It’s two draws from two starts for us in this year’s National League campaign. Here’s the online coverage of yesterday’s stalemate with Armagh at a packed Athletic Grounds.
Locals: Connaught Telegraph, Belfast Live.
Nationals: Irish Examiner, Irish Times, Irish Independent, Irish News, Belfast Telegraph.
Others: GAA, RTÉ (live blog, match report, Kevin McStay quotes), BBC, The 42, Sports Joe.
Photos: Inpho, Sportsfile.
Video: GAA (highlights), TG4 (Ryan O’Donoghue post-match), The Sunday Game (analysis), GAA Fan TV (analysis).
Stats: GAA Statsman, Stephen O’Meara, GAA League Tables.
There’s no new coverage to report on yesterday’s LGFA game against Waterford in Dungarvan apart from the links I included in my piece on the game last night. For ease of reference, they’re here:
Match report: Ladies Football.
Highlights: Ladies Football.
There’s no coverage online, from what I can see, about our NHL match against Roscommon on Saturday. That game, coincidentally, finished with the same final score as the one up north yesterday. Funny old world.
That’s it for now so – back later on this evening with the results of the MOTM poll. If you haven’t yet voted in the poll then you’ve plenty of this to do so. Over on the podcast, meanwhile, club members can look forward to our match review show. That’ll be up on Patreon later on today.
Off now with you and enjoy the nation’s newest bank holiday.
That was some game. Great entertainment. Mayo were very good with top performances all over the field. Aiden was very good. 50 to 60 mins is his limit though. Eoghain has never been the same after the john small jaw break. Understandable. He was more composed before that happened. Do not kick possession away in the last minute eoghain lol.
That game is really gonna stand to the younger guys. A tough test that they passed really well. If diarmuid durcan o hora are ready for kerry then dont rule out our first victory
Reading the news reports, was interested to see if any mention the referring in last 10min. I thought we couldn’t buy a free in that period. But that might be look thought my green and red glasses. Not overly disappointed with a draw. Saw enough to be pleased with. We playing some long ball when it on, but still using our traditional running game. Still can’t wait to see Tommy back, as think we need another focal point in attack. Mid field humming along nicely, and Mattie seem to be back to near his best. Interesting to see who partner him, Jordan or Duirmaid, but both will start but where is question. Backs good, but high ball in, every time we look like conceding. See how Armagh defend, high ball in. Defender makes sure attacker can’t get off ground, and goalie comes out and collects ball
Eoin is well aware that timing for last shot was very poor but we still need our forwards to have more belief in their shooting ability and to be able to shoot more often from 30 yards odd so at least he is not afraid to have a pop. Armagh players not afraid from that distance. Very easy to single out one incident to say we could have, should have but easy to ignore the 2 late Armagh goal attempts that could have, should have but we were lucky they crept by the post
The draw here could be a benefit in the long run. Young lads will learn more from it than if they won. Good learnings to be made all round I would feel. A few players still to comeback and Cillian looking sharp, future looks bright
Dealing with direct high ball will be seen as vulnerable aspect of mayos defending. No doubt Kerry will exploit. A lot to work on for management in next 2 weeks but we are going into the game unbeaten. Aiden o Sheas ability to mark and score could be a useful card going forward. His distribution was excellent.
On the topic of defending, has there been any update on Harrison’s progress?
Match review pod is now online over on Patreon.
Watched the game back there. We really should have won, so frustrating. 2 brilliant goal chances missed and then lost all composure in injury time.
Very encouraging how some of the younger players have taken to division 1 football. McBrien and Coyne were good, but I think Brickenden was actually the pick of our full back line. He was good against Galway too for a guy that seems to get a lot of stick from supporters.
Bob Touhy was much better on second viewing. He was winning or breaking kickouts all day and his distribution of the ball is excellent too. Don’t know why he was taken off TBH? We started to lose our grip around midfield once he left.
Great to see Aidan so influential and Cillian’s form the last few weeks is a big plus. Not to jump the gun, but he’s starting to look like he did pre achilles injury.
Call me biased, but I thought we were done by the ref. James Carr took unbelievable punishment. The Armagh full back hit him in the stomach with a closed fist early on and didn’t get a yellow card, then the Armagh number 4 punched him in the face later in the half. While he was lying on the ground then O’Neill gave him another dig. 2 of the frees Armagh got in the last 10 minutes were clearly the wrong decision too.
Anyway, certainly more positives than negatives overall. You could argue we were missing 5 starters yesterday too.
Hennelly in goals
O’Hora in the full back line
Paddy in the half back line
Diarmuid either midfield or half forward
Tommy somewhere in the forwards too
Along with the likes of Michael Plunkett and Bryan Walsh who would be pushing for a start.
What a lot of people are forgetting is the affect the wind had yesterday, it was strong in first half favouring armagh and affected mayo shot selection, in the 2nd half it died down which made it easier for armagh in their shooting, also in 1st half armagh defended a lot deeper knowing mayo wouldn’t be able to hit any long range shots
Kerry will put full press on us the next day seeing how well it worked for Armagh and they know we can’t or won’t shoot from outside 30 metres. Very easy to come up with a game plan to counter that. Only hope is we can get at least Durkan and Conroy back in harness the next day. If young Clifford plays it could be a rough day in Hastings.
Was just looking back at the report from last years game as I was thinking there was something familiar about Saturdays result and realised mayo hit the last 5 points of the game to win. Guess they owed us that one.
Thanks WJ for the newspaper reports. Interesting reading. For the second week in a row we have been involved in a really good game. Same outcome though a different way of getting the draw.I would think management would be quite pleased with progress so far. Looking at posts as game was in progress. Despair at our inability to break down Armagh in first half. Delight at a great half hour in the second. Despair at our concession of last 5 points. We vary between extremes but I think we are doing quite well. Had to smile when I read comments about McStay being too upbeat at the end. What should he have done?Started crying about Poor old Mayo misfortune again. He was very positive and that’s the way to go. 17 points away to Armagh in February is a big score. Some really good performances and in a very tight league each point is hard earned. T,rue we struggled to break down Armagh in the first half but we have struggled with defensive systems for years. We played some great stuff at times in the second half. Anyone who expects something different overnight should get realistic. And anyway do we want a huge amount of difference. Mayo have done an awful lot right in the last decade. True we haven’t landed the big one but it’s not as if we have to reinvent the wheel. The AI champs up next. Poor old Jack was telling us last night about all the absentees, not a starting forward from last year’s win. Yet they still scored 3 16. Should be an interesting game in Castlebar. Would be nice to have a couple of injured lads back. UL in action in Sigerson again this week. A few of our panellists play with them. Colm o Rourke giving out a lot about overuse of Sigerson players as he lost a few yesterday. Amount of serious injuries is a concern throughout country of late. With that in mind best wishes to D Comer. Hope it’s not as bad as feared.
That’s what you get with young teams, inconsistencies. If we beat Monaghan and one more of Donegal or Roscommon we should be ok with 6 points hopefully.
Kevin might not admit it but I think he erred in taking too many of his big ball winners off for those last crucial few minutes….the crowd were really on Colm Reapes case for his last few kick outs ,maybe the referee was rushing him too…. He seemed spooked,even though Rafferty was taking an inordinate amount of time over his restarts when Armagh were ahead. Maybe Aido was goosed but if Carney or Touhy were there as a target for Reape ,to win possession, maybe win a free it would probably have seen us home.
Anyhow it’s a learning experience for all involved and should stand to us again.