Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney: 'I’m very happy with how the boys dug the game out'

​Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney was pleased that his side were able to dig out the win late on, as they have come out on the wrong end of tight games all too often in recent years.

“I’m very happy with how the boys dug the game out. It wasn’t pretty, but we knew that’s the way that Down were going to come and play,” he said.

“A lot of stuff went against them, a lot of balls bounced for Down, there was an own goal, and all of those sorts of things, a few frees… I was delighted with the way that they kept their composure under stress, because we have lost a lot of those games over the years, so to win it was really good. I’m delighted for the boys.”

Armagh have been caught coming down the home stretch a few times in recent years, but McGeeney will be hopeful that Saturday’s game is an indication that they have turned a corner.

He also said that his side – who have competed at the top table since their promotion to Division One in 2020 – possibly needed a few years to learn how to win these types of games.

“We were the same in our day, it takes three or four years of being at the top table to learn how to be able to win like that,” he said.

“It’s going to be a step up in the next game depending on who wins, it could be a similar style of football or a different style of football.

“But today we showed that we could play both styles which was really good for us.”

It’s no secret that Armagh were backed by most pundits to reach the Ulster final, as they were paired on the same side of the draw as Division Three’s Antrim and Down, and Fermanagh, who were relegated from Division Two.

However, McGeeney reinforced his belief that there are no weak sides in the Ulster Championship.

“I haven’t seen a bad team in Ulster,” he said.

“Fermanagh are Division Two, the same division as us.

“Everybody makes a call: look at Cavan v Tyrone, Derry v Donegal. There is a division between those teams, does that make it easy for them?

“Sometimes it goes one way, like we hit those two goals at the beginning against Fermanagh. We missed those chances against them in the league and it was a tight game. We hit them in the Championship and it looks much better.

“The truth lies somewhere in the middle.”

For full match report and more reaction see this week’s Newry Reporter – in shops Wednesday May 1!