Reigning champions Armagh secure All-Ireland quarter-final berth with resounding win over Dublin 

DIFFERENCE-MAKER: Armagh's Rian O'Neill with Dublin's Killian McGinnis. Pic: Tom O’Hanlon/Inpho

All-Ireland SFC: Dublin 0-3-16 (19) Armagh 0-5-19 (24) 

All-Ireland champions Armagh are the first team through to the quarter-finals after a resounding win over Dublin in Croke Park this evening.

Five points was the final margin but it felt like so much more as the winners ensured they will finish ahead of everyone in Group 4 with a round to spare.

Watched by 38,763, Armagh led by 0-13 to 0-9 at half-time and capitalised on three consecutive three-up/four-back transgressions by an insipid Dublin to extend their lead to seven by the 45th minute.

The frequency of the infractions was a bad look for Dublin who compensated with a couple of two-pointers to draw within five points with 17 minutes remaining. 

Seán Bugler kicked the second of them only to then kick a couple of wides, the second from a relatively easy position.

Armagh were simply a more clued-in side. In the second half, Ben Crealey and Darragh McMullan gave them a platform in the middle and the latter put them seven up in the 50th minute and the game seemed to be over when Rian O’Neill thumped over his third two-pointer, the first from a free, in the 59th minute and Armagh were eight to the good.

A desperate Dublin searched for two-pointers and bagged a third via Paddy Small but the wide count kept ticking and the total of 18 told plenty about their day.

There wasn’t much efficiency in the first half either. Armagh had two goal shots kept out by Stephen Cluxton and missed another six attempts at goal but Dublin were guilty of more erratic finishing. 

Cormac Costello ended the half with his side’s seventh wide and 10th miss for the opening half.

Armagh’s Rian O'Neill celebrates a two-point score with Oisin Conaty. Pic: James Crombie/Inpho

Ironically, Costello had been his team’s best player in that period, scoring three points from play and winning a free he converted. Colm Basquel struck two wides inside the first 15 minutes and was withdrawn five minutes later.

Dublin looked the part in the opening 11 minutes when they pushed 0-6 to 0-3 playing into Hill 16, but were hauled back courtesy of a Rory Grugan two-pointer and Jarlath Óg Burns’s second point from play.

Cluxton made his first save in the 19th minute from Oisín Conaty and Dublin made plenty of the let-off with the next couple of points to go two up. There was pace in their football and their inside line were enjoying the duels that came off it.

However, what followed was an Armagh blitz, seven points in six minutes, two of them two-point scores, an enduring floater from Rian O’Neill which followed an equivalent score from a Grugan free outside the arc.

Dublin were being walloped on their kick-out, the frenzied efforts of their half-forward preventing Cluxton from finding pockets and forcing him long where the likes of Ben Crealey and Ross McQuillan were breaking ball.

Conor Turbitt sent over his second score courtesy of the restart that came after O’Neill’s kick and Conaty also brought his total to two points on the half-hour mark to stretch Armagh’s lead to five points.

Costello did send over a free, Dublin’s first point in 12 minutes, in the 34th minute, but the wide he added over a minute later typified his team’s performance, if not his own.

Scorers for Dublin: C. Costello (0-8, 1tp, 3 frees); P. Small (0-4, 1tp); S. Bugler (0-3, 1tp); L. Gannon (0-2); L. O’Dell, B. Howard (0-1 each).

Scorers for Armagh: R. Grugan (0-8, 1tp, 1tpf, 4 frees); R. O’Neill (0-6, 2 tps, 1tpf); J. Burns, O. Conaty, C. Turbitt (0-2 each); E. Rafferty, D. McMullan, S. Campbell, J. McElroy (0-1 each).

DUBLIN: S. Cluxton; D. Byrne, T. Clancy, A. Gavin; N. Scully, B. Howard. S. MacMahon; P. Ó Cofaigh-Byrne, C. Kilkenny (c); K. McGinnis, S. Bugler, C. Basquel; P. Small, C. Costello, L. O’Dell.

Subs for Dublin: L. Gannon for C. Basquel (20); J. Small for A. Gavin (h-t); T. Lahiff for K. McGinnis, L. Breathnach for L. O’Dell (both 48); E. O’Donnell for N. Scully (61).

ARMAGH: E. Rafferty; B. McCambridge, P. Burns, P. McGrane; R. McQuillan, T. Kelly, J. Burns; J. Duffy, B. Crealey; D. McMullan, O. Conaty, A. Murnin; R. Grugan (c), R. O’Neill, C. Turbitt.

Subs for Armagh: S. Campbell for C. Turbitt (53); J. McElroy for J. Duffy (64); T. McCormack for R. Grugan (67); N. Grimley for R. O’Neill (68).

Referee: J. McQuillan (Cavan).