KELLY QUITS AS ARMAGH EASE HOME

Westmeath 1-11 Armagh 3-16

ARMAGH overcame an understrength Westmeath to advance to round two of the qualifiers, with

Colin Kelly announcing his resignation as Westmeath manager after the game.

“It’s a massive commitment for me,”

Kelly (above) admitted. “I’ve a young family getting to the age now – I’ve a young girl and boy playing soccer and Gaelic in Dublin.

“We’ve had some fun along the way and maybe it’s time for a Westmeath man to take it on.”

Armagh manager Kieran Mcgeeney was delighted with his side’s performance, although he was left rueing the loss of influential forward Ethan Rafferty (inset) to injury after an altercation with a Westmeath player.

“We’re happy with the performance and the result, but losing Ethan is a big blow to us,” he said.

“When you’ve somebody kneeling on top of somebody, listen you know, at the very least I know if I was kneeling on top of somebody there would be repercussions. The thing about it is when you protect something and there’s never any accountability it’s not going to change and that’s what we are, that’s where we stand.”

Mcgeeney confirmed Rafferty has been ruled out for the remainder of the campaign.

“He’s gone for the year. It’s massive. He’s playing out of his skin for us this year. I feel for him, he’s a good kid so he is,” he said. SCORERS - WESTMEATH: R O’toole 1-2, L Loughlin 0-3 (3f), D Corroon 0-2 (1f), F Coyne, B Sayeh, K Martin and G Egan (1f) 0-1 each. ARMAGH: R Grugan 0-5 (5f), A Duffy 1-1, C Vernon 0-3, K Fagan own goal and G Mcparland 1-0 each, E Rafferty and J Hall 0-2 each, G Mccabe, R Mcshane and A Murnin 0-1 each.