Experience was key factor, says McDonnell

EXPERIENCE was the word on everyone’s lips as tea-time approached and Clones emptied faster than a school on the last day of summer. Armagh had it, Down didn’t. Simple as that.

The reality is less black and white. Obviously. After all, Benny Coulter and Dan Gordon have more history under their belts than, say, Finian Moriarty or Kieran Toner, but Armagh’s side is nonetheless riddled with guys who have stared into the abyss time and again and refused to blink.

When Martin O’Rourke was sent off Armagh were a man down with over half an hour to go and protecting a shaky lead against a side that scented blood.

How then to explain the fact that they went on to outscore their pursuers by seven points to five as the clock wound down and push came to shove? What else but experience? “Sometimes when you go to 14 men it sparks a reaction in people,” said Armagh manager Peter McDonnell. “Down went in at half-time having got to grips with midfield and it took us a few moments to settle on the structure once we went down to 14.

“But, it seemed to motivate the players to work that wee bit harder.”

All this from a side that lost their manager of six years (Joe Kernan), their lightning rod (Kieran McGeeney) and one of their marquee forwards (Diarmuid Marsden) over the winter.

Credit to McDonnell. He ignored the temptation to stamp his mark on the panel with wholesale changes. His greatest alteration has been a slightly more direct style of football that worked well at times for the first 25 minutes yesterday.

“We could quite easily have capitulated there,” he said of O’Rourke’s red card. “Everything was going in Down’s favour. They demonstrated this year that they were good at coming back and that they could go to the end.

“Were it not for the experience of the Ronan Clarkes, Paul McGranes and Stephen McDonnells of this world … I wouldn’t want to give that job to fellas who were a bit younger.”

Ross Carr rejected the suggestion that Down had somehow believed their own hype after that replay win over Tyrone, bemoaning instead his side’s tendency to take the wrong options at some crucial stages.

“Every time we got ourselves into a position where we could put a few scores back to back we turned over possession far too easily from our half-forward, half back and midfield lines.

“Against a team as good and experienced as Armagh that was going to be fatal. The trouble was done in the first 20 minutes. We didn’t come out of the blocks quickly enough again and this time it hurt us.”

The saying goes that you learn more from a defeat than a victory but McDonnell wasn’t letting the scoreboard blind him from the fact that Armagh were far from perfect here in Clones.

“The team got a result today but we have a lot of work to do. We gave possession away a lot at times. We created opportunities in the first half and didn’t take them all and we lost possession at crucial times.

“There’s loads there for us to work on but I would much prefer that we go into an Ulster final that way. I’m sure Malachy O’Rourke, an old college mate of mine, must be thinking ‘this is Fermanagh’s year’.”