Terence ‘Sambo’ McNaughton has managed enough teams to keep heavy defeats in perspective.
Granted, he wouldn’t have wanted his first Championship outing as interim Armagh manager to end in a 21-point loss to Roscommon, but that’s how Sunday’s Nickey Rackard Cup opener in the Athletic Grounds panned out.
The home side were completely outplayed in every sector and the winning margin didn’t flatter the Rossies in the slightest as they missed at least another three goal chances and accrued 21 wides.
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Armagh also had Tiarnán Nevin and Shaun Toal (second yellow) sent off in the second half.
“Everything that could go wrong went wrong,” was McNaughton’s response when asked for his assessment of the 5-19 to 2-7 loss.
“It was one of those days. They were sharper and fitter to be fair. They’ve a good forward line and, when you lose a couple of men, you are chasing shadows.”
“Hurling is like that. One puck of a ball and the game goes away from you and you are chasing.”
After a tight opening 10 minutes, Roscommon plundered the first of their five goals when Brendan Mulry pounced on the loose sliotar after Armagh goalkeeper Simon Doherty had made a fine save to deny Connell Kennedy from close range.
Playing with the aid of a stiff breeze, the Connacht side extended their lead to 3-12 to 0-4 at half-time with the impressive Mickey Joe Egan finding the net twice in the first half.
Perhaps with the words of McNaughton ringing in their ear at the break, Armagh made the ideal start to the second half with Eoin McGuinness marking his introduction with a well-taken goal.
Yet, it proved to be something of a false dawn for Armagh as they struggled to break down the Roscommon defence with Jason Martin playing the sweeper role to perfection.
Things went from bad to worse for the Orchard County when referee James Connors issued a straight red to full-back Nevin on the advice of his linesman following an off-the-ball incident.
With Daniel Glynn on top form from placed efforts, Roscommon continued to pull clear with Eoin Kiernan and Kennelly also finding the net in the second half.
Armagh finally enjoyed a bit of good fortune with their final attack as Shea Harvey kicked the sliotar into the bottom corner following a rare lapse from the Roscommon rear guard. Yet, it only served to reduce the deficit down to 21 points at the full-time whistle.
The former Antrim boss reckoned Sunday’s defeat was one of toughest he’d experienced, but he stressed he won’t dwell on it too much as the Orchard County must regroup for this weekend’s trip to Donegal.
“It wasn’t a good one - it would be up there,” added the Cushendall native.
“You don’t want to be beaten, but I’ve been on the end of plenty of those defeats.
“To be fair to Roscommon, they were sharper. The last day we got the breaks, today they got the breaks.
“There’s no panic - there’s nothing you can do about it. You just have to get on with it, pick yourself up and go on.
“You’re kind of protecting players. You can’t really train and you are trying to keep them fresh for games because they are coming week after week and boys are picking up injuries.
“It (Donegal) is going to be hard because we now have a few more injuries and suspensions so we are going to have to dig deep.”
McNaughton added that Middletown’s Nathan Curry will miss Sunday’s clash in Letterkenny after hobbling off against Roscommon with an ankle injury.
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