By Michael McMullan

ARMAGH All-Star defender Barry McCambridge has hailed the newcomers to the Orchard side.

The Clann Éireann man spoke of how Tomás McCormack’s second-half goal gave the All-Ireland champions “breathing space” in their action-packed win over Antrim in Corrigan Park.

It sets up a semi-final on Saturday week with Tyrone in Clones and McCambridge feels Kieran McGeeney and his management team face a difficult selection task.

“Fair play to them (Antrim), standing their ground,” McCambridge said of the game being fixed for Corrigan Park.

“When you come out first from the hat, you want it to be a home venue.”

With Paddy Burns ruled out, Armagh lined out with just five of the starting team from last July’s All-Ireland final win over Galway.

“It gave so many boys a chance to put their hands up in the Ulster Championship, to get experience,” said McCambridge, who pointed to how he got into the team for the All-Ireland series on the back someone picking up an injury.

“The likes of Callum O’Neill. Darragh McMullen, Tomás McCormack, Gareth Murphy, they all of them made their championship debuts.

“They added to the scoreboard and Gareth was excellent in defence. With the likes of Cian (McConville), Jemar (Hall) and Oisin (O’Neill) coming on.

“It is going to be very hard in the next game to pick the team because we’ll hopefully have a few more boys back on the pitch.

“As ‘Geezer’ says, one you earn the jersey, it’s yours to keep unless someone takes it off you. It give people an opportunity to go at it.”