By Shaun Casey

THERE was plenty to be proud of from an Armagh perspective in their All-Ireland semi-final win over Kerry, but coach Kieran Donaghy picked out two things that helped guided the Orchard County over the line.

Donaghy came up against his native county, which was undoubtedly a tough assignment to undertake, but with his orange and white colours on, the three-time All-Star could only see one winner.

The Armagh goal, scored by Clann Éireann defender Barry McCambridge, as well as the impact of the Armagh substitute bench, were the two biggest influences in deciding the outcome of the game according to the four-time All-Ireland winner.

“Players coming off the bench turned the tide and McCambridge getting up and getting the goal was huge,” said Donaghy, who joined Kieran McGeeney’s management team in 2021.

“Was I worried at five down? It was always a bit of worry but we were seven points down against Galway in 2022 and the boys just didn’t quit, they kept going.

“Galway dominated us for 69 minutes and we couldn’t get past them or through them and we couldn’t handle them at all, but the boys got a few lucky breaks and got goals to get back into it. They have a great never-say-die attitude and Kieran (McGeeney) has built an unbelievable squad over the past ten years.”

The resilience to comeback from setback after setback is an admirable quality in this Armagh side, which has experienced more dark days than good days in recent times, and defeating the Kingdom after extra-time was a just reward.

As a forwards coach, the 2006 Young Footballer of the Year was delighted with how the Orchard attack performed in Croke Park, with ten different players getting their names on the scoresheet.

“You know that they will keep going, you know the crowd is always behind them. The fans are looking for momentum to spur the players on and then you have the bench coming in,” added the Austin Stacks clubman.

“My focus as a coach of the forwards is the things that you want them doing better. I felt that we were quite sloppy at times when it came to the basic skills in the first-half, so that’s something we needed to look at.

“Take ‘Soupy’s’ (Stefan Campbell) equaliser, where Rory Grugan was coming off the right-hand side. Everyone will talk about ‘Soupy’s’ point, which was amazing, but Grugan’s pass was in such a way that it was perfectly on the money. If it is a foot right or left, ‘Soupy’ can’t get it or get control, but because of that pass he was able to drop it on.

“In fairness the boys improved in the second half but look, there is still loads for us to improve on. It was a real game of open football, up and down, which Kerry bring, but Galway will be different.”

On facing the Tribesmen, Donaghy added: “They will really try and control momentum, so if you give away the ball, like we did the last day, Galway will make you work a lot harder to get it back and have a lot more patience.

“They tire you out. We have played them four times over the last three years, they have beaten us twice, including on penalties, we have drawn one and we beat them in Carrick-on- Shannon.

“They probably have the slight edge on us in that respect, plus there’s the fact that they were in the All-Ireland final in 2022 whereas it’s all pretty new for all our guys. They are a strong team, so we will be looking to tidy up the basic skill levels to try improving.”