{"id":489948,"date":"2026-06-09T02:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T02:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/489948\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T02:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T02:54:17","slug":"armagh-anger-after-louth-deny-orchardmen-opportunity-to-train-at-inniskeen-ahead-of-championship-clash-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/489948\/","title":{"rendered":"Armagh anger after Louth deny Orchardmen opportunity to train at Inniskeen ahead of Championship clash \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARMAGH <\/a>have been refused permission to train on the Inniskeen pitch ahead of this weekend\u2019s All-Ireland Championship clash with Louth, the Irish News understands.<\/p>\n

According to reports, Louth have denied Kieran McGeeney\u2019s men the opportunity to hold a session at Pairc Grattan, the Monaghan venue which will stage Sunday\u2019s round 2A derby. <\/p>\n

Louth have home advantage for the eagerly-awaited battle but with their new stadium in Dundalk still under construction and Ardee deemed unsuitable for the game they have chosen to play across the border in the Farney county.<\/p>\n

P\u00e1irc Grattan hosted its first ever championship game in May 2024 when Louth recorded victories over Meath and Cork and progressed to an All-Ireland quarter-final against Donegal.<\/p>\n

\"Armagh<\/a>\"Roscommon<\/a><\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n

Conor Turbitt insists Ulster champions Armagh not \u2018getting carried away\u2019 as Louth clash confirmed for Inniskeen<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018You need to know what rules referees are going to ignore…\u2019 Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney frustrated with officials as Orchardmen see off Derry<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018I was told I\u2019d never play football again\u2019 – Ciaran Byrne\u2019s emotions pour out after Louth\u2019s historic win over Dublin<\/a><\/p>\n

Allowing Armagh to use the pitch for a training session would have given the Orchardmen the chance to familiarise themselves with the dimensions of the playing surface and the facilities at the ground.<\/p>\n

In the cut-throat world of the championship, counties will make the most of every possible advantage so it\u2019s not particularly unusual for an away team to be denied access to a pitch to prepare for a game.<\/p>\n

The Armagh management are understood to be unhappy with Louth\u2019s decision but Louth\u2019s stance may not impact Armagh too much. <\/p>\n

Early in Kieran McGeeney\u2019s time as Armagh manager the Orchard county used Inniskeen for training sessions when their Callanbridge facility was unavailable so he will know the venue reasonably well.<\/p>\n

\"CraigCraig Lennon shoots to score Louth’s fourth and winning goal against Dublin at Croke Park. PICTURE: David Fitzgerald\/Sportsfile (David Fitzgerald \/ SPORTSFILE\/SPORTSFILE) <\/p>\n

The lack of Armagh support in the ground may have more of an impact. With the P\u00e1irc Grattan capacity limited to around 6,000 spectators, droves of supporters will not get the chance to go to the game.<\/p>\n

In the region of 80,000 fans have watched Armagh\u2019s last three games meaning that thousands of their supporters have been denied the opportunity to cheer on their team and there is even speculation that a field near the ground could be turned into an unofficial \u2018fan zone\u2019 while the match is taking place. <\/p>\n

Both counties are going into the game in good form. After breaking championship scoring records against Fermanagh (2-32) and then Down (3-33), Armagh won their first Ulster title in 18 years when they saw off dogged Monaghan in Clones and since then they outplayed Derry in the first round of All-Ireland championship. <\/p>\n

The Orchardmen go into this game as favourites but it\u2019s unlikely that they will underestimate the challenge Louth pose. Last year the \u2018Wee County\u2019 won their first Leinster title since 1957 and they\u2019ve continued to build on that success.<\/p>\n

A 10-point loss to Dublin meant they lost their grip on their hard-won provincial crown but Gavin Devlin\u2019s side regrouped and avenged the loss in the first round of the All-Ireland championship, coming back from six points down at half-time to beat the Dubs by three at Croke Park. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll take a lot of momentum from that, a lot of confidence,\u201d said Armagh\u2019s Aidan Forker. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a very physical team with a lot of firepower to hurt teams and they don\u2019t miss too much in front of the goals. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re under no illusions that if we\u2019re not on it we\u2019ll be on the wrong side of the result.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARMAGH have been refused permission to train on the Inniskeen pitch ahead of this weekend\u2019s All-Ireland Championship clash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[20803,61,60,133871,100935,112],"class_list":["post-489948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-armagh-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kieran-mcgeeney","tag-louth-gaa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}