JACK O’CONNOR PINPOINTED two second-half goalscoring opportunities as key in changing the course of his Kerry side’s All-Ireland semi-final against Armagh yesterday.
Aiming to make the final for the third successive year, Kerry went five points up courtesy of Paul Murphy’s goal but saw Tom O’Sullivan’s effort to find the net fly wide of target, while Armagh got a huge boost at the other end when Barry McCambridge raised a green flag.
“It looked like that missed goal chance into the Hill was a critical moment. If that went in, I thought the game was probably beyond Armagh and then the goal, that poor goal that we conceded was a huge moment in the game.
“I think that is where the game swung, those two moments. The goal we conceded was a killer in the sense that it got the Armagh crowd into it.
“I thought we quietened the crowd for large parts of the game and it just gave Armagh momentum and it is hard to break momentum. We did well to come back and equalise in normal time. We had a ferocious effort from our boys but it was bitterly disappointing, it was a game we had enough chances to win it.”
O’Connor sensed Armagh’s huge support was a factor that enabled them to power forward in the second half.
“The goal gave them momentum and the crowd drove them on. They outnumbered us fairly substantially out there and I thought the crowd was a factor in the game. No question about it, it just lifted Armagh and we tried very hard but it was hard to arrest that momentum.
“Armagh have not been here for a while so they were bound to come in big numbers. It is a Bank Holday weekend up north. Armagh are great supporters, great followers and they came in big numbers. Now, there was a good share from Kerry as well but obviously it was not enough to match what Armagh had.”
In extra-time, O’Connor felt Armagh may have had more experience in managing such tense situations.
“Dylan Geaney kicked a great point to take it to extra-time. Armagh have been in those situations a bit more than us, maybe. They have gone to extra time and even penalties in a few games over the past few years.
“Maybe they had the experience to manage that. We obviously had to make a lot of changes and had to finish the game without a share of what we call key men. In the end, the lack of experience on the field told. There were a couple of chances we didn’t take near the end and maybe another day, we would.”
The threat of star forward David Clifford was nullified by Armagh as he only scored a point from play.
“What can I say? He’s double- and triple-marked. He’s a key man for us but up to this game, we were getting a lot of scores from other areas. Maybe today we didn’t get as many as we hoped from there but David tried his heart out and gave it everything.”
The Kerry boss said he is still hopeful of staying in charge for the final year of his current term in 2025.
“Ah sure we don’t know. This management has another year in its contract or whatever so we’ll hopefully see that out. We had a few words in the dressing room. It’s a sombre dressing room, obviously.
“But sure look, you have to take these things with a bit of grace and the players were exemplary all the year. They behaved themselves in an exemplary way and represented Kerry very well so nothing but proud of them.”
