Armagh eye further progress after maiden Div 1 success

Armagh manager Greg McGonigle hopes they can now take their historic Lidl NFL Division 1 title success into the TG4 All-Ireland Championship and make even more progress.

Aimee Mackin and Kelly Mallon combined for 1-09 as Armagh followed up their Division 2 success last season by dethroning the reigning division 1 champions Kerry at Croke Park.

"From a defensive point of view, we'd be happy with where we are at, but again we could have been possibly a little bit more clinical up front.

"We maybe left a couple of chances behind us, but it’s a great place to be on 7 April. Looking forward with stuff to prepare for coming into the Ulster championship and then the All-Ireland series," said McGonigle.

"We talked about teams are probably going to have purple patches or you’re going to make mistakes and we say it’s always about reaction. It’s responding, it’s not about reacting and not going into ourselves. In regards of trying to get back up and get a score as soon as we can, we reacted very well to conceding an early second half."

Having lost out by three points to the Kingdom in a NFL Division 2 decider at the same venue two years ago, this is a sweet victory for an Armagh side that were also appearing in their maiden top tier league showpiece.

Kerry joint manager Declan Quill said they did not make the most of a fortunate goal after the restart and they squandered too many chances to retain their crown.

"A fortunate goal really, but one that put us on a good path in the second half. We weren’t really able to take advantage of it. The bit of good luck you get, you’ve to build on it. It’s not something we did," said Quill.

"We missed way too many chances to win a game. A national final, you’ve got to be very clinical. I thought Armagh