Orchard hoping to make it third time lucky as Roscommon visit

By Shaun Casey

WITH four Division Three National League games remaining, Armagh are in a real battle to avoid the drop, and they are in desperate need of points after suffering back-to-back defeats in the opening two rounds.

They battled hard against Louth on the opening day, getting back on level terms late on, but the Wee County banged home 1-2 in the dying minutes to earn the victory while Wicklow proved much too strong last weekend.

On Saturday, Karl McKeegan’s hurlers host Roscommon, who currently sit on two points, and the two counties have shared plenty of intense battles over the last couple of years.

The Rossies gained the upper hand twice last season, in league and championship, on their way to capturing the Nickey Rackard Cup at Croke Park, earning promotion to the Christy Ring competition for 2026.

Roscommon have come out on top in four of the last five encounters these two have served up, with Armagh’s most recent success over the Connacht men coming in the 2023 Nickey Rackard Cup, during McKeegan’s first season in charge.

There’s been a huge turnover of players since that 2023 date. Only joint-captains Barry Shortt and Odhran Curry along with corner-forward Joe O’Connor featured that day and also in Armagh’s defeat to Wicklow last week.

The likes of Ciaran Duffy and Tiarnan Nevin remain on the panel as well, but there has been a huge turnover of players in the Orchard County ranks.

They’ve welcomed a few younger players into the panel and they’ve been performing well. Jack Loughran has top scored for Armagh in their opening two rounds, landing 0-8 against Louth and 0-5 versus Wicklow last Sunday.

Conor Carabine earned a debut in Aughrim last weekend and marked the occasion with a score while Jack Scallon is another newbie that has experienced inter-county hurling for the first time this season.

Peter McKearney has been performing well in the middle of the field while the experience of Eoin McGuinness, who is also a member of the management team, will be vital in the upcoming weeks.

Roscommon have only played one league fixture so far and they defeated Wicklow on the opening day by three points. They experienced a bye last weekend and will travel to the Cathedral City refreshed.

It’s a tough as for Armagh but with home advantage, they’ll be keen to make it count and get their season up and running.