Football

Charlie Vernon hoping Armagh can rebuild their season

Armagh face a test of character in their All-Ireland Qualifier against Westmeath tonight
Armagh face a test of character in their All-Ireland Qualifier against Westmeath tonight Armagh face a test of character in their All-Ireland Qualifier against Westmeath tonight

IT was one of those abject performances that makes you question everything. Absolutely everything.

If the Armagh footballers thought they’d hit rock bottom leaving Newry last summer, think again.

Leaving Brewster Park was proper rock bottom.

Three weeks ago, there was no redeeming features in Armagh’s comprehensive defeat to Fermanagh.

They were completely flummoxed by the Ernemen.

Even long before referee Paddy Neilan blew his final whistle, the Orchard men were a lost cause.

“I suppose when you’re in the middle of it, you keep trying to play and keep battering on to try and pull the thing back,” said midfielder Charlie Vernon.

“You do get a sense when a game is slipping away from you. But any psychologist will tell you that you should never slip into the mindset of ‘It isn’t our day’.

“No matter what the score is you should keep performing until the referee takes the ball off you. If you were to look at that game, our exit was tame.

“We weren’t our usual selves. If you looked at any successful Armagh side you would call them competitive and aggressive, and we didn’t reflect any of those qualities against Fermanagh.

“We know ourselves we have those qualities but we certainly didn’t show them and we’re not going to pretend we did.

“Unfortunately, we saved our worst performance for the biggest day of the year. You have to live with that, and that is hugely disappointing. We definitely thought we could be competitive against any team we would play against in Ulster, give them a real game.

“We felt if we played well enough on the day we would have enough to beat Fermanagh. We showed that in the League but it just didn’t materialise for us.”

At Brewster Park, Vernon went right to the end. So, too, did Mark Shields.

Not fit enough to start in Brewster Park, Rory Grugan came on and gave Armagh a bit of direction.

But given the scoreboard and Armagh’s poor shooting, it amounted to token resistance.

Niall Grimley’s red card early in the second half didn’t help either as Fermanagh’s intelligence in possession shone through.

There was an audible silence on the coach journey home.

“I suppose it’s a strange sort of atmosphere after a Championship defeat because it’s kind of human nature to think everything is wrong and your time has been wasted; you think all this preparation was for nothing,” Vernon said.

“That’s the emotions that are going through your head. And then you realise, you have this second chance to salvage something out of your summer and to drive on, and not to have all those hours of preparation, time and energy wasted.

“As the Championship goes on and you see other teams getting knocked out and other teams going through the same rollercoaster of emotions… You have to think positively about yourself and what you can do, and that’s basically what we’re planning to do.”

Armagh have yet to win an Ulster Championship match under Kieran McGeeney in four years.

Last year, they made a friend out of the Qualifiers – beating Fermanagh, Westmeath, Tipperary and Kildare on the bounce – before grinding to a sickening halt against Tyrone in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Given the manner of the Fermanagh defeat compared to the Down loss 12 months earlier, Vernon accepts entering the Qualifiers this time is a significantly bigger test of character.

“It probably is,” he said.

“That was a really bad day for Armagh football against Fermanagh. There is no point in hiding from that fact. That said, we have this opportunity to try and show people what we’re capable of, that we’re not as bad as we showed that day.

“In my experience in football, when you look back, the bad days are never quite as bad as you think they are at the time and I suppose the good days are never quite as good as they are at the time. It’s trying to see the bigger picture.

“We have to perform here, but every team in the Qualifiers are in the same boat. We’re all looking a shot at redemption and it’s going to take a huge effort. I suppose what we need is a shot of confidence in the arm to get going again and believing in yourself again.”

There is no such thing as an easy game in the Qualifiers – particularly in the first round.

And, as last year’s Round Two Qualifier between Westmeath and Armagh showed, Mullingar is no place for the faint-hearted.

Westmeath should have beaten the Ulstermen – but some terrible shooting in the second half allowed 14-man Armagh to hang in and Geezer’s men finished the tie strongly to leave Cusack Park with a flattering five-point victory.

“If you look back at last year’s campaign, Westmeath was probably our closest game. They were the team closest to beating us in the Qualifiers. They missed a hatful in the last 10 minutes. They were coming at us strong.

“We’ve played them the last two or three years and there hasn’t really been much in it. When you’ve got the quality of John Heslin and Kieran Martin and these boys who have been on Allstar trips and stuff, they do have a sprinkling of quality in their side.

“They’ll be like us: they’ll be disappointed with their defeat [to Laois] in the Leinster Championship and will be trying to set the record straight. We know it’s going to be a tough ask.”

This will be some test of character for Armagh in the midlands tonight.