Armagh hurlers aiming for final spot

SHOULD things go their way this Saturday afternoon at Kilcoyne Park, Armagh could find themselves in a Nickey Rackard Cup final and Orchard boss Karl McKeegan hopes his side can reach the levels he knows they can.

Armagh make the long journey west to face Sligo, who are hoping to book a spot in the decider themselves, but for either of those teams to reach Croke Park, Roscommon need to lose away to Louth.

It’s certainly a possibility, and heading into the final weekend with something to play for is a huge positive for McKeegan. “You like to be going into the last day with something to play for,” said McKeegan ahead of the round five clash.

“If we’d have taken our chances against Roscommon we could have been sitting in an even better place and not relying on any other result, but that’s the way it is. Our last couple of performances have been good.

“The first half against Louth (last week) we were excellent and then the second half we dropped the intensity a bit. We sort of dropped off, but we fought well and got the win, and it puts everyone in good form going into the last game.

“All we can do is look after ourselves and try and get the win and see what happens from there. We can just concentrate on ourselves, and somebody will be keeping an eye on the other game but it’s about us.”

Armagh made the same trip to Sligo in the league and travelled home with the two-points in the bag thanks to a 3-15 to 1-19 victory, while the sides finished all square when they locked horns in the 2024 league.

“We’ve played Sligo before and they’ve obviously regrouped after the league,” McKeegan added of Sligo, who suffered relegation to Division Four.

“They have come good although they got a right beating against Mayo last week, the same as ourselves.

“Mayo are flying at the minute though. Sligo will be fancying themselves as well, they can get into the final too so it’s all to play for on Saturday and I think that it has the makings of a really cracking game.

“Our boys have to go out and enjoy it. If we can put in the same performances that we did in the last couple of games then there’s no reason why we can’t get the win and maybe Louth will do us a favour as well.

“Louth were really good against us, especially in the second half and they only got beat by five or six points against Mayo. They have been improving steadily and there’s no reason why they can’t beat Roscommon.”

McKeegan won’t take anything for granted however and expects a difficult day out. “We got the win the last time and that was a really good win for us because Sligo are a really good team, they play good hurling, so we know what we’re going down to face.”