Fermanagh manager Rory Gallagher admitted that Armagh shaded matters as the Orchard County lifted the Division Three title in Croke Park last Saturday evening.
It was a much different encounter from the 0-07 apiece one the sides had served up in the league at Brewster Park recently with this being a high scoring game on this occasion but the Fermanagh boss felt that over the two games Armagh were the slightly better team.
“We’ve had two good looks at them and on the balance of both days they were probably marginally better than us, that’s the reality of it at this stage. Even though they were never ahead in Brewster Park in the regulation league game they had enough chances to get there. Today their third quarter performance, albeit we would be disappointed with the goal, they went up a few gears and we struggled with them in the middle of the field. In saying that we fought back really hard and we played a lot of good football.
“I thought their keeper was brilliant. For a couple of years under Kieran they probably had a wee bit of difficulty with the goalkeeping situation but Blaine Hughes came in last year and he gave a couple of really good displays. I thought Niall Grimley gave his best display of the year. He went with four big men across the middle with Charlie Vernon, Stephen Sheridan, Ben Crealey and Grimley and they are very good at getting quality ball into Ethan Rafferty and Andrew Murnin,” said Gallagher.
The Armagh goal though was the decisive score of the game and Gallagher felt that his side could have dealt with it better than they did. A long ball in saw two Armagh players unmarked as they challenged goalkeeper Pat Cadden and when the ball broke Murnin had the simple task of finding the net.
“Our boys misread the flight of the ball. A ball like that they really should be coming at the ball from behind and they got caught in front and Pat was left in no mans land. It was a huge score and if it hadn’t gone in it was very much in the lap of the God’s but it went in and we have to learn from it,” he said.
Armagh were guilty of giving away a string of scoreable frees over the course of the contest and the Fermanagh manager feels that with the way the Orchard County play, it will be the case again when they sides meet in the championship on May 19.
“They know our style of play and they go out to stop that. We got a lot of scoreable frees and it’s something I feel we are going to get in the championship, that’s the nature of it, they don’t want anybody to get in for goal chances,” he added.
He accepts though that while he has been delighted with the league campaign as a whole and securing promotion to Division Two, his side will have to improve before they take on Armagh at Brewster Park next month.
“The aim was to get promotion, we didn’t say that publicly, we just got the heads down and we produced a lot of consistent performances. We lost to Westmeath in the last minute and we lost here taking it down the track but we have to be real as well about where we are at, we have to improve in a lot of areas. Overall I would be pleased with the league but the next six or seven weeks will define where we are going to go,” he added.
There was a first start of the year for Lisnaskea midfielder Tom Clarke in Croke Park and given Armagh’s physical presence in that middle third and he could well come into the managers thinking for that May 19 clash.
“We started big Tom Clarke today. He was unlucky at the start of the year as he had a set back with a broken arm and he is a huge man so he has come into the equation.
“We felt that they would go with big men and Tom’s a huge man by Fermanagh standards. He hasn’t had a lot of football and very little at this level but I thought he acquitted himself really well.”
And having come through a tough league campaign, Gallagher is delighted to have little in the way of injuries as he gets ready for his championship preparations.
“Paul McCusker had a slightly fractured thumb but he will be grand in a couple of weeks and other than that we have a clean bill of health,” he commented.