Armagh brush aside Antrim to book Ulster SFC quarter-final date with Cavan

April 08, 2023

Armagh goalkeeper Ethan Rafferty and Patrick Finnegan of Antrim ©INPHO/James Crombie

Armagh will face Cavan in the quarter-finals of the Ulster senior football championship after coming through comfortably against Antrim in the northern province’s preliminary round this evening.

It finished 0-20 to 1-8 at the Box-It Athletic Grounds, where the hosts hit the ground running to build up a 0-9 to 0-1 lead by the 27th minute.

Conor Stewart and Eoghan McCabe registered points that looked to keep the Glensmen in with an outside chance but they’d go in trailing by 0-10 to 0-4 at the half.

Ethan Rafferty (free) and championship debutant Shane McPartland stretched the Orchard County’s lead to eight early in the restart and Conor Turbitt, who finished with 0-8, soon made it a nine-point game.

Rory Grugan would move Armagh’s advantage into double digits come the 52nd minute and there wasn’t anyway back for Andy McEntee’s charges from there – even with Conor Stewart netting the game’s only goal for them midway through the second period.

Kieran McGeeney’s side now look forward to a provincial quarter-final date with Cavan two weeks from today, while Antrim enter into the Tailteann Cup as they remain without an Ulster championship win since 2014’s victory over Fermanagh.


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