​Armagh looking for opening day derby win to ‘ignite their summer’

​The Ulster Championship makes its anticipated return this weekend, and what a match to get it underway, as old rivals Armagh and Tyrone collide in the Box-It Athletic Grounds.

Despite an up and down league campaign results-wise for the Orchard County, the overall consensus was positive, as they retained their Division One status, despite missing many key players.

For Tyrone, their league campaign was a disappointment, as despite being the pre-competition favourites for promotion, they lost four of their seven games and found themselves in the bottom half of the table when the leagues concluded.

However, Armagh coach Conleith Gilligan said that the Red Hand County can’t and won’t be taken lightly.

“Massively,” he answered, when asked whether Tyrone are dangerous opposition at the Ulster Championship media launch. “I suppose Tyrone’s League campaign was very similar to our own in far as who they had missing. You had no [Niall] Morgan, [Darren] McCurry, no [Michael] McKernan, Darragh Canavan was away for a few games so they were the same, they were trying to get up with new and untested players and similar points, they would be disappointed in some of the games that they lost that they might have won.

“Also, it makes it very dangerous. It is still Tyrone, it is still a derby game, and the winning and losing of it is massive for both teams, because during the preliminary round it is earlier than you originally wanted to be out. But that is where we are at and it is a huge game for both teams in terms of kickstarting their summer.”

Gilligan says that despite his side being pre-match favourites, they won’t be taking their eyes off the ball.

“I don’t think so, I think the players are cute enough now to know, especially the proximity to Armagh players to Tyrone," said the Armagh coach.

“I suppose even the younger players winning Hogan Cups and All-Ireland U20s, so there will be no illusion with our younger players as to the quality that Tyrone have.

“And then the older players have been through the mill before and have been stung in big games where they were supposed to be favourites. Last year’s Kerry game was probably the prime example, where the expectation was that Kerry wouldn’t beat Armagh and look how that turned out.

“With the fact that the league is done now, I think every team is looking for that one big win to ignite their summer. From a Tyrone perspective, coming to Armagh and doing that would be high on their list of priorities.”

Regarding Armagh’s own league campaign, Gilligan said that ‘it was very important to stay up’, and he referenced how Armagh often times came out on the wrong side of results, despite not playing poorly. Something they hope to have turned a corner on since defeating Dublin and drawing with Kerry.

“I suppose it was very mixed as far as in we missed a lot of players and we had a lot of players get a lot of game-time,” he said.

“Ultimately, when you are fighting for survival on the last day, you can’t butter it up as good but within the poor bit of not getting results, we did play well for patches, we just didn’t get putting it together for full games, outside of against Monaghan and that was frustrating.

“It was very important to stay up; it is not the end of the world if you don’t but from the point of you go into Division Two and something happens and you lose two or three injuries and a couple of bad results and then all of a sudden Sam Maguire and Tailteann Cup becomes a question at some point during the League.

“At least in Division One if you get a bad start, there is a bit of protection in that but for ourselves, a lot of those players, playing those games, even when you lose, you learn an awful lot from them.

“Even that day against Dublin, Tomas McCormack came in and he was excellent that game and that is where the learning happens and he builds on it when he plays against Kerry again, so I think for younger players it is way more important than for older players because they are just getting more exposure.

“More exposure to better teams and bigger crowds and it probably gives you slightly better preparation going into the Championship.

“There are aspects of it you would be happy with but there are aspects you wouldn’t be happy when it was tight coming down the stretch and we didn’t win them or draw them but lost them. I wouldn’t be happy with a lot of it was due to a breach or a foul late or dissent, such as the game against Mayo.

“There would be a lot of stuff we wouldn’t be happy with especially that which was within our control. That fact that we were able to dig ourselves out of really difficult situations with a relatively inexperienced team, was a huge positive.

“A lot of the young players could have easily put head down and gave up and say it is just not our day, but they didn’t do that and they fought back to win or to nearly win, I think there is always something to build on from there.”