Armagh secured a place in the All-Ireland Minor football championship final for the first time since 2009, following an exhilarating performance in the second half at the Glennon Brothers Pearse Park, Longford on Sunday. The team, managed by Aidan O’Rourke, outperformed a well-esteemed Mayo team. This puts the Ulster finalists next in line to face Derry, a repeat performance of the provincial championship final.
The Connacht champions initially enjoyed a good start with Andrew Quinn scoring an outstanding goal only 49 seconds into the game after penetrating the Armagh defence, followed by a free kick conversion from Kobe McDonald to extend their lead. However, Armagh’s performance started to improve, gradually bringing them back into a contention position.
Around the half-way stage, Armagh picked up their game mostly thanks to Eoin Duffy, Shea Loughran and Diarmuid O’Rourke, with the game leveling for the first time at 21 minutes. Diarmuid O’Rourke and James McCooe exchanged points with Mayo’s Oisin Deane and Kobe McDonald towards the end of the initial half, bringing the halftime score to a draw: 1-4 to 0-7.
The third quarter saw Armagh pull ahead decisively, with Shea Loughran, Eoin Duffy, Daithi O’Callaghan and Fionn Toale contributing to a six-point lead with no return from Mayo. By the conclusion of these dominating plays, Armagh led 0-13 to 1-4.
Despite Mayo’s Oisin Deane managing to break a 25-minute scoring drought in the last quarter, the team directed by Tom Reilly and David Heaney was unable to catch up. Aaron Garvey and Eoin Duffy scored late points for Armagh, putting gloss on the final score.
In Armagh, M Finnegan, T Fox, G O’Rourke, and C Wilson took the field, along with Fergus Toale, S Woods, and D O’Rourke (who scored 0-2). J Loughran, D O’Callaghan (scoring 0-1), R Marsden, J McCooe (who added 0-1 to the score), and K McEntee stepped up. Fionn Toale made a contribution of 0-1, while E Duffy increased the team’s tally by 0-5 (one free, one mark), and S Loughran contributed 0-4. The substitutions included A Garvey (scoring 0-2) replacing Marsden at 35 minutes in, A McGrane substituting for Toale at 58 minutes, L Bellew replacing Duffy at 60 minutes, D McGee being switched in for G O’Rourke at 62 minutes, and Ó Gribben taking D O’Rourke’s place also at 62 minutes.
On the Mayo team, players included N Roddy, C Coghill, T Hession, D Butler, D Hurley, M Noonan, M Sheerin, J Moyles, and Ó Loughney. H McHale, K McDonald (who scored 0-3, with 2 frees), and D Flynn played alongside B Langan, Ó Deane (who scored 0-2), and A Quinn (who scored 1-0). There were substitutions here, too, with C Kavanagh substituting for the injured Loughney at 27 minutes, J Roddy replacing Sheerin at halftime, E Walsh for McHale at 40 minutes, J O’Malley (scoring 0-1) replacing Quinn at 40 minutes, and F O’Kinsella replacing Langan at 58 minutes. The man officiating the game was referee J Hayes from Limerick.