much sought-after Ulster crown<\/a>. In a bid to reverse that, Ciaran Meenagh made some significant changes.<\/p>\nBrendan Rogers returned to full-back while Niall Toner started in place of Paul Cassidy. Even still, Armagh were full value for a 1-9 to 1-3 half-time lead.<\/p>\n
Conor Turbitt got them going with a sweet two-pointer. Oisin Conaty would add another before the turnaround while Tiernan Kelly drilled a shot into the top corner from range having played on with advantage. Their attack was typically slick, turning 19 possessions into 15 shots.<\/p>\n
Derry were able to capitalise on a Blaine Hughes kickout that was left short of Gareth Murphy. Lachlan Murray did what Shane McGuigan failed to do from a similar opportunity and found the net. Conor McCluskey also went for goal but was unable to find his way through a crowded goalmouth.<\/p>\n
The moment they were waiting for came as the skies opened up, the poncho scramble began and Jason Duffy was sent to the line. His screen after a pop pass was deemed to be a third man tackle and Martin McNally flashed a black card.<\/p>\n
Derry scored four of the next five points. Hughes\u2019 kickout was under immense pressure. What has defined Kieran McGeeney\u2019s outfit is how they respond to such adversity.<\/p>\n
It was apparent in all the consequential plays. When Derry squeezed up on a free, Hughes came out to take it and found a willing runner in Darragh McMullen. He sent away the tireless Cian McConville who eventually found Turbitt.<\/p>\n
Conaty hounded Glass for a turnover during that black card period. A searing kick into Andrew Murnin yielded another score. They pushed on after Duffy\u2019s return to hit six successive points. Duffy made up for his transgression by curling over a fine effort before he was taken off.<\/p>\n
In the end, Derry went in search of desperate two-pointers with Paul Cassidy and Ethan Doherty making the scoreline somewhat respectable. They go on in search of some reason to believe they can be genuine contenders.<\/p>\n
Armagh already know it.<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Armagh: C. Turbitt 0-4 (1 tp); T. Kelly 1-0; O. Conaty 0-3 (1 tp); J. Duffy, T. McCormack, B. Hughes (tpf) 0-2 each; J. McElroy, D. McMullan, A. Murnin, J. Og Burns, O. O\u2019Neill (f) 0-1 each.<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Derry: L. Murray 1-2; C. Doherty 0-3; P. Cassidy (tp), E. Doherty (tp) 0-2 each; N. Loughlin, C. Glass, S. McGuigan, S. Young 0-1 each.<\/p>\n
\n ARMAGH: B. Hughes; P. McGrane, A. McKay, G. Murphy; J. McElroy, T. Kelly, G. McCabe; J. Og Burns, A. Murnin; C. McConville, D. McMullan, T. McCormack; C. Turbitt, J. Duffy, O. Conaty.<\/p>\n
\n Subs: R. McQuillan for McCabe (53); O. O\u2019Neill for Duffy (60); R. Grugan for Murnin (67)<\/p>\n
\n Black card: J. Duffy (42-52)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n DERRY: S. McGuckin; R. Forbes, B. Rogers, C. McCluskey; D. Doherty, G. McKinless, P. McGrogan; E. McEvoy, C. Glass; E. Doherty, S. Downey, N. Toner; N. Loughlin, S. McGuigan, L. Murray.<\/p>\n
\n Subs: P. Cassidy for Downey (42); D. Higgins for Toner (48); J. Sargent for Forbes (54); S. Young for Murray (56)<\/p>\n
\n Referee: M. McNally (Monaghan). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The greatest compliment you could give to Armagh is that after the other three provincial finalists struggled, they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[177329,4365,61,60,43,82613],"class_list":["post-475241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-championship-2026","tag-gaelic-football","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-ulster-gaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}