Ulster Senior Football Championship preliminary round: Armagh 0-20 Antrim 1-8
THE Antrim players must have been sick of the pats on the back and the sympathetic smiles by the time they got out of the Athletic Grounds.
The gulf between the Division Three hopefuls and a tried-and-tested Armagh side that has stuck together through the good times and the bad was massive and at no stage did Antrim look like winning this season’s Ulster Championship opener.
The credit for that goes to Armagh who were superior in every department. You can only beat what is put in front of you and despite being without Rian O’Neill, Andrew Murnin (both injured) and Jarly Og Burns (ill) among others, the Orchardmen mixed pace, with physicality and quality in their passing and finishing and won at a canter.
As for Antrim, from struggling to win their own kick-outs, to poor passing and terrible shooting, they were all over the place in the early stages. Armagh gave them no time to settle and the Saffrons couldn’t stand the heat.
Whatever the script was, they forgot their lines for the first half-an-hour and when manager Andy McEntee said it was “a little bit frustrating” he meant it was massively frustrating.
“You’ve got to say a lot of those errors were forced,” said the Antrim manager.
“Armagh put a lot of pressure and were very physical in the tackle. Lads probably thought they had a little bit more time... But you only get that when you’re used to that and the physicality. For a lot of guys it’s new to them.
“You go into a game like that and you’re hoping you’re at your best and Armagh dip a little.
“Even allowing for that we had 10 missed opportunities in the first half - you score half of them and it’s a tight game. We had four goal opportunities in the second half and took one of them. “Underdogs need to take every opportunity they get presented and unfortunately we didn’t do that.”
Antrim have until the weekend of May 13-14 to get the defeat out of their system and be ready for the start of the Tailteann Cup.
“I’m very much into getting as many games as we can into these fellas,” said McEntee.
“Hopefully there will be less errors going forward.”
After relegation from Division One, this was the perfect pick-me-up for Armagh. Okay, the Orchardmen went another game without a goal and there are harder games to come but they’ll move towards them with confidence restored.
“Geezer did a brilliant job in terms of rallying the troops,” said Kieran Donaghy.
“It started in the changingroom in Tyrone and we had a really good session on the Tuesday night and I felt that was the catalyst we needed as a group, focus on Antrim and be in the next round of the Championship.”
There was a feeling that Armagh cut their cloth to suit against Antrim and Donaghy will hope to have a full-strength unit for the clash with Cavan at Kingspan Breffni.
“Cavan have had a few weeks to focus on us, but it’ll be a belter,” predicted Donaghy.
“We’ll need the Armagh supporters to travel in big numbers because once they got the foot on the throat they were loving it there.
“Hopefully the Armagh fans bring their colours and get behind this team because they’re working really hard for them and hopefully we have a good game in two weeks’ time.”
With Conor Turbitt outstanding and Rory Grugan pulling the strings with his passing, Armagh had half-a-dozen points on the board – Ciaran Mackin’s swerving finish was the pick of them - before Ruairi McCann (who, like his namesake from the Creggan club, worked hard) opened Antrim’s account.
It was difficult to identify what Antrim’s gameplan was. Individually they battled alright but they ran into contact far too often and Armagh tagged on two more before scores from Conor Stewart, Eoghan McCabe and Ryan Murray left it 10-4 at the break and Antrim would have taken that because the result should really have been beyond any doubt by that stage such was Armagh’s dominance.
Antrim began the second half with a wide, their sixth, from Pat Shivers and Armagh kicked on through a free from Ethan Rafferty and another from Shane McPartlan who marked a dream debut with four points from play from midfield.
Full-forward McCann went close to getting a goal and then, after Shivers had found the target, Antrim put together one of the best moves of the game. Marc Jordan, a battering ram of a wing-back, played a one-two with Odhran Eastwood and flicked the ball to Conor Stewart who picked his spot past Rafferty. That left it 1-6 to 0-14 after 51 minutes but Armagh quickly regained control.
McPartlan scored his fourth and then Grugan took advantage of the malfunctioning Antrim kick-out to add another.
Jemar Hall scooped the ball off the line as McCann threatened again but then ‘Turbo’ found top gear with a series of scores that brought a forgettable encounter to a close.
Next up for Armagh is an Ulster quarter-final against Cavan on April 24 and for Antrim it’s the Tailteann Cup.
“Keep at it lads,” said the well-wishers as the Saffrons trooped out to their bus. There’s a lot to like about these Antrim guys but if they want to compete with the big boys they need to.
Armagh: E Rafferty (0-1 free); J Morgan, A McKay, A Forker; Ciaran Mackin (0-1), G McCabe, B McCambridge; B Crealey, S McPartlan (0-4); S Campbell (0-1), R Grugan (0-3, 0-1 free), J Duffy; J Hall (0-1), C Turbitt (0-8, 0-2 frees, 0-1 mark), T Kelly (0-1)
Subs: R McQuillan for Morgan (50), S Sheridan for Crealey (53), A Nugent for Hall (56), C McConville for Campbell (64), C Higgins for McCambridge (65)
Yellow card: Morgan (23)
Antrim: M Byrne; E McCabe (0-1), P Healy, J McAuley (0-1); P McCormick, J Finnegan, M Jordan; C Stewart (1-1), K Small; C McLarnon, R McCann (Creggan) (0-1 free), P McBride; P Shivers (0-1), R McCann (0-1) (Aghagallon), R Murray (0-1 free)
Subs: P Finnegan for McLarnon (24), A Loughran for McBride (46), O Eastwood (0-1) for Murray (46), D McEnhill for Shivers (62), J Dowling for Small (65)
Yellow cards: Shivers (28), Stewart (60), McCann (Aghagallon) 70
Referee: J Henry (Mayo)
Attendance: 10,063
