The first game of the Ulster Championship kicked off at Celtic park on Sunday with Derry hosting Armagh in the preliminary round of this year’s senior football competition, both teams had been talked about as possible championship winners and the match had a lot of potential, sadly because of the defensive tendencies and negative tactics of both teams this potential was not fulfilled and the 10,000 supporters at Celtic park on Sunday will surely have left the stadium feeling slightly disillusioned by this first Championship match which was very short on entertainment and excitement.
Right from the start both teams applied a cautious approach and both teams played with blanket defences, Derry player Gerard O’Kane sat in front of Armagh captain Steven McDonnell and similarly Armagh player Ciaran McKeever’s role was to sit in front of the two Bradley’s playing in Derry’s front-line. Both teams noticeable fear of losing the match seemed to outweigh their desire to win the game and this provided supporters with a dreary and uninspiring 70 minutes of football. Referee Maurice Deegan’s rigorous enforcement of the new hand-pass rule in the opening half of the game didn’t help the fluency of the game.
Armagh deserved to win the game, they worked hard in defence and created a pressure-cooker setting, Derry’s build-up play was always too predictable and this meant Armagh always had time to get many men behind the ball, crowd Derry out and win back possession of the ball. Although Paddy Bradley scored the Oak Leafers only goal he often drifted into isolated positions and had no other impact on the game. Eoin Bradley was having more success until he was dismissed from the field after receiving a second yellow card for committing a foul on Aaron kernon on 54 minutes.
Just a minute after the dismissal of Bradley, Mcdonnell delivered a long pass into the box and it found Armagh sub Jamie Clark who scored the important first goal for the Orchard County which give them a 1-10 to 1-6 lead. At this point in the game Armagh had an advantage not only on the scoreboard but also on the pitch and they should have shown more self-belief and went onto to win the game with some style and confidence, instead they withdrew into their own half and relied on their defensive capabilities to see the match out.
For the last 10-15 minutes of the match Armagh worked very hard and put on a typical Ulster display, until they gave away a penalty with just 5 minutes left on the clock but Gerard O’Kane’s strike was saved by Armagh keeper Paul Hearty, this summed up Derry’s day they looked flat and lacked invention from the start.
After the game Paddy O’Rourke admitted that his team did not play with a great deal of style, he said
“Maybe we would have liked to win it with a bit more style, but it was a first-round game and it was always going to be a bit more tense and players were going to be a bit nervous.”The Armagh manager did not agree that the game was a bad advertisement for Gaeilge Football he said
“Derry have not been beat here since 94, it’s not an easy place to win a game.” “We could have played a bit more football, it didn’t happen but I’m immensely proud of the boys.”
Armagh will probably receive a fair amount of criticism for their defensive strategy but if they continue to win games and progress in the Championship, I am sure their supporters will learn to live with it, just as Tyrone fans did when their team was criticised for using a blanket defence back in 03 even though it ultimately proved successful, Tyrone used the blanket defence strategy to such devastating effect that it was just a matter of time before other clubs and counties followed suit even though it is now known as “Puke football.”
To operate a blanket defence effectively the team must defend in with a lot of men behind the ball when they do not have possession of the ball, then they must break fast and swarm forward when in possession. To get the best from this strategy the team must be fit and organised with accurate passing and speed breaking forward. Tyrone developed their team and their tactics following their All-Ireland triumph in 2003 and went on to great success, so don’t be surprised if we see more “Puke football” in this season’s Championship.
Posts
