Armagh vs Fermanagh McKenna Cup 24th Jan 2010

[Bainisteoir]

Armagh will host Fermanagh on Sunday 24th January in their last group game of the McKenna Cup. The game is scheduled to be played at 2pm in the Athletic Grounds, Armagh.

Fermanagh have won both of their games so far in the Competition and will be coming to Armagh to win a place in the semi-finals. If results go the right way for Armagh it could in fact be us in the semi-finals and it even though its just the McKenna Cup it would be nice to be playing a semi-final this early in the season. The more competitive matches we have will suit the team.

As always, a copy of the match day program will be available to download in this thread along with match report and highlights.

[Bainisteoir]

Armagh 1-6 Fermanagh 1-8

A poor performance by Armagh and were beaten by a hungrier fermanagh team in the end. 3 big positives from the game, Toner has now put in 3 solid performances at full back and in my view should have the number 3 shirt against Derry. When McDonnell came on in the 2nd half to play along side Clarkie they both looked like the deadly duo of the past and McDonnell scored 1-2 within his first 10 minutes of coming on. Thirdly, the midfield pearing of Ronan Austin (2nd half sub) and Lavery were great and caught quite a number of balls to help Armagh comeback from 8 points down at one stage to within a point. Armagh should really have went on to win it towards the end but too many mistakes throughout the game by most of the players cost them the game in the end. I really believe Armagh has the makings of a team that will trouble any county come Championship time, its just a matter of POR getting the right blend throughout the team and the players are there for him to do it.

Back to today's game. Poor finishing from Armagh in the first half meant only 3 points were registered with fermanagh scoring 1-3 in the first half. A bizarre goal it was with Hearty thinking the ball was going wide but it went in off the post and in. Hearty has to take fault for the goal but overall his kickouts were good. Duffy, Toner and Mallon had solid games in defence but Fermanagh were allowed to run straight through the middle of the field too many times in the first half and the beginning of the 2nd. Mal Mackin started the game at CHF and again had a poor display. As much as he tries his best he just doesn't make the grade for me. A. Kernan was rested for todays game and his drive was missing from the team. Charlie Vernon drove forward at every opportunity from midfield but all to often he forgets to lift his head and have a look around him. M McNamee started the game at corner forward and wasn't effective today but you can see the fella has a bit of vision and with more games under his belt at county level he will improve. Stevie McD finished his goal well and looked really sharp.

Even with defeat and some poor play we have the players and at times towards the end today it showed we can play some tidy forward thinking football. The futures Bright!

Download Match Program

[Bainisteoir]

P Hearty
A Mallon
K Toner
P Duffy
S O'Neill (P Kernan, ~45)
B Donaghy
F Moriarty
C Vernon
J Lavery
J O'Neill (R Austin, ~50)
B Mallon (R Henderson ~65)
M Mackin
M McNamee (G Swift, ~45)
R Clarke
J Feeney (McDonnell, ~50)