Armagh supporters feeling lucky ahead of Ulster final

Fans ready to roar the Orchardmnendto victory against Donegal

IT has been 16 years since Armagh last won the Anglo-celt Cup, and some are still reeling over the loss to Derry in 2023’s Ulster final penalty shootout.

Despite this, fans in the Orchard County have never stopped believing and they’re more excited than ever for tomorrow’s showdown with Donegal.

Gareth Savage from Belleek joked that he and his son Finn (10) are “addicted to the pain”, which is why they have continued to follow Kieran Mcgeeney’s team through all of their heartbreaking knockout matches.

“I’m a season ticket holder with Finn. He’s not seen them win Ulster yet,” Gareth said.

“Finn says Rian O’neill will win it for us. We need to win on Sunday, it’s been too long since 2008. I do worry that we’re not as tactically smart as Donegal.

“The Down game showed we still have a naivety about us, but we’ve a strong bench and plenty of match-winners. If we can get a sniff at the goals, we could win by four or five points.”

In their semi-final against Down last month, the men in orange snatched an injury-time winner.

It was an underwhelming victory, especially as Armagh had hammered the Mournemen by 10 points last season, but Niamh Thornbury (36), from Lurgan, thinks the tight game will serve the squad better in the long run.

She said: “I think Armagh could win by a point; they learned a lot from that league game [against Donegal] and their performance against Down.

“It wasn’t a great win, but they needed to win a game where they weren’t actually playing well.

“We’ve lost a lot of tight games where we haven’t played well and the boys have learned more from that.”

The league game Niamh referred to was the Division 2 final in March, which saw Donegal beat Armagh by a point.

But she is just thankful it wasn’t another penalty shootout.

Armagh lost the 2022 All-ireland quarter-final to Galway, last year’s Ulster final to Derry, and last year’s All-ireland quarter-final to Monaghan, on penalties.

Niamh added: “I think if it’s penalties I’m going to go home! I can’t watch another penalty shootout.”

She and her father have only missed one game all year, and she can remember as far back as 1999, when Armagh were flying high and denied Down in the Ulster final that August.

“I remember my daddy always saying, ‘Enjoy these days, because they won’t last forever. I’m 30 years older than you are, and you’ve seen them win as much as I have now, so enjoy every moment’.

“At the time, I thought we would always be winning Ulsters and being in the All-ireland finals every year, and now I’m realising he was right.”

Paul Kelly (37), from Portadown, believes Armagh’s luck is about to change.

While Donegal are favourites going into the final at Clones — throw-in 4pm — Paul reckons it’s down to the ‘Jimmy effect’, now that Jim Mcguinness is back at the helm for the men in green and gold.

“Yes, they beat us in the league final, but we did have a lot going on within the camp with a sickness bug,” he added.

“We didn’t turn up for 60 minutes of that game, we went ahead in injury time and unfortunately conceded late on to narrowly lose. I think Armagh will have done their homework.

“We have some big-game players with the experience now to get us over the line.

“If I was going to predict the outcome, I would say Armagh by two or three points.

“It will be a brilliant day out in Clones and Armagh will take a massive support, that extra man in the stands could roar them on to victory.”

Armagh have relied heavily on their star goalkeeper, Ethan Rafferty, but the Grange clubman has been out of action since breaking his ankle last July.

He was named in the squad for the first time this season against Down, and Cliodhna Toal (10) from Portadown thinks that if he could get on, even for a little bit, he could make the difference between winning and losing.

“I also think Oisin O’neill [who also missed all of last season with injury] could score a winner in the last five minutes,” she said.

Cliodhna’s brother Keelan (9) added his support for his favourite player, Oisin’s brother Rian, and believes that “Kieran Mcgeeney is honestly a good manager”.

Cliodhna said that she wishes she and her sibling had been born a bit earlier as they haven’t seen Armagh win anything as yet, although their parents have witnessed the glory days.

However, they both have a sneaky feeling that Sunday could change everything.

‘Armagh will have done their homework. We have big-game players with the experience now to get us over the line’