Ciarán Whelan felt there was an edginess about Armagh's performance in their Ulster SFC quarter-final win over a "physical" Antrim side.
In the end the All-Ireland champions prevailed by 11 points at Corrigan Park, kicking a tally of 1-34, as they progressed to a last-four clash with Tyrone on 26 April.
Whelan, speaking on The Sunday Game, highlighted the bruising nature of encounter in west Belfast, where a few of Armagh's new faces stood out.
"They had a few injuries coming into the game and Antrim tried to injure a few more in the first 15-20 minutes," said the former Dublin star.
"Andy McEntee came out and went with the approach of leaving a mark on Armagh and lets have a cut in the first half. They certainly did that; it was a physical encounter in that first half and it kind of paid off for Antrim. It was great to see that spirit of performance.
"No doubt Kieran McGeeney has one eye on Tyrone down the line.
'Rusty' Armagh eventually got the scoreboard ticking over against the decent challenge from Antrim, says Ciarán Whelan #rtegaa
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"We spoke about their depth last year, really strong. Now they have Callum O'Neill who kicked four points and Tomás McCormack going forward with 1-01. McGeeney is finding new players and is giving the broader panel a bit of a spin out."
As is often the case when it's a Division 1 side up against an outfit who were recently relegated to the fourth tier, class wins out.
That said, Whelan remarked that it took a while for the Orchardmen to stamp their authority on things.
"We kind of went into the game thinking it would be cruise control for Armagh. They (trailed) at half time, turned over a lot of ball and there was a bit of edginess about them.
"Then in the second half it was about keeping the scoreboard ticking over. The started to hand-pass the ball over the bar. and they wanted points, points, points. Antrim were always going to run out of momentum and energy that they had in the first half, they invested a lot in it."
Antrim v Armagh highlights
