Return of Slaughtneil stars helps Derry survive in Division 2B as Armagh go down

Derry 2-22 Armagh 0-10

Derry have survived in Divsion 2B

Gerry McLaughlin

The power and panache of the returned Slaughtneil stars was too much for 14- man Armagh at Ballyshannon today.

Se McGuigan, Meehaul McGrath, Sean Cassidy, Cormac McKenna, Mark McGuigan, Gerard Bradley and Cormac O’Doherty scored freely against a woefully wasteful Armagh side, that hit an incredible ten wides in a wind and slope assisted first half.

The Orchard County’s usually reliable marksman Davy Carville, had a nightmare, hitting seven wides from scorable positions.

And their cause was deadly another deadly blow when they lost recently returned full back Nathan Curry for a straight yellow card for dangerous use of the hurley in the 26th minute.

The real turning point in the opening half was a 1-1 scoring blitz from McGrath in the 18th minute when he grabbed a loose ball about 25 metres out and smashed the ball to the net through a forest of defenders.

Seven seconds later McGrath struck again when he added another point to push Derry into a 1-6 to 0-2 lead.

The winners led by 1-9 to 0-5 at the interval and another quick second half goal from Se McGuigan sealed matters.

Scorers Derry; S McGuigan (1-2), M McGrath (1-1), A Grant (0-4f), G Bradley (0-4), M McGuigan (0-3), C O’Doherty (0-3), N Waldron (0-3), A O’Donnell (0-1), L Murphy (0-1), J Phelan (0-1)

Scorers Armagh; D Carville (0-32f), C McAnallen (0-21f), K McKernan (0-2), E McGuinness (0-2), R Gaffney (0-1f),

Derry: M Kirkpatrick,  D McCloskey , S Cassidy , N Farren ; J Phelan C McKenna , P Cleary ; M McGuigan 8   G Bradley  ; C O’Doherty  , M McGrath , A Grant ; N Waldron , S McGuigan  , A O’Donnell

Subs;

L Murphy, for S McGuigan (44), P Turner for D McCloskey (55) C Steele for N Waldron (57), D Cartin for A O’Donnell (60), J Mullan for A Grant (63)

Yellow card;

Armagh: S Doherty  O Curry , N Curry , D Bridges ; C McAnallen  , J Corvan , B Short ; S Renaghan , K McKernan  ; D Carville  , R Gaffney ,  D McKenna ; D McCreesh  E McGuinness  P McGrane

Subs; L Woods for D McCreesh (h-time), D Grant for E McGuinness (61) Subs used P McKearney, D McGrane for P McGrane (65)

Yellow cards; O Curry (24), C Carville (36) P McKearney (65) D McKenna (67)

Red card N Curry (26)

Referee;

James Connors (Donegal