Goals from Ross McQuillan, Conor Turbitt and Rian O’Neill made the difference but Armagh could have raised even more green flags as Derry’s porous defence creaked once again.
It was a case of deja vu from their Ulster championship defeat to Donegal as they were repeatedly caught on the counter-attack, with Derry failing to learn to learn the lessons from that day.
Derry had started well with points from Conor Glass, Emmett Bradley and Shane McGuigan shooting them into an early lead but it was a false dawn. Armagh gave them a warning sign when Oisin Conaty hit the cross-bar with an early goal chance but Kieran McGeeney’s side took their opportunities from then on.
On as a blood sub, Ross McQuillan scored the first goal after Derry were turned over and had no-one covering in defence.
It was the same story seven minutes later as Brendan Rogers gave the ball away to Conor Turbitt, who had sixty yards and no Derry defender between him and Odhran Lynch. He had three men in support but he didn’t need them and he showed composure to finish well. Rian O’Neill got the third in the second half and that was that, as all the early season optimism fades away from Derry. They’ll have to beat Westmeath to stay in the championship.
Armagh forward Conor Turbitt was the man-of-the-match, scoring 1-4, and afterwards he said that his team had done their home-work on Derry. He says that they believed Derry wouldn’t change their tactics which appear to be costing them.
“Both teams would have done their homework coming in and we were lucky to benefit from what they’re doing,” said Turbitt.
“They have made a statement that they’re not going to change much and I didn’t think they should have,” he added.
Turbitt says it took the team a couple of weeks to get over their Ulster final heartbreak but added that they were never going to lie down.
“It probably took us a couple of weeks to get over the Ulster final, it’s never easy, but this team doesn’t lie down. It’s going to get back up and keep going, and that’s what we’ve done over the last few weeks.
“We did a lot of hard work before that Ulster final. It’s standing to us now. That has to be the base now. We’re in a good spot now and hopefully this will continue.”
Rian O’Neill says the pain of that Ulster final defeat has brought the team even closer together.
“It’s funny when you look back on it. Them things can make you even tighter.
“There’s resilience in this group. We keep coming back and we’ll always come back no matter what.”
“Galway have some of the best players in Ireland. We’re going down there, we have belief, they have belief and it’s sure to be a cracker,” he said of their final group game vs Galway, which will be a straight shoot-out to top the group.
