All-Ireland SFC: McGeeney urges Armagh to ‘go one more step’

Jack O’Connor said Kerry would take defeat “with a bit of grace”.

While confirming his desire to see out the remaining year of his three-year contract in 2025, the Kerry boss felt two missed goals chances early in the second half cost his team.

He also pointed to the impact Armagh got from their bench and the huge orchard support base in the 55,548 attendance as key factors.

O’Connor admitted: “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.

“We did well to come back and equalise in normal time but we had a ferocious effort from our boys but it was bitterly disappointing, it was a game we had enough chances to win it.”

Tom O’Sullivan’s glaring miss early in the second half seemed a big moment at the time and even though Paul Murphy palmed home a 47th minute goal to put Kerry 1-11 to 0-9 ahead, O’Connor still rued the earlier miss.

“It looked like that missed goal chance into the Hill was a critical moment,” he said.

“If that went in, I thought the game was probably beyond Armagh and then the goal, that poor goal that we conceded (from Barry McCambridge) 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.”