Mourned our loss then got over it..

MCKEEVER: DOWN DEFEAT DIDN’T DEFINE THIS TEAM

ARMAGH selector Paddy Mckeever insisted the players refused to allow their Ulster Championship loss to Down to define their summer.

Down raided the Orchard in the quarter-finals of the Ulster championship, dumping Kieran Mcgeeney’s men into a qualifier battle on the first weekend of June.

They’ve since navigated all four rounds of the back door series and claimed a huge scalp on Saturday, shortly after Down made their own Championship exit.

The 2002 All-ireland champions led by three at halftime and full-time though that fails to paint the full picture of an exciting game.

Almost 40,000 were on hand to witness Armagh roll back the years with a brilliant second-half display that saw them outscore Kildare by 0-5 to 0-1 late on.

Their reward is a massive All-ireland quarter-final tie on Saturday, their first at that stage since 2014.

The mood couldn’t be much different from eight weeks ago when Mcgeeney might have wondered if his job was on the line after a tricky few seasons.

All-ireland winner Mckeever (left) said: “I’m not going to make any bones about it, we carried that Down defeat with us. To say it hurt would be fair. We don’t mind getting beaten but it was more the manner of it, that we didn’t perform.

“Things had been going relatively well before that though maybe sometimes it’s hard to gauge exactly where you’re at. On that day we just didn’t turn up as a unit.

“To say that has motivated us is true. It’s just a pity we didn’t get to see Down before the end of the year but I’m sure we’ll renew acquaintances next year.

“But yeah, that was definitely one of the driving forces. The fellas didn’t want their year to be defined by that one result in the marshes in Newry. Fair dues to the lads, they knuckled down, they picked themselves up off the floor and they’ve improved with every game.”

Jamie Clarke was terrific for Armagh, scoring four points and putting in the hard yards that inspired a brilliant second-half performance.

The game swung this way and that and Kildare actually led a couple of times around the beginning of the final quarter.

But having snuffed out Kildare’s midfield and held their best forward, Daniel Flynn, to just one point, Armagh duly closed it out.