McParland’s goal brace fires Armagh to final

COLLIDING with a strong and forceful Armagh outfit proved fatal to Kerry’s 2009 minor football ambitions in yesterday’s All-Ireland MFC semi-final at Croke Park.

Kerry entered the game with first-rate credentials after clinical performances in Munster and having survived a marathon battle with Roscommon at the quarter-final stage, but they never came close to replicating that form here, engulfed by Armagh’s huge pressure and intensity.

The northerners have been touted as a side with burgeoning talent all year and though sluggish in the first half, they thoroughly blitzed Kerry in the second to ensure they will enter next month’s All-Ireland decider with momentum and confidence.