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Orchard
Men expecting "Surreal atmosphere" - 06/06/2003
Ulster Minor Football Championship: Down
v Armagh Sun 08/06/2003
Taken form Irish News 06/06/2003
Houlihan expecting a 'surreal' Casement
ARMAGH football minor manager Ger Houlihan is anticipating
a "surreal atmosphere" at Casement Park on Sunday when
the Orchard men line out against Down. Approximately 200
miles south, Armagh seniors will be taking on lowly Waterford
in Dungarvan in the All-Ireland qualifying series. It
wasn't meant to be this way.
The Armagh minors just about edged Monaghan
in the Ulster preliminary game, while Joe Kernan's men
faltered against the Farney County. And so there will
be no sea of Orange at Casement come Sunday - just a handful
of parents from Armagh cheering on their sons among the
Down and Monaghan support. T
he lack of support, however, may be a
good thing for Houlihan's talented charges. They should
have lost against Monaghan last month, but showed guts
and determination to carve out an unlikely Ulster Championship
win. Houlihan admitted: "We felt a lot of the players
didn't perform on the big day, whether it was Clones,
the big crowd, or just the expectations, we just put it
down to nerves on the day."
Of course, Armagh won the Ulster Minor
League title and can boast a win over Sunday's opponents,
Down during that successcul league campaign. But Houlihan
is not making any rash predictions.
"It's hard to say how good this bunch
of players are because this is my first year in," he said.
"People ask me: 'How far can we go?' and I've nothing
to compare it against, so I don't really know. One thing
I would say is that we've had total commitment from the
squad, they seem to want to die for the jersey and they
are talented."
Armagh (MFC v Down): N Loney; K Dyas,
V Martin, G McCreesh; M Curran, N Reel, C McSherry; C
Vernon, G Swift; J McCormack, M O'Rourke, P Toal; C Conlon,
J Quigley, S Lyons.
DOWN MINOR FOOTBALL TEAM FOR SUNDAY
8TH JUNE DOWN V ARMAGH
1. PADDY McMANUS (BALLYMARTIN), 2. DARRAGH NEESON
(BRYANSFORD) 3. STEPHEN TONER ( BRYANSFORD), 4. MARK ROONEY
(BOSCO), 5. RYAN LYNCH (BOSCO) 6. GERARD QUINN (LONGSTONE),
7. EOIN HENRY (Capt.) (WARRENPOINT), 8. CALLUM KING (BRYANSFORD),
9. AIDAN CARR (CLONDUFF), 10. STEPHEN DORAN (LONGSTONE),
11. JAMES DORAN (BALLYMARTIN), 12. JAMES McGOVERN (BURREN),
13. STEPHEN SANDS (SAVAL), 14. MARK POLAND (LONGSTONE),
15 JASON BROWN (CLONDUFF)
16. DECLAN ALDER (CARRYDUFF), 17. AIDAN FLANAGAN (AN RIOCHT),
18. NIALL McEVOY (KILCOO), 19. GARY HAUGHIAN (CLONDUFF),
20. JOSEPH IRELAND (BRYANSFORD), 21. BRENDAN McGOURTY
(BALLYCRAN), 22. KEVIN McGOVERN (BURREN), 23. JOHN BOYLE
(WARRENPOINT), 24. DANIEL McCABE (DRUMGATH)
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