By Shaun Casey

FOR both teams heading to the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds on Sunday, a win would soften the threat of relegation and Gregory McGonigle is hoping it’s his Armagh side that come away with the three points in Division One.

They host All-Ireland champions Dublin this weekend and only score difference splits the two sides in the table. Both teams have picked up one win from their four outings and sit on three points, with only Kildare below them on one point.

A victory in round five would help to create some separation for the winners with the relegation zone, meaning it’s a must-win encounter, although McGonigle does say that staying in the top division isn’t the be all and end all for his squad.

“It’s nearly a must win for both in regard to staying in the division,” said the Orchard boss.

“If you don’t, then it puts a lot of pressure on the last two games and at that stage you could be depending on other results.

“Whoever wins on Sunday will have a better chance of staying in Division One for 2027.

“I think it’s important to stay up but I don’t think it’s the be all and end all because the two teams near the top at the minute, Cork and Galway, have both only come up.

“If you look at the likes of Mayo and Tyrone, there’s four or five senior counties now in Division Two.

“It’s not the be all and end all but we’d like to try and retain our Division One status.”

Armagh did welcome Blaithin Mackin back for her first appearance of the season last weekend in their defeat to Galway while Caroline O’Hanlon has returned in recent weeks.

Aimee Mackin has yet to see any game time despite being named on the matchday panel a couple of times, but McGonigle is hopeful that she will see some game time sooner rather than later.

“Hopefully Aimee will get some game time this weekend, she’s been going very well. We possibly could have pushed her for Galway, but we didn’t want to risk her but she’s not far away.

“Roisin Mulligan is probably going to be out for a while, she’s just struggling at the minute, and we’ve lost Grace Ferguson last week to a shoulder injury in training. You get one player back and you seem to lose one or two more.

“That’s probably the same for everybody but the main thing is that the mood in the camp is positive in terms of a learning point of view and everyone is putting in a hard shift.

“To me, when the players are still at that level then you have a good chance.

“It’s only February and I go back to when we won the league in 2024 and got beat in the All-Ireland semi-final to Kerry, it was complete devastation and no one talked about winning the league.

“The main part of our season is going to be coming from both the Ulster Championship and the All-Ireland series and that’s where we’ll want to have everybody fit.”