Tom O’Sullivan blazes a goal chance wide before Kerry gift Armagh a goal after Shane Ryan loses flight of a high dropping ball. Both were big moments and both went against Kerry. And with the door ajar, Armagh had the nous and the nerve to force their way through.
“It looked like that missed goal chance into the Hill was a critical moment,” O’Connor said.
“If that went in, I thought the game was probably beyond Armagh and then the goal, that poor goal that we conceded was a huge moment in the game. I think that is where the game swung, those two moments. The goal we conceded was a killer in the sense that it got the Armagh crowd into it.
“I thought we quieted the crowd for large parts of the game and it just gave Armagh momentum and it is hard to break momentum. We did well to come back and equalise in normal time but we had a ferocious effort from our boys. But it was bitterly disappointing, it was a game we had enough chances to win it.
“They just got momentum. The goal gave them momentum and the crowd drove them on. They outnumbered us fairly substantially out there and I thought the crowd was a factor in the game. No question about it, it just lifted Armagh and we tried very hard but it was hard to arrest that momentum.”
Barry McCambridge produced the Armagh goal with an instinctive punched finish, a significant contribution given his primary task was tracking David Clifford who kicked one point from play on another day where he was forced to operate in very heavy traffic.
“What can I say? He’s double- and triple-marked. He’s a key man for us but up to this game, we were getting a lot of scores from other areas. Maybe today we didn’t get as many as we hoped from there but David tried his heart out and gave it everything,” he said.
Kerry forced extra-time through Dylan Geaney but O’Connor admitted Armagh’s recent experience of losing out on big days, including two Ulster final defeats on penalties, may have stood to them.
“Armagh have been in those situations a bit more than us, maybe. They have gone to extra time and even penalties in a few games over the past few years. Maybe they had the experience to manage that,” said O’Connor.
“We obviously had to make a lot of changes and had to finish the game without a share of what we call key men. In the end, the lack of experience on the field told. There were a couple of chances we didn’t take near the end and maybe another day, we would.
“We had a few words in the dressing room. It’s a sombre dressing room, obviously. But sure look, you have to take these things with a bit of grace and the players were exemplary all the year. They behaved themselves in an exemplary way and represented Kerry very well so nothing but proud of them.”
O’Connor suggested afterwards that he and his management team would return for the final year of their current arrangement.
“Ah sure we don’t know. This management has another year in its contract or whatever so we’ll hopefully see that out.”
