Ulster Senior Ladies' Football Championship: Armagh 2-20 Tyrone 1-10
ARMAGH manager Ronan Murphy is delighted to be back in another Ulster final but thoughts of defending that title must go on the back burner as they prepare to begin their All-Ireland campaign this weekend.
The Orchard County had a 2-20 to 1-10 win over Tyrone at the Athletic Grounds on Friday night to set up a final meeting with Donegal. There is no definitive date yet for the provincial decider and it will depend on how Armagh and Donegal fare in the All-Ireland series.
Armagh put in a very strong third quarter, putting plenty of daylight between them after Tyrone had fought well with them in the first half. Niamh McGirr’s seventh minute goal was the first score of the game and it put Armagh on the back foot but by the 15th minute they had levelled the scores 1-1 to 0-4 and five points in-a-row in the closing minutes of the half from Murphy’s side, after Tyrone had moved two in front, put them into a 0-9 to 1-3 lead.
The champions never looked back on the resumption and they hit 2-10 to Tyrone’s single point over the 15 minutes to put the result beyond doubt, the Armagh goals coming from Aoife McCoy and Kelly Mallon.
“We are very happy to get back to the Ulster final and a chance to defend our title. It will be very tough battle with Donegal but there is a lot of football to be played between now and when the Ulster final will be played and we have Monaghan next weekend and we are not really looking any further than that,” said Murphy.
“Those points before half-time were very important indeed as it gave us a bit of a cushion going in at half-time and a chance to regroup and we were delighted then how we responded in the third quarter.
“It is like any game, there were positives and negatives and looking forward to the All-Ireland on Saturday, Monaghan and then Cavan and Mayo are huge, huge games and we are certainly expecting mammoth battles in each of those games. Game preparation is good but the All-Ireland starts for real in terms of next Saturday and we are looking forward to that and hopefully we can perform to a high level.”
