Armagh 1-18
Derry 1-13
Steve Malone reports from the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds
ARMAGH WILL GO into Tuesday’s winners’ draw after their comfortable win over a disappointing Derry in the Cathedral City on Saturday evening.
It was Armagh’s first win in 70 minutes in the Box-IT Athletic Grounds this season, and they showed no hangover from the Ulster final win, which seemed to affect some of the provincial finalists last weekend.
Tiernan Kelly’s stunning first-half goal was Armagh’s perfect tonic to Lachlan Murray’s fine finish past Blaine Hughes, and that put them confidently ahead.
Derry made some roads inwards when Jason Duffy was sin-binned in the second half, to reduce the gap to three points, but you couldn’t legislate for many of the visitors’ 11 wides and at no point did Armagh look like losing the contest.
The game began chaotic and bursting with pace, with the Orchard side running at the Derry defence in waves and picking off scores, whereas Derry were initially living off scraps but squandering chance after chance.
Conor Turbitt’s two-pointer, a brace from the lively Tomas McCormack and another from Jason Duffy put Armagh 0-05 to 0-01 ahead with a frenetic 11 minutes played.
Darragh McMullan stretched Armagh’s lead, but Derry were back in the game when Lachlan Murray made no mistake from close range after intercepting Blaine Hughes’ short kick-out, and within 30 seconds, Niall Toner tagged on a point to leave the scores 1-02 to 0-06 with 17 minutes gone.
However, Kelly replied with a wonder goal; he had the advantage after being fouled, and he stuck it sweetly into Derry’s top corner.
The pace of the game dropped off from then on; it seemed the way Derry preferred to play, and the Orchard side were content to manage it that way too.
Kieran McGeeney’s side led 1-09 to 1-03 at the break, and while the slick Murray, Shane McGuigan and lively Conor Doherty posted scores, Derry’s shooting was poor as they squandered 17 chances.
Ethan Doherty and substitute Paul Cassidy did bag two-pointers, but that was as good as it got for the Oak Leafers as their key men failed to shine.
Armagh were content with Joe McElroy, Oisin Conaty, Duffy, Hughes (two-pointer) and substitute Oisin O’Neill tapping over, with Derry not offering a serious threat.
Derry have one more game to keep their season alive, while Armagh are a game away from the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
ARMAGH: Blaine Hughes (0-02, 1tpf), Peter Grane, Aaron McKay, Gareth Murphy, Joe McElroy (0-01), Tiernan Kelly (1-00), Greg McCabe, Jarly Og Burns (0-01), Andrew Murnin (0-01), Cian McConville, Darragh McMullan (0-01), Tomas McCormack (0-02), Conor Turbitt (0-04, 1tp), Jason Duffy (0-02), Oisin Conaty (0-03, 1tp)
Subs: Ross McQuillan for McCabe (53’), Oisin O’Neill (0-01, free) for Duffy (59’), Rory Grugan for Murnin (67’)
DERRY: Shea Guckin, Diarmuid Baker, Ruairi Forbes, Conor McCluskey, Conor Doherty (0-03), Gareth McKinless, Padraig McGrogan (0-01), Eoin McEvoy, Brendan Rogers, Ethan Doherty (0-02, 1tp), Conor Glass, Niall Toner, Niall Loughlin (0-01) , Shane McGuigan (0-01), Lachlan Murray (1-02).
Subs: Paul Cassidy (0-02, 1tp) for Downey (42’), Dan Higgins for Toner (48’), James Sargant for Forbes (54’), Sean Young (0-01) for Lachlan Murray (56’).
Referee: Martin McNally (Monaghan).
— The GAA (@officialgaa) May 30, 2026
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Written by Steve Malone and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.