It could have been a different story, of course. After early Armagh scores from Andrew Murnin and Rian O’Neill, Fermanagh passed up a golden opportunity to score the opening goal when Ultan Kelm, having eluded O’Neill and Conor Turbitt down the left, picked out Oisin Smyth.
Spinning past Blaine Hughes, Smyth looked destined to raise a green flag only for Aaron McKay to produce a stunning goal-line block.
Moments later, Kelm was black-carded for pulling down a breaking Murnin, with Armagh capitalising on their numerical advantage when Rory Grugan jinked past a couple of Erne defenders and played inside to Turbitt, who calmly sidestepped Ross Bogue and found the net.
Another Armagh goal followed two minutes later. After Jarly Og Burns’ purposeful surge forward, Bogue did well to save Murnin’s goal-bound shot, only for the ball to fall to Burns who had the simple task of tapping into an empty net in the 19th minute.
While Sean Cassidy’s free put Fermanagh on the board, Armagh continued to flood forward in numbers, with Burns opting to fist the ball over the bar when bearing down on goal.
Then, in another well-crafted move from the favourites, Stefan Campbell palmed the ball into Bogue’s net to put the visitors well out of sight.
More to follow.
