National Football League: Division One B: True to the strange currencies of the opening league matches, both Armagh and Galway showed their flip side in Crossmaglen yesterday. After the frail collapse against Wexford last week, Armagh turned in a sturdy performance, far more symbolic of their summer ambitions, and were fully deserving of the 10-point victory.
At the same time, Galway's fine show against Kildare was suspended, and replaced by a performance best described as wholly inadequate.
Though they started reasonably well, they later went 39 minutes without a score, and in the end manager Peter Ford just put it down as one of those days - those bad days - that teams sometimes endure in the league.
With a howling wind blowing ripples across the short cut grass and temperatures that would put the chill into Dante's Inferno it was probably not a football game either team should dwell on. And Galway could probably find some further excuses. Playing under the old British watchtower is still a little unnerving and Ford is still only finding his feet with a team still so reminiscent of John O'Mahony.
And yet, that won't account for all of Galway's deficiencies. When Armagh took control of the game following Brian Mallon's goal on 19 minutes the Galway heads didn't necessarily drop, but they didn't rise to the challenge either. The absence of leadership was alarming and the paltry return of two points in either half would cause a few sleepless night for any manager.
"Well I can't have any real excuses for that," reasoned Ford. "We thought we were in good shape, and looking forward to it. So it's hard to say why we were so bad. In six or seven league games you can have days like that. Most teams do."
The handful of Galway supporters that made it to Crossmaglen (assuming a few did get lost in the old border country) mightn't share Ford's optimism. It emerged at the weekend that Nicholas Joyce has left the panel, apparently dissatisfied he couldn't get a starting place. And since taking over, Ford hasn't heard from either Kevin Walsh or Michael Donnellan about their possible return to the panel.
A week ago Joe Kernan would have had a few concerns of his own, but this time the Armagh boss could savour the short jaunt to his home. Though they started a little shaky, Armagh put up 1-7 without replay in the formative stages of the game.
Philip Loughran and Paul McGrane looked a truly competent pairing at midfield, and corner backs Andy Mallon and Paul McCormack stuck faultless to their task. Martin O'Rourke and Steven McDonnell worked like clockwork with Mallon and John Toal in the forward line, but the most telling Armagh performance yesterday came from Kieran McGeeney. Just a few weeks back from his travels around the world, McGeeney looked unseasonably fit and gradually took total control in his old berth at centre back.
"Well to me the ability of this team was never in doubt," said Kernan afterwards. "But, of course, this is only a start. We knew we didn't show any hunger or character last Sunday, the things that made this Armagh squad great. It was a long, quiet journey home, so we knew we had to come out and show some heart. And I'm happy that the boys did that."
Despite the testing conditions, Galway full back Kieran Fitzgerald was the only player yellow carded, his relatively harmless tackle on Ronan Clarke on 28 minutes enough to earn him the early shower. By then, though, the Galway defence was starting to crack. Mallon's goal was a little fortuitous, set up by the deftest of touches from Clarke, but with McDonnell amongst others in excellent form the damage was soon to get far worse.
The Meehan brothers - Michael and Noel - had put Galway into a two-point lead, but once the Armagh defence got to grips with those two it was difficult to see where Galway would get their scores.
The Meehan's later had two good goals chances superbly blocked by Armagh, so it was up to substitutes Matthew Clancy and Seán Armstrong to complete Galway's miserly scoring.
The last laugh then went to Kernan - who saw none of his players yellow-carded: "Of course we've worked on the new rules," he said. "I mightn't always agree with them, but the rules are there for everyone, and, of course, we're obliged to abide by them. Maybe they'll throw a few more in at us, and keep it interesting for us."
ARMAGH: C McKinney; A Mallon, J McNulty, P McCormack; C McKeever, K McGeeney (0-1), K McElvanna; P Loughran (0-1), P McGrane (0-1); M O'Rourke (0-1), J Toal, P Keenan; S McDonnell (0-4, three frees), R Clarke, B Mallon (1-1). Subs: G Loughran (0-1) for Keenan (19 mins), A O'Rourke for McElvanna (57 mins), G Swift (0-1) for Clarke, B Murray for P Loughran (both 62 mins).
GALWAY: B Donoghue; V Feeney, K Fitzgerald, C Monaghan; D Meehan, T Joyce, D Burke; J Bergin, N Coleman; D Savage, P Clancy, J Devane; M Meehan (0-1), N Meehan (0-1, a free), K Brady. Subs: T Giblin for Fitzgerald (29 mins, yellow card), A Keane for Donoghue (44 mins, inj), M Clancy (0-1) for Devane (45 mins), P Geraghty for Coleman (59 mins), S Armstrong (0-1) for Bergin (64 mins).
YELLOW CARDS - Armagh: none; Galway: K Fitzgerald (29 mins) replaced by T Giblin.
Referee: J Bannon (Longford).
