ALLIANZ FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISIONS ONE & TWO: Kerry 1-13 Armagh 1-9:KERRY'S JOURNEY into the great beyond netted a respectable haul in Armagh's Athletic Grounds yesterday.
Jack O’Connor said that the harvest – two points and the return to the team of former captains Declan O’Sullivan and Paul Galvin as well as the best match of the season for Kieran Donaghy – would shorten the trip all the way back to St Finian’s Bay on the south coast.
Apart from a spell in the second quarter when they rattled Kerry with an unanswered 1-4 to take the lead, Armagh were second best and, although the tactic of playing Billie Joe Padden as a seventh defender clogged the attacking play, it was the visitors’ shortcomings going forward that kept scores level at half-time, 0-7 to 1-4.
Kerry kept Eoin Brosnan as a free man at the back, leaving the impressive Shane Enright to pick up Rory Grugan (a late replacement for Micheál O’Rourke) in the half forwards.
This guaranteed supply of ball meant that Donaghy was kept well serviced in the full-forward line and, although his namesake Brendan competed fiercely, the 2006 Footballer of the Year won a lot of possession and, had the support made itself more quickly available, the visitors would have won by a lot more.
Instead, wind-assisted, they had to make do with a leisurely three-point lead by the 12th minute, the third of which came from an assist by Donaghy – on this occasion taking the ball low in the right corner.
Steven McDonnell got Armagh off the mark from a free and successive points from Ciarán McKeever, up in support of Kieran Toner, and Gareth Swift levelled the match.
In the 20th minute, Kevin Dyas linked with Swift and his ball into Malachy Mackin was nicely taken and laid off to the in-rushing Toner, who crashed the ball into the net.
A second McDonnell free left Armagh 1-4 to 0-3 ahead with Kerry failing to make the best of their opportunities – six wides to the opposition’s three in the first half and 10-3 overall – despite Donaghy’s influence, which saw him fouled for a couple of converted frees, hit the post and have a shot cleared off the line before teeing up Darran O’Sullivan for a shot that Philip McEvoy saved with his head, an intervention that forced his substitution after 32 minutes.
O’Sullivan was becoming more and more influential. His speed and mobility saw him tidying up and moving on attacks. His kick passing was also impressive and he bent a great pass into Donaghy to set up O’Leary’s third point in the second half.
O’Connor was also pleased with his rearranged centrefield. David Moran came in on half an hour for Séamus Scanlon and played a lot of ball as well as kicking two frees. Armagh tried to raise the tempo, but were outscored 1-4 to 0-1 in the 20 minutes after half-time.
The goal came from another Donaghy catch, which he transferred to Declan O’Sullivan who smartly offloaded to his namesake Darran and he finished to turn it into a five-point match, 1-10 to 1-5.
Kerry’s final score of the sequence again came from Donaghy plucking down Tomás Ó Sé’s high ball and feeding Colm Cooper – who came in for some heavy treatment during the match including the genesis of a scuffle towards the end – who pointed.
Four points in six minutes pulled Armagh back within a score, but there was little sense that they would complete the escape and Moran’s second free confirmed as much.
Kerry manager Jack O’Connor reflected on the vagaries of a good win. “After 15 minutes we were 1-3 to 0-3 down after dominating huge patches of the game up to then, but, look, we felt ourselves that it is often easier playing into the wind than with it because they had a sweeper back there in the first half and that made it difficult for us so we could not hit the early ball into the boys inside.
“We supported each other much better in the second half, drove out of defence and kicked ball into space and that was the key. The lads looked forward to the challenge today because these are the games that we want. They are tough battles that we wanted because these kind of days stand to you in the summer. I have to say that they gave us a right game.
“We won by four in the end, but we certainly had a few hairy moments, Stevie McDonnell had a ball inside there near the end and went for goal and it just went over the bar.”
Armagh counterpart Paddy O’Rourke looked forward to getting his first-choice forwards back, but was optimistic.
“It’s going to be a dog-fight and obviously we need another two points and we’re very conscious of that. If we can get two points we’re safe and we said at the start of the year that we wanted to be playing Division One football next year. If we can do that and sort out a few problems as we go we’ll be very happy.”
KERRY:T Mac an tSaoir; T O'Sullivan, K Young, S Enright; T Ó Sé, E Brosnan, B Maguire; S Scanlon, A Maher (0-1); B Sheehan (0-4, all frees), Darran O'Sullivan (1-0), D Walsh; C Cooper (0-3, 2f), K Donaghy, K O'Leary (0-3). Subs: D Moran (0-2, frees) for Scanlon (29 mins), Declan O'Sullivan for O'Leary (49 mins), P Galvin for Sheehan (49 mins), A O'Mahony for Maguire (58 mins), D Bohan for Brosnan (62 mins).
ARMAGH:P McEvoy; A Mallon, B Donaghy, F Moriarty; K Dyas, C McKeever (0-1), P Duffy (0-2); K Toner (1-0), C Vernon; G Swift (0-1), R Grugan, M Mackin; BJ Padden, B Mallon, S McDonnell (0-5, 3f). Subs: J McCullagh for McEvoy (33 mins), A Duffy for Grugan (43 mins), D McKenna for Dyas (50 mins), C Watters for Padden (60 mins), J Murtagh for B Mallon (65 mins).
Referee:P McEnaney (Monaghan).
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