FORMER county star Justin McNulty gave Armagh and Kieran McGeeney a vote of confidence after the Orchardmen ended a 10-year Croke Park trophy drought on Saturday night.
Mullaghbawn native McNulty was playing when Armagh won the NFL Division One title back in 2005 and the full-back turned SDLP candidate says his county's win over Fermanagh will have given the class of 2015 an extra layer of confidence for their Ulster Championship tussles this summer.
Armagh recovered from a sluggish start and the loss of Finian Moriarty to beat Pete McGrath's Ernemen by five points and McNulty, who retired at the end of the 2005 season, says the victory has left the team "very well-positioned".
"Any win at Croke Park is a good win," he said.
"While it wasn't an ideal performance, it leaves the team very well-positioned coming into the Championship. There'll be no great expectations because it wasn't a sparkling performance but it was job done and it leaves Armagh coming in under the radar against sides that would be perceived as the big guns - Tyrone or Donegal.
"They (the players) will realise that they've a massive amount of work to do so it has worked out ideally for us."
McNulty won the Sam Maguire with Armagh in 2002 and was drafted into Paddy O'Rourke's backroom team before leaving to become manager of Laois in 2010.
He guided the O'Moore men to Division One in 2011, but his side lost the Division Two final to Donegal by a point that year and McNulty says defeat on Saturday night would have been a setback for McGeeney's emerging side.
"If Armagh were travelling up the road in the bus tonight after a defeat to Fermanagh it would be a huge dent in morale and a huge dent in confidence and it would take a number of weeks to rebuild that," he added.
"But now they can spend all their energy and commit fully to honing their gameplan and their tactics to prepare for either Tyrone or Donegal. They are two very different places to be."
Armagh manager McGeeney was a club and county team-mate over many seasons and McNulty has backed 'Geezer' to drive the Orchardmen on to more success.
"Geezer's the man," he said. "Everybody knows Geezer's the man. He'll deliver and he's brought huge belief, huge commitment, huge structures, huge support from the county board, the clubs and the fans. Everybody is behind him and the team believe in him and it gives the guys so much confidence to move forward.
"Is Geezer happy that the ideal performance wasn't there tonight? No he's not.
"But he's happy to take a trophy home from Croke Park and he's happy that they can build on the confidence they have gained from this and build on towards bigger things.
"The Championship is where it's at. Ultimately we all know that you're judged on Championship."
McNulty took Laois to the All-Ireland quarter-finals in 2012 but stepped down at the end of the 2012 campaign.
While he doesn't rule out a return to football, he says his focus now is on the hustings and winning the Newry and Armagh seat in the general election on May 7.
"Who knows what the future holds, but for now my focus is entirely on delivering for Newry and Armagh in Westminster," he said.