ORANGE WARNING
LGFA LIDL LEAGUE DIV 1 FINAL Armagh make history
ARMAGH manager Greg McGonigle hopes they can now take their historic Lidl NFL Division 1 title success into the TG4 All-Ireland Championship.
Aimee Mackin and Kelly Mallon combined for 1-9 as Armagh followed up their Division 2 success last season by dethroning the Division 1 champions at Croke Park.
“From a defensive point of view, we’d be happy with where we are at, but again we could have been possibly a little bit more clinical up front,” said McGonigle.
Great
“We maybe left a couple of chances behind us, but it’s a great place to be on April 7th.
“We talked about teams are probably going to have purple patches or you’re going to make mistakes and we say it’s always about reaction.
“It’s responding and not going into ourselves. Trying to get back up and get a score as soon as we can, we reacted very well to conceding an early second half goal.”
Having lost out to the Kingdom in a NFL Division 2 decider at the same venue two years ago, this is a sweet victory for an Armagh side appearing in their maiden top tier league showpiece.
Kerry joint manager Declan Quill said they did not make the most of a fortunate goal after the restart and they squandered too many chances.
“The bit of good luck you get, you’ve to build on it. It’s not something we did,” said Quill.
“We missed way too many chances to win a game.
“We’ve to look back over the tape, but the amount of chances we missed was absolutely criminal, really.
“We’ve Munster championship to focus on now in two weeks’ time.
“We’ll give the girls a few nights off and we’ll reconvene next Friday night.”
A fine point by Aoife McCoy edged Armagh in front for a second time after free-takers Mallon and Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh had exchanged early frees
The Kingdom received a massive boost when Lorraine Scanlon fired to the net on 10 minutes after a dead-ball strike from Ní Mhuircheartaigh had dropped short.
This was only a minor setback for Armagh, however, as midfielder Niamh Coleman palmed a goal of her own after Kerry netminder Mary Ellen Bolger had knocked down Mackin’s attempt at a point.
An earlier Mallon score meant Armagh led 1-3 to 1-1 on the first-quarter mark.
Level
Kerry never allowed panic to creep in and three points on the bounce from Ní Mhuircheartaigh had the sides level at 1-4 apiece at the break.
After Mary O’Connell pounced on a defensive mishap by Armagh three minutes into the second half, Niamh Ní Chonchuir comfortably fired home a second Kingdom goal.
While this looked like a major blow for the Orchard County, they were instead galvanised.
Unanswered points from Mallon, Mackin (two) and Niamh Henderson moved
Armagh in front once again, the ever-dangerous Mackin rifled an unstoppable shot to the roof of the net on 39 minutes.
Further points from the
Shane O’Neills ace either side of the third-quarter mark left Armagh six ahead, but Ní Mhuircheartaigh (two) and Hannah O’Donoghue replied.
The deficit, however, remained at three points right to the end. SCORERS: Armagh: A Mackin 1-4 (0-2f), K Mallon 0-5 (3f), N Coleman 1-0, A McCoy, N Henderson, C Doyle 0-1 each. Kerry: L Ní Mhuircheartaigh 0-7 (6f), N Ní Chonchuir, L Scanlon 1-0 each, C Murphy, H O’Donoghue 0-1 each.
ARMAGH: A Carr; G Ferguson, C McCambridge, R Mulligan; C Towe, L McConville, D Coleman; N Coleman, C O’Hanlon; E Druse, A McCoy, L Kenny; A Mackin, N Henderson, K Mallon. Subs: S Quigley for N Coleman (24), C Doyle for Druse (49), M McCambridge for Kenny (57), S Grey for McCoy (58), E Lavery for Mallon (59).
KERRY: ME Bolger; C Lynch, D Kearney, E Lynch; A O’Connell, C Murphy, K Cronin; M O’Connell, A Galvin; N Carmody, N Ní Chonchuir, L Scanlon; H O’Donoghue, E Dineen, L Ní Mhuircheartaigh. Subs: D O’Leary for NíChonchuir, C O’Brien for Kearney (both 39), A Harrington for Scanlon (44), K Brosnan for O’Donoghue (57). Referee: Gus Chapman (Sligo). we’re at the top table. And we want to stay there because it’s helping us in the Championship as well.
“We’ve a massive challenge in two weeks time against Cork. We know we played Cork in the league and got a result. That’ll be a different Cork team in two weeks time.”