Kieran McGeeney didn’t mince his words after Armagh snatched a last-gasp win over Westmeath in Saturday’s All-Ireland SFC first round tie at the Box-It Athletic Grounds.
The Orchard County were three points down against the 2022 Tailteann Cup winners and needed a fortuitous late goal from Conor Turbitt to help claim a 1-13 to 1-12 victory.
Turbitt’s goal came after a shot from Rian O’Neill dropped short with Andrew Murnin flicking the ball into the path of the incoming Clann Éireann attacker.
Read more: Armagh GAA issue update after medical emergency at the Box-It Athletic Grounds on Saturday
Speaking after the game, McGeeney spoke of his frustration at his side’s performance and said they were indebted to another fine showing from O’Neill.
“It was a very poor display I thought,” stated McGeeney.
“Yeah, we got the win, but to me you still have to perform. They’re better than that, they’re a great team and when you’re good at something that’s what you have to do, you have to be good every day, that’s what it takes to win stuff.
“To me, Rian (O’Neill) carried us today, he carried us on his back. That’s just the bottom line.
“I would say for all the players, in fairness Andrew (Murnin) came in, we had a good impact off the bench with “Turbo” (Conor Turbitt) and Ross (McQuillan), but you shouldn’t look for one player to carry you.”
The complexion of Saturday’s game might have been very different had O’Neill scored a gilt-edged goal chance in the opening minutes.
“We missed 1-4 in that period,” added McGeeney.
“We were dropping balls into the keeper's hands. “Soupy” (Stefan Campbell), Rian’s miss, Aidan Nugent. . . just silly stuff. The boys are better than that, but it is just frustrating.
“I’m very frustrated with it and they’re very frustrated in there. I suppose that maybe show how far those fellas have come that when they’re winning games now in the Championship that they’re not happy. But they’re going to have a good test next week and they’re going to have to be up for it.”
Saturday’s game was just 13 days after their penalty shootout defeat to Derry in the Ulster SFC Final in Clones.
While McGeeney admitted the defeat might have had a bearing on his player’s performance, he didn’t use it as an excuse.
“It will surely, it’s hard to lift fellas, but I still think that all we did was give the ball away, tried to win it in 10 minutes,” said McGeeney
“It was a very poor display by us.
“Westmeath are a good attacking team; they always have been when we played them in recent years. But today they gave us a lesson in how to keep the ball.
Armagh take on Ulster rivals Tyrone in O’Neills Healy Park on Saturday, June 3 before a rematch against Galway in their final Group Two game on the weekend of June 17/18 at a neutral venue.
With the Red Hands losing out to the Tribesmen in their opening game, Armagh remain in a strong position to secure at least a place in the preliminary quarter-final.
“You’re up against the best of the best now,” added the Armagh boss.
“Whether people like it or not, the 16 best teams in the country are in this competition and that’s the reality so there’s no bad games.
“This is no respect to anybody else but every time you go out you have to perform, and you have to perform at the highest level.
"Our boys are capable of doing that, they are, but at the minute, unless things change, they have a good chance of at least making a play-off.
“The thing about it is if they want to sit and rely on that then we don’t deserve to go any further. If they want to push on, they have two teams now in front of them that they can challenge and give us something out of it.”
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