Armagh End The Season On A High

Boston SFC

Armagh ND 1-10 Cork 2-04

Despite good early showing by Cork it was Armagh who came good in the second half with the excellent Stephen Kearney showing the way for the northerners while Cork faded badly towards the end.

Cork got off to a dream start with two goals inside five minutes. The first produced from a sideline kick by Paul O'Brien who did well to find the open Gavin Wren and Wren fired home to the top of the Armagh net for an excellent Cork start.

Wren followed almost immediately when he rounded his marker and beat the Armagh keeper for the second time for another Cork goal.

Cork looked dangerous when in attack with good flowing movement a feature while Armagh didn't look sharp upfront with several wides only to their credit.

Wren was impressing for Cork and just before the end of the first quarter he shot over to extend Cork's lead to 7 points.

Soon after Armagh did manage to open their account when Shane McKeever scored a nice point from the sideline but Cork's Wren replied instantly and shot over a brace to leave it an 8 point differential.

Armagh came right back into things as they started to improve with two unanswered points before the short whistle to leave the two goals the difference in the sides.

Just on half time, Cork forced a penalty but Gavin Wren's strike was well saved by Andy Coleman.

It was all Armagh on the restart with their forward unit showing continued improvement particularly Stephen Kearney at left corner forward. Kearney began to influence in a major way as he put over 4 points in the opening 10 minutes with Cork on the backfoot.

The gap now was down to two points and Cork were not making any headway against a tightened up Armagh defense.

Cork's Shane O'Brien got a badly needed point for the Rebels but Armagh continued their comeback and pulled to within two once more from a Dominic McGill point.

Six minutes from time John Mannion gave the Armagh men what they needed when he hit home a fine goal and sent his side ahead by a point.

How would Cork react, now behind for the first time in the game? Well, not very well might be the answer!

Even though the game was close Cork never really looked as if they could come back and retake the lead.

Armagh added a pair before the end to finish matters with Cork only recording a single point in the entire second half - hardly good enough to ensure victory.

Cork now have to worry about relegation possibility, while for Armagh, it's a case of 'if only' they had been as focused earlier in the season as in their last few games they might now have had a chance of a playoff birth.

Teams and Scorers -
Armagh ND - A.Coleman, D.Walsh, J.Hughes, F.Meehan, A.Marely, F.Donnelly, P.J. McClusky, G.O'Reilly, J.Mannion 1-0, D.O'Hagan, S.McKeever 0-2, D.McGill 0-02, S.Kearaney 0-6.
Cork - B.Kellegher, B.Loughlin, L.Barden, F.Murphy, A.Watson, , T.Kelly, K.Connelly, N.Tunney, P. O'Brien , S.O'Brien 0-1, G.Wren 2-03, B.Lennihan, K.Gormely, D.Burns. Subs K.McNamara.