BEATEN ARMAGH NOT BLOWN OFF COURSE
WATERFORD 1-22 ARMAGH 1-12
Richard Bullick
Captain Clodagh McCambridge, her predecessor as skipper Kelly Mallon and the versatile Sarah Quigley all made their first Armagh appearances of the season on Saturday as the National League champions qualified for another Division One showpiece.
It was great to see that trio back in action after delayed starts to the campaign due to injury and Armagh can look forward to gracing Croke Park on April 12, having dethroned holders Kerry there last spring in their first NFL final.
However, those opening paragraphs fail to tell the full story of a bitter-sweet Saturday afternoon which saw the Orchard outfit take a humbling beating by Waterford before Meath’s loss to Kerry confirmed Armagh’s place in the first division decider.
Armagh had reeled off five consecutive victories so far this season under new joint managers Joe Feeney and Darnell Parkinson, including notable away wins against All Ireland champions Kerry and traditionally dominant Dublin.
So few were expecting the new regime’s unbeaten record to end in a place called Kilmacthomas that most of us won’t have heard of before, never mind a first double-digit defeat for Armagh in a meaningful match for more than five years.
If we discount the drubbing Dublin inflicted on a very experimental line-up at the end of last March in what was a dead rubber with Armagh having already qualified for the final, the most recent 10-point beating came just before the first coronavirus shutdown.
That was a Division Two match against a Meath team that had just come up from the third tier of the National League but beat Armagh 1-21 to 3-5 in the Athletic Grounds in early March 2020 and went on to be crowned All Ireland champions the following year.
Waterford’s scoreline at the weekend was uncannily like Meath’s back then and, although the Deise are unlikely to emulate the Royals by lifting the Brendan Martin Cup in the next 18 months, they are formidable dark horses who can be easily underestimated.
The match commentator’s suggestion that Orchard complacency may have been a factor would presumably be disputed by those involved in this highly professional set-up but it’s probably reasonable to say Waterford were sharper and hungrier here.
It was certainly a deserved victory for the team in navy who only trailed by a point after facing into a strong wind in the opening period and then really capitalised on having the elements behind them in the second half.
Armagh actually trailed by two points at one stage in that first half, needing the last three scores before the break to go in with their noses in front, and that interval lead lasted just 39 seconds after the resumption.
Having got the equaliser straight away, Waterford were back in front four minutes into the half and it was largely one-way traffic thereafter with a late penalty by Blaithin Mackin simply putting a slightly better gloss on the scoreboard.
Like their hosts, Armagh struggled with their kickouts into the wind despite having arguably the country’s top goalkeeper in Anna Carr and Waterford reeled off four points in one three-minute purple patch in a half which brought them the huge haul of 0-16.
Kellyann Hogan led the way with eight points, half of them from frees, there were five by Brid McMaugh – who might have especially enjoyed putting the boot into Armagh given her Tyrone roots – and big full forward Clare Walsh hit 1-2.
That trio were all part of the Ballymacarbry team that beat Clann Eireann in Lurgan in the All Ireland Senior Club Championship semi-final two Decembers ago, so they have tasted success before against a team in orange jerseys from the Orchard county.
However, this time it is still the side in orange rather than from Waterford who can look forward to a final in Croke Park, for Armagh had almost done enough before making the long journey to the south east to seal a top-two finish in the NFL Division One table.
For Armagh to miss out on a ticket to headquarters it would have taken them to lose to both Waterford at the weekend and at home to Meath this Saturday allied to the Royals registering an away win against Kerry first and then the Kingdom defeating Dublin.
That would have meant a three-way tie at the top and, even then, it would have taken a significant swing against Armagh in the last two rounds of fixtures for them to be the team to miss out on scoring difference.
It always felt like there was a good chance Kerry would eliminate Meath from the equation and, with home advantage, they duly did so – albeit with a narrow 0-13 to 1-8 win – when the teams met a little later on Saturday afternoon.
So the Armagh management were probably reasonably relaxed about really needing a result against Waterford, which may explain why captain Lauren McConville came off nine minutes into the second half with the visitors just a point behind.
You can’t imagine McConville being taken off if a match Armagh really had to win was still in the balance and, although she’d earned a free out in a typically intense tussle shortly before, there was no obvious injury issue from what could be seen on the broadcast coverage.
Armagh had taken the field for the first time this season without the iconic Caroline O’Hanlon, who played the full hour of four fixtures up until now and all but the closing stages of the other match against Mayo.
Her absence enabled Blaithin Mackin to move to midfield alongside O’Hanlon’s regular partner Niamh Coleman and facilitate a first start of the season for All Star corner back Grace Ferguson after several cameo appearances off the bench.
However, the elder of the Fergusons gave way to a fit-again McCambridge just 22 minutes into the match with Grace’s younger sister Maeve being replaced at half-time by Derrynoose prospect Caoimhe McNally.
McNally couldn’t extend her remarkable record of having raised a white flag in each of her first five cameo appearances for Armagh as her one scoring chance went wide, though shooting into the wind was tricky for forwards on both teams.
Armagh made eight substitutions in total, including Mallon for McConville, and the writing was well and truly on the wall with Waterford realistically out of sight on the scoreboard by the time the other five followed in the last quarter.
Aine O’Neill had scored the opening point of the game for Waterford within 40 seconds of them winning the throw-in, though it was quickly cancelled out by Niamh Reel in a first half which saw the scores level on no fewer than five occasions.
Eve Lavery missed an early free for Armagh but defender Roisin Mulligan responded to a set-piece conversion by the hosts with a nice point and then the former raised a white flag from play to offset another score from Waterford.
Aoife McCoy pounced on Waterford’s short kickout into the wind and drilled over a point, and Armagh might have had a goal but for the intervention of a defender on the line after the home keeper had got her hands to a shot from Mulligan.
Waterford went ahead again but Lavery replied with a left-footed curler and doubled Armagh’s advantage with a successful free before Reel made it three points in as many minutes for the Orchard just after she had been narrowly wide with a delicate chip.
The hope was that Armagh might push on from three up to establish a significant cushion for facing into the wind but instead they found themselves behind within a couple of minutes thanks to another opposition point and lovely goal off the outside of Walsh’s right boot.
Waterford went two up courtesy of another nice point by Hogan just before McCambridge replaced Grace Ferguson and Armagh gave themselves a boost by registering the last three scores of the half through Lavery, from a free, McCoy and Moya Feehan.
Despite those three concessions late on, Waterford would have been more than happy in advance with the half-time score and, although Emily Druse was always a willing runner, Armagh generally lacked spark and got pinned deep by their opponents and that wind.
They had hit three points by the time Mackin registered Armagh’s first since the interval but Waterford then went on a scoring spree in the middle of the half with an unanswered streak of eight points in about eight minutes.
Armagh finally got going to some extent in making more forays forward, which at least stemmed the tide, though it was still Waterford who posted the next couple of scores before Mackin calmly rolled in the penalty on 58 minutes after McCoy was flattened.
To her credit, McCoy was still putting herself about in the closing stages and she won another free with which Mallon split the sticks for her first point of the season before Waterford finished with a flourish, raising three white flags in injury-time.
The game ended with a fantastic save by the Waterford keeper, who may be no Ethan Rafferty in the athleticism stakes but clearly has sharp reflexes, to deny Mackin a second goal from a quickly taken free which she lashed low and hard towards the net.
This was a very rare league defeat for Armagh but, with the news from Tralee quickly confirming the orangewomen’s NFL final place and bigger games to come, one very windy day in the south east seems unlikely to blow the Orchard’s season off course.
Although unexpected and disappointing, what happened in the little-known Kilmacthomas needn’t turn any Armagh disciple into a Doubting Thomas and the return to action of McCambridge, Mallon and Quigley was one emphatic positive from the weekend.
WATERFORD: K Gardiner; C Murray, E Power (0-1), M Ryan; C McCarthy, R Casey, K McGrath; E Murray (capt; 0-2), H Power; A O’Neill (0-1), K Murray (0-1), B McMaugh (0-5); K Hogan (0-8; 4f), C Walsh (1-2), L McGregor (0-2). Subs used: L NiArta for McCarthy (48mins), N Power for Rayan (53), C Fennell for Walsh (56), A Brazil for McGregor (60).
ARMAGH: A Carr; M Ferguson, C Towe, L Kenny; G Ferguson, L McConville (capt), R Mulligan (0-1); N Coleman, B Mackin (1-1; 1-0pen); E Druse, A McCoy (0-2), E Lavery (0-4; 2f); N Reel (0-2), M Feehan (0-1), N Henderson. Subs used: C McCambridge for G Ferguson (22), C McNally for M Ferguson (ht), K Mallon (0-1; 1f) for McConville (39), E McGeown for Feehan (48), M McCann for Coleman (52), C Marley for Reel (57), S Quigley for Lavery (57), M Lennon for Henderson (59).
Referee: E O’Neill (Kildare).
