Football

Armagh dig in to get out of the trenches

Allianz National Football League Division Three: Fermanagh 0-7 Armagh 0-7

FOR all the beautiful games of football Armagh were involved in last year, they didn’t achieve what they wanted to.

So you can see why ugly would do for a day. If they had to draw 0-7 in a mucky Brewster Park to get out of the trenches, then that is what they were going to do.

And, having been the best side in the division all year so far, it was a deserved share of the spoils for Kieran McGeeney’s side on the basis that, no matter how tightly packed the green sardines were inside their own 45’, Armagh kept trying to find ways through.

By their manager’s estimation they had 18 shots from open play, and in that respect their scoring return was poor, but they were still the side that tried to force the issue.

Fermanagh played as we can expect to see them play throughout the year. They’ve made themselves compact again, incredibly hard to break down and, for that reason, very hard to beat.

And while Armagh might have been the ones trying to play on the front foot, they were also the side that trailed for almost the entirety of the game, and had to rely on Erne indiscipline to finally swing the door open for them.

That is an issue for Rory Gallagher. They were in control against Westmeath until Cian McManus got the line for a second booking, and here they might not have had the two points quite locked away but they were still 0-7 to 0-6 ahead when Daniel Teague was given a straight red after appearing to kick out in a tangle with Gregory McCabe.

Moments later Aidan Breen picked up a second booking for dunting Andy Murnin a second after the ball had gone, late enough to warrant punishment from Barry Cassidy.

The Derry official, who had a strong performance in a game that wasn’t easily refereed at times, also dismissed Armagh’s Patrick Burns in stoppage time when he was forced to haul down Eoin Donnelly after Brendan Donaghy had given the ball away with the entire Orchard team committed up the pitch.

That paints a picture that the end of the game was especially untidy but it was only really in keeping with the rest of it.

It was far from pretty. Fermanagh went the whole last 70 minutes of the game (if you include both bouts of stoppage time) without scoring from play, having managed it twice in the opening seven.

Playing with the aid of the freezing wind that blew towards the Cornagrade end of Brewster Park, the home side did start much the brighter, with Barry Mulrone and Aidan Breen scoring either side of the first of Seamus Quigley’s five pointed frees.

They led by 0-4 to 0-0 but were fortunate when Oisin Mac Iomhair’s effort, admittedly intent for a point, dipped viciously and came back off the beaten Pat Cadden’s crossbar.

Their first score probably should have been a goal, with Andy Murnin popping the ball off for Stephen Sheridan to drive through one-on-one with Cadden, only for the Forkhill man to blaze over.

All through the first half Armagh’s full-forward line had the better of things, with Mac Iomhair turning Cian McManus on a few occasions, while Murnin was the better of Ché Cullen in the air throughout, albeit not to the effect it might have been.

At the other end, Seamus Quigley and Conall Jones saw so little ball that it was hard for them to have an impact, with the latter replaced by Tomás Corrigan inside half an hour.

Fermanagh held a 0-5 to 0-1 interval lead but the wind was such a factor that it already had the look of a kick-of-a-ball game.

Stephen Sheridan would ordinarily have been a loss to Armagh after an early second half black card but such was their dominance on the kickouts from both ends that they hardly missed him at all.

Aaron Findon did well coming in and their ploy of breaking everything in the air worked perfectly into the hands of a physically superior middle third that cleaned everything up.

Aidan Forker was the outstanding player on the pitch throughout, in dropping deep in the second quarter and then further up in the second half.

He landed an inspirational score to make it 0-6 to 0-4 on 50 minutes and then, after a Quigley free at the other end, played a magnificent ball over the top for Rory Grugan, who was adjudged to have thrown himself down in search of a penalty he didn’t get.

Grugan did point a subsequent free and then cut it back to a point with a groundshot that spooned up off the post and over before they had a stronger penalty shout when Mickey Jones appeared to pull Grugan back as he seemed set to get on the end of Murnin’s palm down.

Then came the two Fermanagh red cards before Niall Grimley kicked it to 0-7 apiece, but despite plenty of chances, neither side could find a way to break the deadlock in the final 14 minutes of action.

Ugly or not, Armagh are out of Division Three, and Fermanagh’s fate is still in their own hands for their trip to Longford. They’d both have taken that.

MATCH STATS


Fermanagh: P Cadden; M Jones, C Cullen, C McManus; B Mulrone, K Connor, J McMahon, D McCusker; E Donnelly, R Jones; C Corrigan, A Breen, P McCusker; C Jones, Seamus Quigley


Subs: T Corrigan for C Jones (30), D Teague for P McCusker (44), E Maguire for McManus (48), R Corrigan for C Corrigan (63)


Yellow cards: C Jones (17), A Breen (55, 60), K Connor (66), B Mulrone (66), S Quigley (73)


Red cards: D Teague (58, kicking), A Breen (60, second yellow)

Armagh: B Hughes; P Burns, O Lappin, B Donaghy; C Vernon, G McCabe, R Kennedy; S Sheridan, B Crealey; A Forker, R Grugan, N Grimley; C Watters, A Murnin, O Mac Iomhair


Subs: N Rowland for Lappin (HT), A Duffy for Watters (46), R Lappin for Kennedy (52), M Stevenson for Mac Iomhair (67)


Black card: S Sheridan (39) replaced by A Findon


Yellow cards: P Burns (34, 72), B Crealey (35), N Grimley (38), A Forker (40), C Vernon (52)


Red card: P Burns (72, second yellow)

Referee: B Cassidy (Derry)