I'm a bit late in posting about Sunday's match but better late than never.
I was worried about our trip to Mullingar to face Westmeath for a couple of reasons:
1. they were coming into this match off the back of a good win away against Derry whom I expected to be in the mix for promotion
2. we were coming off the back of a good win but against a Sligo team which were a shadow of the team we played last year, so we hadn't been tested
3. revenge for our win against them in the Qualifiers last year
4. facing a much tougher test against another team I expected to be in the mix for promotion
As always it was great to see such a good turnout of Armagh supporters, the same faces I see all over the country year after year all proudly sporting our wide variety of "Armagh" based Winter clothing (O'Neills must love us
).
The match itself started in a similar way to that against Sligo, we had plenty of possession we just couldn't make it count on the scoreboard, thankfully though Westmeath also struggled to register on the scoreboard after their initial scoring burst, we managed to hold them to 0-2 until we finally managed to get into the game. The goal in the 1st half came just when we needed it, although admittedly at the time I hadn't a clue who had scored it as I was at the other end of the stand, I also thought it was never going to roll into the net, it was fortuitous to say the least but what mattered was it counted!!!! That gave us the momentum we needed at that stage of the match & we finally found our shooting boots. Westmeath were packing their defence & making us work for our scores, our build up play was very slow & there was a lot of lateral passing, in contrast Westmeath had the ability to break at pace with runners off the shoulder.
We definitely improved in the 2nd half, with some excellent long range scores from play. I was worried when Westmeath scored their goal & wondered if the frailties of last year might come back to haunt us, but instead it had the opposite effect, the boys raised their game to another level. The immediate response to the goal was Rory winning & scoring the penalty against a keeper who had saved a penalty against Derry the previous Sunday, this was exactly the lift we needed & we pushed on from here to get our 2nd win of the campaign & another 2 points, also extending our scoring difference to a very impressive +23
Stand out players for me on the day, Ethan (once he found his range there was just no stopping him), Rory (playing a Captain's role), Charlie (great to see him further out the pitch & running at defences), Ryan McShane (never stopped the entire match), but to be honest the team/squad as a collective deserve high praise for this performance, it has been very evident in both matches to date that they are all working for each other & their time, effort & commitment to the set up is currently reaping the rewards, long, long, long may it continue.
An excellent start to our league campaign, congratulations to all involved, fingers crossed for another win against Longford on Sunday (against the backdrop of a huge Armagh attendance at the Athletic Grounds
) to see us remain top of the Division heading into the break, keeping morale & confidence on a high & our push for promotion very much on course & a continued "feel good" factor amongst supporters.
