Kieran McGeeney was happy to see his weakened Armagh side "get out of Antrim" without adding significantly to their lengthy injury list.
The defending All-Ireland champions eventually negotiated a fired-up home side and a dozen missing players to record a 1-34 to 1-23 win over the Saffrons.
McGeeney could only call on five starters from last year's All-Ireland triumph over Galway for Saturday's Ulster SFC quarter-final.
"Considering it's been a tough couple of weeks with injuries. We didn't get too many of our starting team from last year out on the pitch today. To get through that and to get a scoreline like that was good," McGeeney told RTÉ Sport.
An injury crisis does mean an opportunity for others and McGeeney name-checked the scoring contribution of three of his four Championship debutants, with Tomás McCormack, Calum O'Neill (the first Belleek man to play Championship for Armagh) and Darragh McMullan working the scoreboard operator at Corrigan Park.
"To score what they did. Tomás scored 1-01 and Calum scores 0-04. Darragh Mc got one. It's a great start for them and it's good for us to get more competition for places," said McGeeney.
"We needed everybody today. We have a strong panel but I think we were short 12 players today...That's a huge gap for anyone to fill. It's hard to fill one or two of them."
Highlights
Armagh will face the winners of Tyrone and Cavan in the last four of the provincial championship they have not won since 2008, but McGeeney says at best he will welcome back half of his walking wounded.
"We're hoping five or six for the next day. We hoped to have two here today but we lost them after Wednesday night. It is just the way the game is gone, you need to be able to think on your feet. In any week you can lose two or three key players.
"You need all your best players to give it your best shot. We're hoping by the middle to end of May to have everybody back."
Having seen a spirited Antrim miss a penalty and lose their goalkeeper Ethan Rafferty to a black card, Armagh were lucky to be only a point down at the break, but McGeeney said his message at the break was a straightforward one.
"We just talked about taking simple score and clipping those points. Trying to get out of Antrim with very few injuries and on to the next step. It was a tough first half, and good part of the second half was tough too. But it was good to see the lads pulling away."
Antrim boss Andy McEntee reserved particular praise for young marksman Patrick McBride, who led the Saffron attacking unit manfully.
"Yeah, only a young fella," McEntee quipped. "If he sticks at it, he'll probably be decent enough when he grows up! I don’t know what he ended up with on the scoresheet (0-09), but he certainly seemed to have the range today."
McEntee expressed his disappointment at the delay between Armagh keeper Rafferty’s black card and Kavan Keenan taking – and ultimately missing – that Antrim penalty shortly before half-time.
"It’s not easy to score a penalty in Gaelic football, but especially when you have to stand looking at it for two and a half minutes," McEntee said.
"You start seeing things that aren’t there. I was disappointed with that. I thought it was an awful long time to wait to take a penalty."
The eventual choice of match venue provided some mild controversy in the weeks leading up to this Ulster opener but, McEntee insisted Corrigan Park was the only place this game should have taken place.
"There’s an obligation, in the second biggest city on the island, to grow Gaelic games in this city," McEntee said. "For that reason alone, that was a good reason to bring the All-Ireland champions here."
