Armagh clinch promotion in real style

NFL DIVISION TWO/Armagh 2-16 Donegal 0-6:IT WOULD have been interesting to see what the final score would have read if Armagh had kept the pistons firing for the entire match.

After 25 minutes, they had this match won; by 45 minutes they had delivered the starkest lecture possible to Donegal and, for the last quarter, they seemed content to only allow their substitutes score from play.

Billed as the game of the day, this was an absolute non-contest. It was a devastating show of football by the Armagh men but it has to be judged against a genuinely shocking Donegal performance.

John Joe Doherty sighed as he considered just how thoroughly his team’s ambitions of playing Division One football had been smashed. “Well, on that type of display, we are better off staying where we are,” he said.

Hallelujah to that.

With Tyrone and Derry dropping down to the second tier, next year’s league promised nothing easy for the men from the Northwest. Armagh, meanwhile, can look forward to a league final with Paddy O’Rourke’s native Down in an fortnight’s time but more pertinently, they shimmered like the orange machine of old here.

Finian Moriarty’s second-half goal was the eye-catching score of the day but it was the sharpness and purpose of the Armagh running, their movement of the ball and the assuredness of their finishing that marked them apart.

They looked supremely fit, so much so Donegal toiled just to keep pace as the men in orange ran relays along the wings. Armagh pounded the smaller, lighter Donegal men in close contact and outjumped them when it came to ruling the sky.

For the home team, there was not a single redeeming aspect of this defeat. Armagh’s substitutes bench outscored the entire Donegal team from play and the fact that Armagh didn’t have to rely on Steven McDonnell for scores pleased manager O’Rourke.

“Maybe too often we were relying on Stevie. He played well today but we had a good spread of scores. That was the thing that most pleased me because that has been our major problem. I always felt we had players who could score and today we showed that.”

Donegal trailed by 1-9 to 0-2 at half-time and they were blessed the score was that close. Armagh did more than simply cause their hopes of promotion to evaporate on a hot April afternoon. They dished out a lesson in football smarts that must leave the Donegal men in a fragile psychological state as they prepare for their championship match against divisional winners, Down.

From the start it was clear the Donegal defenders were not collectively prepared for the sweeping nature of the Armagh attack. Only individual heroics prevented the concession of early goals. Goalkeeper Paul Durcan dived to cut out a pass to Brian Mallon which flashed in front of his goal.

In the ninth minute, Donegal defender Michael Maguire somehow recovered to scoop a ball from Gareth Swift as he was about to shoot and then Neil McGee made a similarly audacious block on Mallon. But in all cases, the Donegal defensive lock had been picked. And Armagh knew it.

Using Stevie McDonnell as the needle through which all attacking ball was threaded, they went to town on the hapless home team.

The dam broke when McDonnell beat Durcan to a high ball sent in by Tony Kernan, his goal giving the visitors a 1-4 to 0-2 lead after 24 minutes. Donegal were not chasing the Armagh men who ran deep to overlap in attack and so Andy Mallon, Paul Duffy and Ciaran McKeever – who exerted an iron grip on proceedings from centre-back – all trotted up field for uncontested points.

Charlie Vernon destroyed Donegal along the left wing and the home team quickly deteriorated into an amazingly ragged outfit.

Late in the half, they just stood and watched as the Armagh men ran pretty hand-passing sequences in front of their goal.

There was no second-half fight back: retiring Michael Murphy, the prize commodity of Donegal football, was the final admission. The biggest cheer of the day announced the arrival of Ronan Clarke. Not a bad way for Armagh to storm into Division One and a league finale against Down.

ARMAGH: P Hearty; A Mallon (0-1), B Donaghy, B Shannon; P Duffy (0-1), C McKeever (0-1), F Moriarty (1-0); J Lavery, K Toner; G Swift, A Kernan (0-1 free), C Vernon (0-2); B Mallon (0-2), S McDonnell (1-4, one free), T Kernan. Subs: M Mackin (0-1) for J Lavery (46 mins), J Feeney (0-1) for G Swift (51 mins), R Henderson (0-1) for T Kernan (58 mins), R Clarke (0-1 free) for A Kernan (62), C Waters for B Mallon (65).

DONEGAL: P Durcan; F McGlynn, N McGee, K Lacey; M Maguire, B Dunnion, K Cassidy; N Gallagher, E Kelly; C Dunne, C McFadden, K Cassidy; R Wherrity, M Murphy (0-2 frees), A Hanlon (0-2, one free). Subs: D Walsh for E Kelly (26 mins), R Kavanagh (0-1) for C McFadden (ht inj), F McNulty for R Wherrity (ht), S Griffin (0-1 free) for M Murphy (48).

Referee: J McQuillan (Cavan).