this intermediate team of slashers......did they not get hammered by Abbey lately and slashers had a full team?!?! no, yea?!?! I think so! There goes that team. And as for senior team....they wouldn't win an argument! They will prob make it to q finals and that will be it!!!

zxc (Cavan) - Posts: 30 - 30/06/2009 11:38:54    327421

Yeah the two lads will be back shortly which is going to make it virtually impossible for other teams to beat us. It reminds me of Dublin with all the great players on the bench. Considering how many great players we have we should be allowed enter two teams in the Senior Championship, the second team could be our development team which would easily beat half the teams in the Senior Championship.
Namely:
Ardagh, Granard, Rathcline, Mullinachta, Drumlish, Sean Connollys, Killoe, Mostrim and Colmcille are very poor this year too.

The county board should allow this when we win the intermediate championship because as they say the prove is in the pudding.

As for the person that posted saying our intermediate team were well beaten by Abbeylara you seem to be missing the point that we're a championship team and nothing else matters.

Great to see Stephen Phillips single handidly getting a draw for Longford last week in Croker, hopefully we'll see a few more of the sky blues togged out the next day. We'll certainly need them if we're to win.

hanley (Longford) - Posts: 143 - 30/06/2009 23:14:32    328215

Yes league games are irrelevant but they do give you a fair enough look at top dogs for championship. Look at Abbeylara.....where are they in the longford league. exactly and they are 3/1 favourites to win championship! I don't know where you are going saying your second team will win games...your first team cant seem to. Jimmy is a lovely lad.....feel sorry for him with such a bad team.

zxc (Cavan) - Posts: 30 - 07/07/2009 01:41:14    335145

St. Mary's V Clonguish : Easy win for Clonguish, might even try out a few fringe players
Sean Connolly's V St. Patrick's, Ardagh: Tight game, but Connollys have lost too many players, Ardagh by 2 points
Mostrim V Abbeylara: Mostrim had a good draw with Colmcille in league, but will be no match for Abbey, +6 points
Dromard V St. Columba's, Mullinalaghta: Interesting game, Could be the supprise result: Mullinaghta by 2 points
Fr. Manning Gaels V Rathcline: tight Game, Drumlish may just have too much for the Rats. Drumlish by 1 point
Ballymahon V Longford Slashers: Top class clash, Slashers will be tested, but have good scoring options, Slashers by 3

The Dromard V St. Columba's, Mullinalaghta is the game that I think could spring a supprise. The havn't met in the League so the will not know each others play. Mullinalaghta are playing well in the League, excellent results, They are full of confidence and will not over respect Dromard. They have a second change against Colmcille, who have the advantage of been able to see them at the weekend and plan for their style of play, but if the can get a result againt Dromard, then it would leave a very interesting last game.
Dromard will have to respect them, if not, the could get caught. I hear that Dromard might have a few injuries for the game, knocks to some of their county players, and the will be missing a few players from their squad who are on holidays.
I will be in Fr. Magee Park Colmcille to see this game unfold....

acomeon (Longford) - Posts: 82 - 15/07/2009 14:42:52    346985

acomeon - I must say that i agree with all your predictions this weekend!!! Im not so sure about St.Columba's beating Dromard. Definitely St.Columba's are goin brilliant. I think Dromard will win this weekend and top the group and Mullinalaghta will finish in second place by beating Colmcille. Who are Dromard meant to be missing for this weekend?

zxc (Cavan) - Posts: 30 - 15/07/2009 17:14:34    347283

I hear the McGee and Masterson are carrying knocks and havn't trained this week. Niall Vance was injuried against Louth in the Junior final and was taken off, he may be out for a long time. Peter Masterson and Jamsie Martin were injured against Colmcille and havn't played since then. Ronan McEntire who played a lot of the league at full forward is away for 2 months. Dromard had no league game last week so it is difficult to say who is available or not. I still think the will struggle, even is McGee and Masterson are fit.

acomeon (Longford) - Posts: 82 - 15/07/2009 18:31:53    347389

St. Mary's V Clonguish : Clonguish by 6 plus Sean Connolly's V St. Patrick's, Ardagh : Close game but Ardagh should win Mostrim V Abbeylara: Abbey by 3 Dromard V St. Columba's, Mullinalaghta: Dromard to secure quarter final spot Fr. Manning Gaels V Rathcline: Could see rathcline winning here Ballymahon V Longford Slashers: Ballymahon to nick it by 2 Dromard Mul, and ballymahon slashers games should be really interesting. Reckon dromard will beat mull but would fancy mull to go on and knock colmcille out. Absence of paul kelly will hurt slashers hard one to call. Clonguish and abbey should have wins, other two games tougher to call.

SonicDHedgehog (Longford) - Posts: 150 - 17/07/2009 14:23:25    349793

Abbeylara and dromard final if they avoid each other

hitman (Longford) - Posts: 272 - 18/07/2009 22:59:02    351140

Predictable weekend!!!

League form seems to be carrying through

SonicDHedgehog (Longford) - Posts: 150 - 20/07/2009 12:53:59    352995

St.Collumba's were unlucky at weekend as game was there for the taking. Put in a good performance and made a huge statement that they are not in senior championship to make up numbers. I reckon they will beat Colmcille to reach the last 8. Keegan must start next game. Strong wins for Abbey and Clonguish leave Longford Championship very unpredictable!! Lots of good football in store for us yet!

zxc (Cavan) - Posts: 30 - 20/07/2009 17:14:31    353706

Predictable weekend in Senior Champ..Slashers didnt work hard enough to beat Ballymahon and performance reminded me of our non show against Colmcille in last years final. Don't think we can win championship this year with current team but we really need to top the group and avoid Abbey in quarters to have any hope. Can i ask why are people stating that Abbey and Clonguish had strong wins over Mostrim and Granard but not give much credit to Dromard for winning a difficult local derby by 4pts against a much improved Columba's. (Clonguish only won by 4 also)?. Granard and Mostrim playing poorly this year so why are these results "strong"?. Do the final scores not reflect their superiority? Any one at the games? Oh and i think McStay was correct stating that Sligo are stronger than us. Their performance away to Kerry was excellent and unlike us it was not a case that Kerry may have taken their foot of the gas.

SlasherNavy (Longford) - Posts: 45 - 21/07/2009 13:41:24    355149

Clonguish had a good win against Granard, but they must be concerned about letting in 1-12. The last game in the group is now of little interest, both Clonguish and Killoe are through.
Adragh seems to be heading in the right direction, two wins under their belt and Abbey to play. Of course Abbey are flying and not conceeding many scores, they must be favourites for the championship. They were miles ahead of Mostrim and could have won by more.

I predicted that Mullinaghta would supprise Dromard, the were the better team for most of the game, but did not score when on top. They will trouble Colmcille, but Colmcille migh shade it, if the play Paul McKeon at full forward along with Declan Reilly. It would be nice to see Mullinaghta come out of the group. I think a draw will do them. Dromard forward department looked tired and were well marked. Jamsie Martin played well, The Bull Masterson was the difference in the two teams for the last 15 minutes.

Rathcline beating Fr. Manning Gaels could have gone either way, The Gales lost their way in the second half were passing the ball around too much instead of shooting. With Ballymahon having a supprise win over Slashers, it leaves the last game between Slashers and Rats very interesting, winner takes all. If the Rats can learn anything from Ballymahon, then the need to mark Slashers tight and give them no space. Slashers had lots of opportunities to shoot but their forwards elected to pass on the responsibility to someone else, and time and again it broke down.

So for now, Abbey look excellent, Clongluish, Ballymahon and Slashers look strong, Dromard need to improve, but are the dark horses, Rats, Killoe, Ardagh, Mullinaghta/Colmcille are all still there and would fancy beating any of the top 4. In 2 weeks time the real fun will start..

acomeon (Longford) - Posts: 82 - 21/07/2009 23:26:21    356180

After the group stages finish on the august bank holiday,when do the quarter finals start??i presume they will all be played on the weekend of the 15/16th of august?or will they be staggered out over 2wkends?

RoyCropper (Longford) - Posts: 108 - 22/07/2009 09:33:09    356440

The Weekend 15th and 16th will be the Q-Finals. The last round of group games will be on the long weekend in August, which I taught was a free weekend. Anyway, we need to see the results of that before we are sure of the teams.
I hear that Colmcille were away for a training weekend last week and came back to see Mullinaghta V Dromard (on a bus).
They seems to be getting their act together, the hammered Killoe in the league and the will have Enda Farrell back from his travels. There is a suggestion that Donie McKeon will be back in the country and may take some part in the championship. Mullinaghta played Dromard in the League during the week (without county players), and the pushed them the whole way, the final score was Dromard 1-9 to Mullinaghta 0-9. Peter the Bull Masterson was the man of the match, knockng over 4 points.

acomeon (Longford) - Posts: 82 - 24/07/2009 11:24:39    359849

Did they play all quarter finals over the one weekend last year?? i say they will be double headers in the park on the sat and sunday,put i find it hard to see the county board doing that.prob be 2games that weekend and 2 the following.they would lose revenue by puttin on double headers as most people would go to look at all quarter final matches so i can see it been spread out over 2wkends.

RoyCropper (Longford) - Posts: 108 - 24/07/2009 11:46:09    359885

Can't see the sense in that Roy. Don't think many people will go to all 4 quarter finals, dunno what games you've attended this year but so far the crowds i've seen have been poor. In fact if they were in the park it would look empty!

I say play two double headers saturday and sunday. and forget bout putting relegation games on before that, noone wants to see them!

SonicDHedgehog (Longford) - Posts: 150 - 24/07/2009 13:22:07    360153

I was at games sonic and there no more better this year so far then last year...i feel when its group stages in nuetral venues it takes the edge out of matches compared to knockout and the back door system.I wonder will the system for next years championship be the same as it is this year.

RoyCropper (Longford) - Posts: 108 - 24/07/2009 13:48:08    360208

I hear that Niall Sheirdan was sent off last week in a League game. It was a straight red card. This means he will miss the last round of the championship, and I guess the Q-final game as well, assuming he gets only one month.
Anyone at the game, did he deserve the card?

acomeon (Longford) - Posts: 82 - 27/07/2009 09:58:35    363553

Colmcille pulling out of the Inter championship. Does that mean that they are pulling the same stunt as last year, fielding their second team in the Junior Championship.

Jack L (None) - Posts: 3182 - 27/07/2009 12:50:04    363915

Heard from a ballinalee man that niall sheridans red card was a wrong-doing by the referee..i think eamonn mcEvoy got sent off aswel..not 100% on that though..

thegooch (Longford) - Posts: 20 - 27/07/2009 19:01:32    364821