Disappointing yesterday, on one hand (as Jim McCrory said after the game) it’s times like this where pride in the jersey is questioned, would an Armagh team of early noughties performed like this? Even in a dead rubber game, surely the desire is to win for the county? That’s something that can’t be coached, players need to take it upon themselves.
HOWEVER, players have had a tough campaign with 7 tough matches and that can’t be ignored. We may have thrown a few games away, but the priority was to stay in division 2 and we got that. Job done.
Surely even the most cynical can be hopeful that realistically we could have won every game in the league, Kildare, Meath and Donegal were due to them being more experienced in high level football in my opinion. Clare was out of our control. To go from competing in division 3 for 2 years against the likes of Offaly and Sligo, to being within a few scores of every team in division 2 cannot be underestimated, call me an optimist but since the start of 2017 this squad has been building and they are progressing all the time. 7 tough games is excellent preparation for down come may.
Player wise, no one in the team puts more pride in the jersey than Aidan forker. May be one of the most skilled attackers on the panel but puts his head down and performs the toughest role on the pitch, link player between defence and attack. Stephen Sheridan also shows the leadership/passion but we have a massive amount of potential in midfield. Clarke has shown a lot of good play but I still believe he is rusty and he and Campbell’s best won’t be shown until the summer.
sometimes we have shown a lack of fluidity in attack, but I believe with more training all the new/retuning players will gel greatly.
Overall, some glimpses of excellence but some lack of fluidity and mistakes, but I expect this to be ironed out before may. Congratulations to players and management.
HOWEVER, players have had a tough campaign with 7 tough matches and that can’t be ignored. We may have thrown a few games away, but the priority was to stay in division 2 and we got that. Job done.
Surely even the most cynical can be hopeful that realistically we could have won every game in the league, Kildare, Meath and Donegal were due to them being more experienced in high level football in my opinion. Clare was out of our control. To go from competing in division 3 for 2 years against the likes of Offaly and Sligo, to being within a few scores of every team in division 2 cannot be underestimated, call me an optimist but since the start of 2017 this squad has been building and they are progressing all the time. 7 tough games is excellent preparation for down come may.
Player wise, no one in the team puts more pride in the jersey than Aidan forker. May be one of the most skilled attackers on the panel but puts his head down and performs the toughest role on the pitch, link player between defence and attack. Stephen Sheridan also shows the leadership/passion but we have a massive amount of potential in midfield. Clarke has shown a lot of good play but I still believe he is rusty and he and Campbell’s best won’t be shown until the summer.
sometimes we have shown a lack of fluidity in attack, but I believe with more training all the new/retuning players will gel greatly.
Overall, some glimpses of excellence but some lack of fluidity and mistakes, but I expect this to be ironed out before may. Congratulations to players and management.
