1 week Ago
The Orchardmen started the game with just five of the team that started in last year’s All-Ireland final win over Galway, but it certainly didn’t make a difference in an attacking sense with a huge tally posted. McGeeney gave debuts to a number of players including goalscorer Tomás McCormack whose performance will ensure there is a decision to make going forward. However, a lengthy injury list was added to during the week with Ciaran Mackin (knee) and Paddy Burns (allergy) withdrawn from the matchday squad having been named to start.
The Armagh boss was nonetheless happy with how the new faces adapted to the test of the Ulster Championship and believes the additional strength to the panel can only be a plus moving forward. “We’ve had a rough few weeks with injuries,” he reported. “There’s a lot of debutants out there today and a lot of fellas who haven’t had much time.
“TK (Tiernan Kelly) hasn’t played since last year either. Tomas McCormack, a good start, a goal and a point; Callum O’Neill with four points. “Darragh Mac (McMullan), probably his first clean start in the Championship too, had a really good game for us; Jarly (Jarlath Og Burns).
.. So just hoping not to pick up any more injuries.
“It was a good battle and it sets us up now for the next day, just trying to get boys back on the pitch.” The extent of Mackin’s injury is to be determined, but it appears to be “a serious old injury”, while McGeeney joked that defender Burns “ looked like the elephant man this morning” having taken a reaction to something. But another huge plus was the performance of Oisin O’Neill, introduced at the break and went on to kick three two-point frees with that ability to shoot accurately from distance a massive asset in the new-look game.
“He was coming and going last year and he was making big impacts, but his accuracy is off the charts,” McGeeney noted. “The two O’Neills (Oisin and Rian) have great feet. I suppose maybe that’s bad, but I’d expect that of Oisín.
“Callum O’Neill came in - first cousin of Oisín - and scored four points and Tomás hit 1-1. “Maybe Oisín would suffer from huge expectations from us, but we know the talent that he has. He’s just getting back into himself now, same with TK.
It’s good to have those boys coming back in and other fellas pushing. The big thing about getting new players in and pushing for places “You have (Oisin) Conaty and ‘Turbo’ (Conor Turbitt) - hopefully we’ll see some of them back soon.” It was a crackling atmosphere at Corrigan Park on Saturday with the home support daring to dream at the break as their side led by one, but ultimately, the All-Ireland champions took a grip of proceedings in the second period.
Although it became a comfortable win in the end for Armagh, Antrim could take plenty of positives as they rose to the challenge superbly and gave it all they had. That came off the back of relegation to Division Four in the league, but their boss, Andy McEntee believes his team can now go into the Tailteann Cup with confidence having set the bar with their display on Saturday. “To go in one point up at half-time was probably the best half (we’ve played this year),” said the Meath native.
“The second half, again, I think the nature of the game is, that when a team gets a run in you, it can be very hard to get kick-outs and we struggle to get our kick-outs away. “But it probably wouldn’t be far off the best performance. We didn’t win enough games throughout the year, so we’ve got to be better.
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