IT’S A VERY CONFIDENT START FOR ORCHARD..
MEATH might have been softened up by their round one draw against Fermanagh, but the manner in which Armagh delivered a knockout blow to Colm O’rourke’s charges at the Box-it Athletic Grounds on Saturday night was seriously impressive.
At full-time, 12 points separated the teams and the 2-16 to 0-10 scoreline didn’t flatter the hosts as Cian Mcconville and Ciaran Mackin struck for goals either side of half-time.
Still shorn of the likes of Rian O’neill, Andrew Murnin and keeper Ethan Rafferty, a number of young guns took their chance to impress, including corner-forward Oisin
Conaty, who hit two points from play.
The Tir na nóg attacker was also fouled for a number of frees that were converted by Conor Turbitt, who finished with 0-5.
Turbitt feels that Armagh can only improve when some of their key players return in the coming weeks.
“The quality we have at training is excellent,” he said. “We are only going to get stronger. We are seeing the Cullyhanna boys coming back and a few boys coming back from injury.
“We had a good pre-season and, closer to game-time, we picked up a few niggles. They’ll come back, so it is only going to get tougher and tougher.
“That’s what we are trying to do – just improve every week. We’ll move on to the next game against Kildare, but we can’t complain (with four points from two games).”
Much like their round one win over Louth, Armagh had to be patient in the early stages.
Kieran Mcgeeney’s (inset)0 side didn’t score for the first 20 minutes before edging out Louth by one point and it took them 11 minutes to score against Meath, but they were soon in command and Mcconville’s goal gave them a five-point cushion at the break and the Royals never threatened a second half comeback.
“I think last week Louth set up a bit more defensively – Meath probably pressed us a bit harder,” reflected Turbitt.
“It took us a while to get used to what they were doing. I think once we got round it, we started to work them out and chip over a few scores.
“We got the goals at the right times during the match, just before halftime and soon into the second half. That sort of killed the game off.”