at the match. Contrary to what I have read on here I felt Armagh defended very well for the majority of the game. That is from watching live and rewatching Eirsport recording.
We really did struggle in last 10 minutes or so. I assume that Murnin wasnt fit enough to be given enough time to help us over the line.
Excluding kickouts I thought Hughes did well - bar one punch he should have caught. As for the kickouts that is a problem for all the players and not just the keeper. As supporters we have to be careful. The grief given to a number of keepers since Hearty retired has led to a number to walk away. I cannot see an obviously better keeper in the county. Others may know differently.

As for pluses. The biggest for me is that I felt disappointed we didn't win when we left the ground. Things are improving and it was great to be back cheering on Armagh!!
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Totally agree with this. Like yourself I was in AG last night. A lot of people leaving disappointed with the draw - definitely progress in my eyes.

I was disappointed in our kick outs particularly in a period when we were under pressure in 2nd half. We were losing our own KO time after time and allowing Donegal to put the squeeze on us. This did contribute to their come back. This wasn't solely Blaine's fault and our out field players must also share the blame.

I like Throwball says have yet to see a far better keeper than Blaine in Armagh. There is massive work needed on our kick outs though.

A factor not previous there when we faced Roscommon in the last number of years is confidence. Our players will be going into the game disappointed not to be in league semi-final and feeling that they should have got win v Donegal and have already beaten Monaghan.

They will hopefully be going into this game confident of the win knowing they are good enough for D1 football. Securing D1 for next season would be some lift for the whole county before championship starts.
 
T

thecritic

Well-Known Member
Throwball said:
Was one of those privileged to be at the match. Contrary to what I have read on here I felt Armagh defended very well for the majority of the game. That is from watching live and rewatching Eirsport recording.
We really did struggle in last 10 minutes or so. I assume that Murnin wasnt fit enough to be given enough time to help us over the line.
Excluding kickouts I thought Hughes did well - bar one punch he should have caught. As for the kickouts that is a problem for all the players and not just the keeper. As supporters we have to be careful. The grief given to a number of keepers since Hearty retired has led to a number to walk away. I cannot see an obviously better keeper in the county. Others may know differently.

As for pluses. The biggest for me is that I felt disappointed we didn't win when we left the ground. Things are improving and it was great to be back cheering on Armagh!!
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Did B Donaghy warm-up at any stage??
 
J

jpowell100

Active Member
Seen a few mention Donaghy yet again, you would think if he was fit he would have been the ideal man to bring on after we got the goal to close the defence up a bit
 
T

Too Long Ref

Member
thecritic said:
Did B Donaghy warm-up at any stage??
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Yes was out regularly with rest of subs.

At one stage it looked like he was sent out on his own to warm up - not long after Paul Hughes replaced Ross Finn. I thought at that stage he was coming on but it didn't materialise.

I thought Ross Finn did well last night and justified his start all the same.
 
P

Pat Cully

Well-Known Member
thecritic said:
Hope he didn't pull anything for the Roscommon warm-ups
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He was warming up at every chance he got so is obviously fit.
So if fit and named in the match day squad why did he not replace Morgan at ht
We replaced Morgan with a forward in turbet who by the way done well up front but isn’t solving the problem of blocking all the Donegal runs straight through the middle of our defence.
 
P

Peter grimes

Well-Known Member
2 points on Geezer. 1 for either side of the debate.

On the positive side we are definitively improving. Anyone who cannot see signs of progress is blind (for whatever reason). Whilst we still have problems with runners, kick outs and closing games not so long ago this problems were being exposed by Sligo (and a rubbish Sligo team at that). The problems haven’t gone away but now we are there or thereabouts with Donegal and Tyrone. Those teams are not full strength but we shouldn’t exaggerate how far off full strength they are.

The negative was a few bizarre decisions. It would have been nice to have Donaghy on to close out the Tyrone match but I don’t think there was a compelling reason to bring him on or an obvious opportunity to do so. Last night was different. The choice and timing of subs seemed to invite rather than address or preempt problems.

Thought Finn stood up well.

These are strange times. Preparations are not the normal pattern. Comparisons are difficult but surely we have more positives than negatives this far.
 
T

Taff

Active Member
northarmaghgael said:
On a side note. What a mess GAAGO is. Although it is a good service for worldwide Gaels, I couldn’t watch most of the 2nd half of some bizarre reason, which is the 2nd week in a row. Sooner fans are allowed back to games the better !
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They need to up the server capacity with the demand I think.

We had issues just before half time and in the second half.
 
B

Bo Darville

Active Member
Agree with a lot of what’s been said.

Can’t blame Blaine alone for the kick out issues in the last quarter. It looked like Donegal pushed up on the kick out covering the wide men standing on each side of the 21, forcing him to go looking further out field. The issue was that once he did, Donegal won all those individual battles in the air.

Always looked like Donegal would need a goal to get back into the game as their shooting from distance was poor under immense pressure from our blanket defence. Despite the positives it was worrying that they were able to run through us on several occasions and probably left another few goals behind them. As others have said Donaghy in the 2nd half may have been enough to get us over the line.

But all in all, a decent performance. I also thought Finn did well and based on what we have seen, we have enough to beat Roscommon and retain division 1 status which was all we wanted or needed from the league.

oh and GAAGO should be refunding everyone or showing the Roscommon game for free.
 
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