Relegation concerns are not on Armagh’s radar

ARMAGH’S assistant manager Ciaran McKeever insists the Orchard County aren’t concerned with relegation just yet, as there is still a lot of football to be played before the league wraps up.

Leading into their round five clash with Donegal, who are currently seventh in the table, Armagh are searching for their first win since the opening round, following back-to-back defeats against Roscommon and Kerry after a draw with Mayo.

“There are still six points up for grabs so we’re not going to panic,” said the former Armagh skipper, speaking after their one-point defeat in Tralee to All-Ireland champions Kerry.

“We’ll regroup before we head back up the road and we know what lies ahead of us which is Donegal next Saturday night and we’ll be ready for another battle.

“We know what Donegal are going to take to the table. We’d like to think we know what we’ll bring to the table after tonight and after what we showed last week (against Roscommon).

“We’re under no illusion what’s ahead of us but we’ll be ready for anything that Donegal fire at us next Saturday night.”

Armagh probably deserved a draw for their performance against the Kingdom and the Orchard County were left disappointed that they didn’t get something from the game.

“We’re hugely disappointed, it’s definitely a match that we should have got something out of. We definitely should have got a point out of it, it was nip-and-tuck the whole way and we knew it would be coming down the road.

“There are loads of positives from it, but it was probably those wee errors in the final four or five minutes that potentially got them across the line.

“I wouldn’t say it was composure, I think our composure has been really good over the last 18 months,” added McKeever.

“There was a bit of indiscipline from us in defence when we had no call to engage with anybody and then there was a bit of inconsistency from the referee as well which probably helped them as well in the final stages.

“But that is something that’s out of our control and we have to lick our wounds and get ready for another big week. We probably executed a lot better tonight, but I don’t think last week was an overly bad performance.

“We created six goal opportunities (against Roscommon) and didn’t take any which was hugely frustrating. We executed our skills better tonight and we were better defensively, we were compact, we turned over a lot of ball and countered whenever we got the opportunity.”