For the second year in succession Armagh have dumped Westmeath out of the All-Ireland Football Championship with a 11 point win in the opening round of the Qualifiers at TEG Cusack Park.
Three second half goals from the visitors sent them on their way. A goalkeeping error and two majors from substitutes Anthony Duffy and Gavin MacParland gave their dominant display a truer reflection on the scoreboard.
The link up play between Armagh forward trio of Andrew Murnin, Rory Grugan and Ethan Rafferty at times lit up the beautiful summers evening in Mullingar and led to Kieran McGeeney’s side’s victory.
Rafferty before going off with a serious injury, set the tone, scoring right from the throw in, Andrew Murnin added another straight away.
The Orchard County controlled the opening half, impressive in the tackle they shut the hesitant Westmeath attack down on numerous occasions with Brendan Donaghy playing the sweeping role to perfection.
Ronan O’Toole did score a goal against the run of play, John Connellan picked off a short kick out from Blaine Hughes to find O’Toole unmarked inside to blast to the net, but the midlanders continued to struggle going forward.
Impressive Charlie Vernon helped himself to two points from midfield as Grugan totted up three frees and Jemar Hall with two points from play stretched the Ulsters side lead.
Colin Kelly’s side went large periods of the game without scoring, but O’Toole kept them in touch with two excellent long range points and despite the domination, the Orchard county only led by four at the interval 11 to 1-4.
Just after the resumption, Ethan Rafferty suffered an injury and sadly had to be stretchered off.
Cruelly the game swung after that long delay, when debutant Westmeath goalkeeper Kevin Fagan mishandled a high ball from Andrew Murnin dropping and deflecting the ball into an empty net.
Westmeath did recover to fire three in a row through Kieran Martin, Denis Corroon and a Ger Egan free.
However, the majority of the second half was played at pedestrian pace as the second goal from Anthony Duffy sealed the game, he collected his own punched effort off the post to blast to the net.
Luke Loughlin pointed a brace of frees to keep the game competitive but Armagh played with more and more confidence as the game went on and another replacement Gavin McParland netted after a fine running move.
They will bring that confidence with them into the qualifier draw on Monday morning,
Westmeath: Kevin Fagan; Mark McCallon, Sam Duncan, Jamie Gonoud; John Egan, Noel Mulligan, Boidu Sayeh (0-01); Denis Corroon (0-02, 0-01f), Darragh Daly; Kieran Martin (0-01), Ronan O’Toole (1-02), Ger Egan (0-01, 0-01f); Luke Loughlin (0-03, 0-03f), John Connellan, Callum McCormack.
Subs used: Finbar Coyne (0-01) for D Daly (25 mins) Ronan Wallace for S Duncan; Blood (34 mins), David Whelan for J Egan (50 mins), Ronan Wallace for Denis Corroon Blood (54 mins), Conor Slevin for B Sayeh (63 mins) Ronan Wallace for M McCallon (66mins). Anthony McGivney for J Connellan (71mins), John Rock for G Egan (73 mins).
Armagh: Blaine Hughes; Patrick Burns, Brendan Donaghy, Aaron McKay; Aidan Forker, Gregory McCabe (0-01), Connaire Mackin; Charlie Vernon (0-03), Aaron Findon; Joe McElroy, Ethan Rafferty (0-02), Mark Shields; Jemar Hall (0-02), Andrew Murnin (0-01), Rory Grugan (0-05, 0-05f).
Subs used: Niall Rowland for A Findon (HT), Ryan McShane (0-01) for E Rafferty (42 mins), Anthony Duffy (1-01) for C Mackin (57mins), Gavin McParland (1-00) for J McElroy (66 mins), Oisín Mac Íomhair for J Hall (66 mins).
Referee: David Gough (Meath)
