Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Tight-knit Armagh on the up
ARMAGH captain Rory Grugan believes that tough defeats have served to make the Orchard County a force to be reckoned with.
His side pulled away in the closing stages to secure a 1-12 to 1-7 victory over Westmeath at the weekend and they face Tipperary in Round 3B of the qualifiers on Saturday.
Kieran Mcgeeney’s side were knocked out of the Ulster quarter-final by a resurgent Down but now after qualifier wins against Fermanagh and Westmeath the Ballymacnab clubman says Armagh are on a roll.
“Most players would say that they think this is the closest the team has ever been,” said Grugan.
“But probably this year we have carried a bigger squad than we have ever done and ironically we are closer than we have ever been through that.
“There is a real good bond and a lot of young players came in this year and injected a new bit of blood in. That has kept boys on their toes and pushed the rest of us on.
“It wasn’t really translating into results earlier on in the league, we were very disappointed with the way Down went.
“We just wanted to resettle and put that right and we are two steps down the road to doing that.”
Armagh looked in trouble when star players Jamie Clarke and James Morgan got black cards in the firsthalf at Cusack Park in Mullingar on Saturday.
And then Gregory Mccabe was sent-off in the second-half but they re-grouped and Grugan believes it was just all about getting the result.
“As far as we are concerned to grind out a result like that is nice in a way and it leaves you so much room for improvement,” said Grugan.
“There are other days you play better and you get sucker-punched and you don’t win the game.
“At the end of the day we are always reminded that it’s a results based business and it’s just nice to put two wins together.”