Dublin not able to Reel in Armagh

Lidl National Football League.

Armagh 0-11 Dublin 2-4

By Daire Walsh

NIAMH Reel kicked five points at Parnell Park as defending champions Armagh held off a late surge from Dublin to make it three wins from three in Division One of the Lidl National Football League.

Seeking to build on victories against Kerry and Tyrone in the opening two rounds of the NFL, Armagh established an early two-point lead courtesy of consecutive efforts from corner-forwards Reel and Maeve Lennon. Despite creating a number of scoring opportunities, Dublin initially struggled to create attacking momentum and their Orchard County opponents subsequently doubled their cushion when Aoife McCoy and Reel (free) found the target either side of the first-quarter mark.

The sin-binning of corner-back Jess Tobin also left Dublin with a temporary numerical disadvantage, but the hosts impressively overcame this set-back by wiping out Armagh’s four-point buffer in lightning quick time.

After Kate Sullivan had got the Metropolitan outfit up and running with a superb goal on 18 minutes, Chloe Darby immediately followed up with a routine pointed free to bring her side on level terms with the visitors. While Armagh settled back into the contest with successive scores by midfielder Niamh Coleman and the dependable Reel, another successful free – this time from captain Carla Rowe – left Dublin a single point adrift at 0-6 to 1-2 at the interval.

Yet the Orchard women got the ball rolling on the resumption with Reel’s fourth of the afternoon and even though they breathed a sigh of relief when Sullivan fired a goal chance just past the post on 37 minutes, the Ulster side created further daylight with points from the evergreen Caroline O’Hanlon (free), substitute Caoimhe McNally and Niamh Henderson.

Dublin finally opened their second half account with a place-ball effort from Jodi Egan on 48 minutes and while Reel registered a similar score at the opposite end of the pitch, Niamh Hetherton also raised a white flag to keep the home side in contention during the closing stages of the action.

Their deficit was then reduced to the bare minimum when Hetherton found the net at the second time of asking off a 57th minute attack, but Armagh ultimately dug deep in a tense finale to come away with the three points on offer.

Scorers – Armagh: N Reel 0-5 (4f), C O’Hanlon 0-1 (1f), N Coleman, A McCoy, N Henderson, M Lennon, C McNally 0-1 each.

Dublin: N Hetherton 1-1, K Sullivan 1-0, C Darby 0-1 (f), C Rowe 0-1 (f), J Egan 0-1 (f).

ARMAGH: A Carr; M Ferguson, C Garvey, C Towe; E Druse, L McConville, R Mulligan; N Coleman, C O’Hanlon; A McCoy, M Feehan, B Mackin; N Reel, N Henderson, M Lennon. Subs: C McNally for Lennon (39), G Ferguson for Garvey (44), E Lavery for Feehan (47), E McGeown for Mackin (53), R Cunningham for Reel (57).

DUBLIN: A Shiels; J Tobin, L Caffrey, A Nyhan; H McGinnis, M Byrne, A Curran; G Kos, N Hetherton; K Sullivan, C Darby, K Murray; A Timothy, C Rowe, N Donlon. Subs: R McDonnell for Murray (h-t), S McIntyre for Timothy (41), J Egan for Darby (46).

Referee: Gus Chapman (Sligo).