UlsterNet.co.uk

Armagh taken Down

Wednesday, 11 January 2012

First blood for McCartan's men in Down's McKenna Cup opener. Down.....2-12 Armagh...0-10
AN EIGHT point win over Armagh will always send the Down supporters home in good form and so it was in Pairc Esler on Sunday, but even the most ardent of Down followers will be realistic enough not to read too much into this result.
It was, after all, the second Sunday in January, it was the first game of the season, it was the Dr McKenna Cup.
However welcome the result was, this game, like all the McKenna cup games, was about performances and about newcomers, how they might react to the rigours of intercounty football, albeit against an under-strength and a poor Armagh team.
Could they reproduce the club form which had got them recognised in the first place? Could they improve on that form? Would the occasion get to them? Or would they be relaxed and grow into the game? How might they react to running out on to Pairc Esler to play in front of one of the biggest crowds they had ever played in front of?
There were two changes from the team announced midweek. Eoin McCartan, who was named at corner forward didn't figure and wasn't named in the substitutes while Conor Laverty instead came off the bench with 20 minutes to go and scored the all important second goal.
It was a very new look Down team which started the game. There were four newcomers in defence, Niall Branigan and Damian Turley in the corner back positions, David McKibbin and Keith Quinn in the wing half positions with Daniel McCartan and Liam Doyle filling the full back and centre half positions respectively.
There were also two newcomers, Peter Turley and Conor Gough (pictured left), at midfield. In the forward line, Marcus Miskelly and Ryan Brady filled the corner forward positions with Dan Gordon and Daniel Hughes flanking Aidan Carr in the half forward line and Kalum King on the edge of the square.

Subscribe to read full newspaper »

Send this page to a friend »