National Football League Division One final/ Armagh 1-21 Wexford 1-14: No romance but a substantial performance by the favourites, Armagh, gave Joe Kernan's side the county's first National League title in yesterday's Division One final at Croke Park.
The magical stuff had evaporated with Monaghan's tumultuous victory in the first match leaving poor old Wexford to cope with bitter reality.
That reality was sufficient to make Armagh look plausible enough successors to Kerry and Tyrone who in the past two years went on to add the All-Ireland to league success. But there's a long summer ahead. Suffice to say Kernan's team were superior all around the field and for the second week running, there was an awesome display from Steven McDonnell.
Four defenders were tried on McDonnell but none made any great difference and once he had cleared his throat with Armagh's first wide, the 2003 footballer of the year opened up to fire seven points from play in a total of 0-10.
At the other end of the field there was a painful contrast with Matty Forde, Wexford's top gun who succeeded McDonnell as player of the year, who shot seven wides out of his team's total of nine. It was an afternoon to forget for Forde but Andy Mallon gave another fine display at corner back and deserves a good share of the credit for his illustrious opponent's unhappy afternoon, which wasn't greatly improved when he moved to centre forward to share some time with Kieran McGeeney and the Armagh captain's fresh enthusiasm for man marking.
Wexford must learn from the lessons of exposure to one of the best sides currently in the game. It will be Pat Roe's task in the weeks between now and the championship opener against Carlow to accentuate the positives from a historical season.
They will recognise Armagh had to be near enough at full tilt with the Ulster championship starting in less than a fortnight. For most of the first half Wexford competed well although there were ominous signs of the problems that would dismantle them. The shuffling of David Fogarty to centrefield allowed Diarmuid Kinsella to get further forward but it didn't do anything to remedy the team's difficulties in the middle.
Unlike last week against Mayo, John Toal and Paul McGrane took a grip on the game and didn't allow their opponents a platform. Armagh were able to replicate their undermining of Mayo. High ball into Ronan Clarke caused terrible anxieties in the Wexford fullback line and in either corner McDonnell and Brian Mallon were sniping.
These problems were reminiscent of the teams' previous encounter in February. Back then Roe managed to make the changes that changed the match but on this occasion centrefield defied easy remedy although Brendan Doyle, who had helped turn it around, wasn't summoned from the bench on this occasion. Consequently the pressure on the defence never eased.
Wexford's pace and fluency when breaking from the back has been one of the team's strongest points and on one of the few occasions they broke quickly, Nickey Lambert placed Forde for his only score from play.
But in general they couldn't find the space to string such moves together. Armagh also looked to have learned from the Mayo match and weren't as easily penetrated by runs from deep, dropping back and swarming the ball carrier. Wexford made mistakes and lost the ball through poor distribution and even inability to hold possession. Redmond Barry played deep and had some success running at the defence but he scored only a point and by withdrawing from the full forwards, drew Paul McCormack up the field for a few runs that yielded one point in return.
Captain John Hudson took a couple of early knocks that can't have improved his performance and after some early promise he succumbed to the dearth of serviceable ball.
The match was neck and neck for about 25 minutes. Then inexorably Armagh pulled away. Wexford led by 0-5 to 0-4 in the 20th minute but the screw turned so quickly and effectively that in the 15 minutes before the break they were outscored by 0-8 to 0-1.
Just before the break they lost Niall Murphy to a yellow card - ironically for fouling McConville rather than McDonnell who had been tormenting him.
Armagh could complain they should have had a penalty but Wexford could complain Francie Bellew had stayed on the field earlier after pole-axing Fogarty. Referee Gerry Kinneavy bizarrely didn't even give a free.
But it was clear the match wasn't going to be decided on referee's decisions.After the break McDonnell discarded all restraint and personally put the match beyond comeback. His six points from play were marvellous pieces of instinctive finishing.
It could have been more. On the hour he, Clarke and replacement Paddy McKeever broke through the cover in unison after an incoming ball had been misjudged. With time and space on his side he unselfishly flipped up the ball for McKeever to palm into an empty net.
This put paid to Wexford's chances of a narrow defeat, a prospect that shimmered briefly when Kinsella climaxed a run down the left and in along the end line with a great shot that got the margin down to five.
Wexford ended up within seven of their rampant opponents, a bit of an achievement given the trend of things.
ARMAGH: P Hearty; A Mallon, F Bellew, P McCormack (0-1); A Kernan (0-1), K McGeeney (capt), C McKeever; J Toal, P McGrane; M O'Rourke, J McEntee (0-1), O McConville (0-2); S McDonnell (0-10, three frees), R Clarke (0-2), B Mallon (0-4). Subs: P McKeever (0-1) for O'Rourke (53 mins), J McNulty for Bellew (64 mins), A McCann for Kernan (64 mins), A O'Rourke for McKeever (64 mins), P Loughran for McGrane (64 mins).
WEXFORD: J Cooper; N Murphy, P Wallace (0-1), C Morris; D Breen, D Murphy, S Cullen; D Fogarty (0-1), N Lambert; D Kinsella (1-1), P Colfer, J Hegarty; R Barry (0-1), J Hudson (capt; 0-2), M Forde (0-7, five points frees, one 45). Subs: R Mageean for N Murphy (38 mins), J D'Arcy for Colfer (half-time), P Forde for Hegarty (half-time), D Foran for D'Arcy (53 mins), P Curtis for Mageean (65 mins).
CARDS: Red: none. Yellow: N Murphy (Wexford) 37 mins.
Referee: G Kinneavy (Galway).
