Sligo find second wind as Armagh grind to a halt

Armagh 2-9 Sligo 0-15

Sligo footballers have taken this championship by its collar and imprinted their personality all over it. Yesterday’s amazing come-back is just one more chapter.

How amazing was it? Well, with twelve minutes left and five points down, Sligo’s frustration was nearing boiling-point. Armagh’s tactic of grinding teams down was working to perfection. So good, in fact, that David Durkin unloaded with a right to the side of Steven McDonnell’s head. Unfortunately for Durkin, there was a particularly observant umpire officiating and Sligo were reduced to 14 men.

Cue transformation. Eamon O’Hara, whose trademarked surging runs were missing all afternoon, suddenly found the space he craved. Dessie Sloyan, ploughing a lone furrow in the inside-forward line for much of the game, was joined by Dara McGarty and John McPartland. To good effect too, both players scoring in the closing ten minutes, McGarty fisting the equaliser. In addition Armagh disintegrated.

They didn’t score for the final 19 minutes, and if the players themselves don’t believe they can win an All-Ireland, how are they going to convince anyone else?

Two opportunist goals yesterday and the astonishing accuracy of Oisin McConville have kept Armagh in this championship, but the questions about their credibility as bona fide contenders grow louder.

Yesterday was this team’s fifth visit to Croke Park and they still search for a way to transfer their northern domination onto the bigger stage. In what has become a regular occurrence, they had opponents beaten, only to lose control of the game in the final 15 minutes.

The match, itself, was an absorbing, if scrappy, affair. Sligo drew first blood, three minutes in, with a well-worked move up the right flank, finished off brilliantly by Kieran Quinn.

However, Armagh were soon in the ascendancy, where they would remain until the final ten minutes.

McConville was nailing frees in his unflappable fashion. The Crossmaglen sharp-shooter kicked the first three Armagh scores. Nerves were apparent in the Sligo defence anytime the ball went in or around Diarmuid Marsden. Patrick Naughton simply couldn’t handle the feted attacker. Armagh sensed this, and almost limited their options to feeding Marsden.

Marsden would end the day with simply a goal to his name, a thing of simple, controlled beauty four minutes into the second half, but his presence caused constant consternation in the Yeats full-back line.

Lion’s share of possession doesn’t mean much when Armagh play, and despite over-running Sligo in the first twenty minutes, they were only a solitary point ahead, 4-3.

It took a moment of quick-thinking from John McEntee, who rocketed a pass above the heads of Nigel Clancy and Naughton in Sligo’s last line, and a moment of anticipation from McDonnell, who was there to receive the pass to give the scoreline a more reflective slant.

From the kick-out, Armagh nearly snatched a second goal, Aidan O’Rourke sending a missile into the full-forward line this time, McDonnell broke the ball into Marsden’s path, but his shot shaved the outside of the Sligo post.

A let-off for the Connacht side, and it ignited some fire in them. Helped by two fortunate bounces over Benny Tierney’s head, Sligo clawed their way back into the game, trailing by only two points at the interval, 1-5 to 0-6.

McConville started where he left off after the break. Another free, before Marsden lit Croker with a bit of magic. Snatching the ball from the air, he sent Naughton one way, before turning on his heel and sprinting towards goal, easily slotting the ball past James Curran.

A minute later, Marsden, 40 yards from goal, switched the direction of Armagh’s play, allowing McEntee to score his second point.

At that stage, another Lakes fairy-tale was the stuff of daytime soaps. Armagh were strangling the game, McConville’s free ensured they clung to their two-goal advantage as Sligo searched desperately for inspiration.

Frustration was enveloping the Sligo game. Gerry McGowan became the first Sligo player in the book in the 46th minute, Armagh, unsurprisingly, had four players carded within 28minutes.

Armagh’s crowded and clustered form of defending ensured there was no clear path to goal, and each O’Hara run was checked by two or three orange shirts. McGeeney and McGrane were holding the fort as tightly as was expected and only the shooting boots of Sloyan, who took over free-taking duties after McGowan missed an easy free towards the end of the first half, kept Sligo in the match.

Barry O’Hagan’s lovely, lofted point in the 51st minute summed the game up. It came when Justin McNulty curtailed Sligo’s efforts to attack, Armagh moved the ball sharply, O’Hagan finishing.

It was to be the Ulster champions’ last score. To say they choked may be a little harsh, given the spirit and determination of this Sligo side, but they certainly must take a long, hard look at why games on the biggest stage continue to slip them by.

Even so, Sligo were awesome in the final 12 minutes. After watching Sloyan be a one-man attack for most of the second half, we saw him joined by the likes of Padraig Doohan and Brendan Philips, defenders, and McPartland in the scoring duties.

They lived dangerously for long spells, but Sligo, the romantic’s choice, are still in the All-Ireland championship. Every manager would wish he could bottle the spirit Peter Ford has developed in this team.

And the way their season has gone, is it pushing the limits of credulity too far to imagine Eamon O’Hara hoisting Sam Maguire above his head come the end of September.

Scorers: Armagh: O McConville(0-6, 5 frees), D Marsden, S McDonnell (1-0 each), J McEntee(0-2), B O’Hagan(0-1)

Sligo: D Sloyan(0-6, 3 frees), D McGarty, K Quinn, J McPartland(0-2 each), G McGowan, B Philips, P Doohan(0-1 each)

Armagh: B Tierney; E McNulty, J McNulty, F Bellew, A O’Rourke, K McGeeney, A McCann; J Toal, P McGrane; P McKeever, J McEntee, O McConville, D Marsden, R Clarke, S McDonnell Subs. B O’Hagan for Clarke(41 mins), P McCormack for Bellew(51 mins), B Duffy for McKeever(68 mins)

Sligo: J Curran; N Carew, N Clancy, P Naughton, N McGuire, B Philips, D Durkin; P Durcan, E O’Hara; J McPartland, K Quinn, D McGarty, M Brehony, D Sloyan, G McGowan Subs. M Cosgrove for Naughton(40 mins), T Brennan for Brehony(48 mins), S Davey for McGowan(54 mins), P Doohan for Brennan(59 mins)

Referee: P Russell(Tipperary)