Late, late drama as Cork and Armagh turn up the heat

NO promotion to chase, no relegation to fear, no provincial championship for the guts of another two months. Neither side had much to gain or lose in south Armagh yesterday and until a dramatic last 10 minutes, it showed.

With almost an hour played, Cork trailed by a single point but the most exciting moment until then had come when news of events in Parnell Park had floated around the ground.

Maybe there was a wind blowing northwards that carried some of Donnycarney’s passion with it but whatever the reason, this dead rubber exploded into life in the last quarter.

The spark that lit the fuse came just minutes after Nicholas Murphy’s 58th minute goal, a fortunate score finished into a near empty net after Sean O’Brien’s fine run ended with the ball ping-ponging around a crowded goalmouth before being dispatched.

Daniel Goulding had the opportunity to double the dose seconds later but opted instead to fist over the bar with goalkeeper Ciaran McKinney fast narrowing the angle for a shot.

That was when all hell broke loose. From the resultant kick-out tempers flared and, after the 20-plus players involved were separated, referee Vincent Neary dished out three yellow cards.

For Aaron Kernan, it was his second caution but he was joined on the line by Cork’s Conor McCarthy, who lashed out at Martin O’Rourke after 68 minutes having shipped three shuddering tackles in quick succession.

It was an instinctive and unfortunate reaction to the buffeting by the O’Donovan Rossa man but his indiscretion should not be allowed to overshadow what was a blinding closing spell to an otherwise routine encounter.

Armagh had to fight back twice in the last minutes with Stevie McDonnell’s 74th-minute point handing the home team a share of the spoils after Kevin Hayes’ fisted effort moments earlier appeared to seal the win for Cork.

“All of a sudden both teams were playing for a win because they could smell victory,” said Armagh manager Peter McDonnell. “We didn’t want to get beaten and that was demonstrated in the players’ approach to the last 10 minutes.

“There was an unsavoury aspect to the game. There were a few incidents which turned the notch up one or two points and it generated a wee bit of competition but I was glad to see the game finish at that tempo.”

Between them the two teams had made a dozen changes to their line-ups for the game with experimentation very much the order of the day.

Cork handled the switches the better initially, constructing a three point to one lead after 10 minutes before falling away completely for the remainder of a half where at one point they would go 28 minutes without a score.

Their problems were manifold in that spell. On half a dozen occasions balls squirted harmlessly over the Armagh end line as moves broke down.

Put in context however it was hard to be critical. As Conor Counihan pointed out later, 12 of the starting 15 had seen action for their clubs in the local championship just 36 hours earlier.

Armagh could and should have been further ahead than just one point at the break but an Alan Quirke save from Brian Mallon and an Oisin McConville free that rebounded back high off the bar kept the deficit to the minimum.

Facing the wind after the interval, Cork were nevertheless in trouble but they rallied to great effect. Nicholas Murphy was awesome in the middle and the wing-back pairing of Paudie Kissane and John Miskella added to their attacking efforts.

James Masters, starting his first game of the season for the county, was understandably rusty and finished the game scoreless, but John Hayes and Daniel Goulding shouldered the added burden well.

Their dominance in the third quarter wasn’t reflected fully on the scoreboard where Armagh kept a nose in front but a free count of 14-1 in favour of the Munster side during that spell told its own story.

Then came Murphy’s three-pointer and the resultant pyrotechnics and, though the win evaded both sides, neither camp will be at all displeased with this last ‘competitive’ fixture before their summer appointments.

“It has given us some more headaches in terms of selection so we are delighted with that,” said Counihan. “The younger guys came in and they are showing a bit more composure now than they were in the earlier games.”

Scorers: Armagh: O McConville 0-5 (3f), P McKeever 0-3f, A Kernan 0-1, A O’Rourke 0-1, D McKenna 0-1, Michael O’Rourke 0-1, S McDonnell 0-1. Cork: D Goulding 0-6 (3f, 2 ‘45’s), J Hayes 0-3 (2f), N Murphy 1-0, S O’Brien 0-1.

ARMAGH: C McKinney; P Kernan, F Bellew, F Moriarty; A Kernan, A O’Rourke, C McKeever; P McGrane, D McKenna; C Vernon, P McKeever, B Mallon; O McConville, G Swift, Michael O’Rourke. Subs: Martin O’Rourke for Mallon 20, P Loughran for Vernon 49, R Clarke for Swift 54, A Mallon for Moriarty 58, S McDonnell for Michael O’Rourke 69.

CORK: A Quirke; D Duggan, D Kavanagh, K O’Connor; P Kissane, S O’Donoghue, J Miskella; N Murphy, F Goold; S O’Brien, K O’Sullivan, K McMahon; D Goulding, J Masters, J Hayes. Subs: P Kelly for O’Sullivan 35, C McCarthy for McMahon 58, N O’Leary for Masters 71.

Referee: V Neary (Meath).