McGonigle feels Armagh have more to give

Compiled by John Fallon

ARMAGH manager Gregory McGonigle said they have plenty of room for improvement despite continuing their blistering start to the Lidl National Football League with a third win in a row.

They held Galway scoreless when they had the wind in the opening half before securing a 0-8 to 0-6 win at the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds.

“We wouldn’t have been happy with the second half performance but if you’d have said at the start of the year that the first three games in Division One, you’d get three wins then we’d be happy enough,” said McGonigle.

“There’s plenty for us to work on. There were a lot of good performances as well and in the first half I thought we were very good.”

Galway, who lost Linda Booth to a red card after ten minutes, rallied from 0-6 to 0-0 down at the break with Roisin Leonard leading the way with four frees but they were unable to prevent a third loss on the spin.

“We won the toss; we went with the wind thinking that would help us but obviously it didn’t,” said Galway manager Daniel Moynihan. “We won the second half with 14 players; we really pushed them and had a couple of goal chances to get the result so take out that first period and I think we would have been in a better position.”

Meath also maintained their perfect start with a 2-10 to 2-5 win in Waterford and manager Shane McCormack was pleased with the way they carved out the victory in the end.

“It was a battling performance. Waterford are a fantastic team and well set up by Pat Sullivan. In the last couple of games, there’s only been four or five points in it with Armagh and Kerry. We knew we were up against it but we worked hard. Very strong wind in both halves but we kept the ball and that’s what we’re happy about. Disappointed with the two goals we conceded, especially the first one. They got a run on us,” said McCormack.

It’s a third loss in a row for Waterford and manager Pat Sullivan said they are paying a big price for errors.

“Overall, we played really well and I said the same after the Kerry game. What we have to learn is you can’t cough up simple chances. We had three or four frees from 21 or 13 yard that we missed in the second half. We got two great goals but straight away after scoring our goals, we conceded a goal instead of holding possession and killing the game. We’re undoing our good work with simple errors.”

Dublin manager Mick Bohan was pleased with their remarkable comeback to beat Mayo by 2-15 to 2-8, having been down by nine points in stormy conditions in Ballina.

“It’s a long time since I’ve stood on a field and had the elements as strong as that,” said Bohan. “In the warm-up we were kicking with it, thinking, ‘how do you actually run into it?’We chose to play against the wind because we really didn’t know what was enough of a lead on a day like today.

“The most pleasing thing was that they stayed at it, the heads didn’t drop, even when a few things went against them. And I thought they were particularly good with their use of the ball when we had the elements.”

Mayo led by 2-7 to 0-4 at the break with Lisa Cafferky scoring 2-6, but manager Liam McHale feared it might not be enough of a lead given the strength of the wind.

“We were wondering at half-time was nine points going to be enough. I’m disappointed for the girls.We played well in the first half, we played the kind of football that we want to play.I guess we weren’t cute enough in the second half,” said McHale. “They scored four points against the breeze in the first half, we scored one. Our turnovers really hurt us, soloing into the crowd instead of switching the play.That happens, they’re very experienced and we had a lot of inexperienced girls playing. But we kept playing even though we didn’t create many scoring chances in the second half.”

Kerry meet Cork later today (MONDAY) in a live TG4 clash at Austin Stack Park, Tralee (3pm) to complete the third round of the Lidl National Football League.

In Division 2 on Sunday, meanwhile, there were Round 3 victories for Tyrone, Tipperary, Donegal and Kildare.

Kildare defeated Cavan by 3-12 to 0-3, having led by 1-2 to 0-3 at the break after Neasa Dooley got a penalty in the opening minute. They pushed on from there and goals from Ellen Dowling and substitute Trina Duggan maintaining their perfect start.

Tyrone also secured their third win in a row when they defeated Monaghan 3-12 to 2-8. Tyrone built up a 2-8 to 1-2 interval lead and pushed on from there with Sasha Byrne getting two goals and Chloe McCaffrey also finding the net.

Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 1

Armagh 0-8 Galway 0-6

Dublin 2-15 Mayo 2-8

Meath 2-10 Waterford 2-5

Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 2

Tyrone 3-12 Monaghan 2-8

Tipperary 2-8 Laois 0-5

Donegal 1-9 Westmeath 1-3

Kildare 3-12 Cavan 0-3