The Armagh defender plays his club football in Burren and was hoping to face Down in the Ulster SFC semi-final. Now he has his wish
In the space of a few days, Paddy Burns has gone from cheering on Down to plotting their demise.
The Armagh defender lives in Burren and plays his club football for St Mary’s after transferring from his native Forkhill in 2022.
After the Orchard County defeated Fermanagh by 11 points in Brewster Park, Burns admitted he’d rather face Down than Donegal in the Ulster semi-final. The following afternoon, after a seismic shock in Letterkenny, he got his wish.
“Listen, I’d love to see them win,” Burns said when asked if he’d be cheering on his Burren colleagues against Donegal.
“Last time we played down in Ulster a couple of years ago, it definitely got feisty between us. “So it would be a bit of craic and it would be a good laugh around the locality during the week but I’d be flying low.
“Living in Burren, it’s funny. I do say that to the boys sometimes that they hear plenty of chat about Armagh football and they’re going to the shop. It’s all talk about Armagh.
“I’m sort of sheltered away from it out there but when we play Down, it’s a different story. Everybody wants to talk about it. I’d be hoping that they win.”
Burns may feel differently after last weekend’s display by Conor Laverty’s men, especially as Down might need to reach the Ulster final to avoid a return to the Tailteann Cup.
The Orchard County have plenty to work on too, according to Burns, despite their relatively comfortable win over the Ernemen with Darragh McGurn’s brilliant 1-12 haul taking the gloss of Armagh’s victory.
However, as one of six survivors from the Armagh team that suffered a shock loss to Fermanagh in 2018, Burns was happy to get the job done.
“We will not get away with that – I can guarantee that it is not going to be a happy changing room,” said Burns.
“A win is a win, away from home, I was one of the players in 2018 who was shocked and laughed out the gate when we were beaten. So, coming to Brewster Park and winning is always nice after something like that.
“It will be good for the boys up there and their confidence that they got plenty of scores on the board, a couple of goals too, it always helps but I would say there will be a bit of focus on where we will need to improve.”
Kieran McGeeney revealed after the game that five players were ruled out on the eve of the Fermanagh game with Ben Crealey (broken ankle) and Callum O’Neill (shoulder) picking up serious injuries while Greg McCabe, Joe McElroy and Gareth Murphy all picked up knocks. With Rian O’Neill and Niall Grimley unavailable, Armagh’s resources around the middle third have been stretched.
On the plus side for McGeeney, Ciaran Mackin returned to action after recovering from a second ACL injury in two seasons.
“It has been a tough week in many ways with the injuries but the silver lining is to have those big names, who have been big players for us over the years, coming in,” added Burns.
“Even the likes of Daniel Magee, he played a lot of the McKenna Cup and he was a shoo-in for the League and he was training fantastically and he got a couple of bad injuries at a bad time and that is the difficulty of high level sport.
“When you get hurt someone is chomping at the bit to take advantage of it. It is not that anybody is wishing their teammates to get injured but as we said during the week, whenever it happens you will have to be ready and grab the opportunity, that is how ruthless it is and Ben Crealy would be the first man to say it. He would want somebody to step up.”
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