Armagh condemn Dublin to another Croke Park defeat

Dublin 1-13 Armagh 2-15

A “great milestone” for Armagh, is how Kieran McGeeney described it, before promptly qualifying Saturday night’s win over Dublin as perhaps little more than an exercise in bear poking. Time may shortly tell on both fronts.

The milestone certainly counts - their first league win over Dublin since 2008, their first over Dublin in Croke Park since 2003, neatly addressing their 16-point loss in their last league meeting here in 2012 - Armagh also condemning Dublin to back-to-back defeats in Croke Park for first time since 2010. A milestone of another sort, perhaps.

What is also certain is Dublin’s cloak of invincibility has slipped further, their one consolation being the five-point defeat wasn’t a whole lot more. Hitting the firm winter ground suitably running, Armagh scored two goals in the first half, might well have scored four, and were nine points ahead at half-time - and it’s a long time since Dublin were trailing by that much, league or championship, isn’t it?

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It was put to McGeeney afterwards that this might well be Armagh’s best performance, anywhere, since 2006, only he wasn’t buying that. “Yeah, but we’ve seen from the league last year, that getting beaten by a big score doesn’t necessarily negate the quality of players you have. If anything it just pokes the bear.

“That’s not taking away from the performance, it’s a great milestone for us, in terms of winning a game at Croke Park But it’s a National League game, it’s two points for, you can’t not be happy with it. But I’m around long enough to know where the kick in the arse comes. I’ve had more kicks in the arse than I’ve had pats on the back.”

The joint-title defenders were expecting to make something of a statement here, instead it was Armagh who did most of the talking in terms of performance. First half goals by full forward and man of the match Rian O’Neill and then Jason Duffy, both deftly designed and finished, built the strong foundation, and dig as they did Dublin couldn’t shift it in the second half.

There were more errors and misplaced balls than Dublin will care to remember, plus 13 wides, manager Dessie Farrell making no secret of that, especially with Kerry up next in Tralee this Saturday: “Not the start you would have wanted, for sure. We knew Armagh had this game in their sights from a long way off, had a lot of work done, you could see they were well organised, very fit, a proper side. And this team will be a force to be reckoned with, if they can keep their feet on the ground after tonight.

“We’d so many wides, balls dropping short, so definitely the shooting efficiency wasn’t where we want it to be. On the positive, we gave new players debuts, some game time, and that’s ultimately where we at now, in terms of the league, waiting for other players to come back from injury as well. It was a frenetic pace out there, and if players want to step up, that’s what they’re going to have to encounter.”

It took a relative fortuitous goal, in the 59th minute, from replacement a debutant Lorcan O’Dell to keep them in the contest going into the endgame. A goalmouth scramble resulted in O’Dell’s close-range shot deflected into the net off the knee of Ciaran Mackin, who’d made a timely block just moments before; back to 2-13 to 1-10, Dublin were still sniffing for more.

Instead, Armagh closed out the game with the sort of calmness and confidence more associated with Dublin: O’Neill’s produced arguably his best game in an Armagh jersey, finishing with 1-4, with Duffy scoring 1-1. With eight different scorers, including replacements Stephen Campbell, Niall Grimley and Greg McCabe, Armagh had depth in their quality too, certainly superior to what Dublin presented on the night. Rory Grugan helped himself to 0-4, Connaire Mackin also scoring from the half back line, with brother Ciaran shining at midfield in his first league start.

Both Armagh’s goals utilised diagonal ball to good effect: on 21 minutes, Aiden Nugent’s long ball from close to right sideline fell just out of reach of Davy Byrne and into the hands of O’Neill, who promptly turned towards the goal and slotted the ball magnificently to the right side of Evan Comerford; on 27 minutes, O’Neill turned provider, picking out Duffy to his right, who brilliantly chipped - at least it looked that way - over Comerford.

“We’ll enjoy tonight, it was a good victory,” added McGeeney. “Our job is now to focus on Tyrone. We’ve All-Ireland champions coming to us next week, and they’ll be sore from the last time. Tyrone loving Armagh like they do, will want to set that straight. It’s a tough division but it’s a great division.”

Before a crowd 22,707, Dublin looked short of ideas and energy, losing Cormac Costello to injury after 30 minutes not helping their cause; Dean Rock looked well short of match practice as his replacement.

“You want to be competitive in every game, and no disrespect to any competition, everyone has their sights set on what’s going to happen come the summer,” said Farrell. “We’re involved in that process, trying to build something that will highly competitive come April and May.”

Dublin: E Comerford; Lee Gannon, D Byrne, E Murchan; T Lahiff, B Howard (0-1), J Small; B Fenton, E Ó Conghaile; S Bugler (0-2), C Kilkenny (0-1), N Scully (0-1); A Byrne, C Costello (0-3, one free), R Basquel. Subs: R McGarry for A Byrne (16 mins, inj); D Rock (0-3) for Costello (30 mins, inj), C McCormack (0-1) for Ó Conghaile (half time), L O'Dell (1-1) for Basquel (50 mins), S McMahon for Murchan (68 mins).

Armagh: B Hughes; P Burns, A Forker, A McKay; C Mackin, N Rowland, J Og Burns; C Mackin (0-1), B Crealey; J Hall, R Grugan (0-4, three frees), T Kelly (0-1); J Duffy (1-1), R O'Neill (1-4, one free), A Nugent (0-1). Subs: N Grimley (0-1) for Crearly (38 mins, first half), S Campbell (0-1) for Hall (half time), G McCabe (0-1) for Rowland (51 mins), R McQuillan for Duffy (58 mins), M Shields for McQuillan (63 mins, inj).

Referee: Fergal Kelly (Longford).