McGeeney happy for supporters

ARMAGH manager Kieran McGeeney said he was delighted for the Orchard supporters after his side secured an All-Ireland quarter-final spot following Sunday's dramatic one-point win over Galway.

Armagh await to see who wins at the weekend before finding their opponents in the last eight in just less than a fortnight and McGeeney expects another epic battle.

“There’s nobody gone. Everybody still thinks they have a chance and it’s a great thing to see,” McGeeney said.

“I’m delighted for the Armagh supporters. We have great support and even there when things got close at the end of the game, it’s like having that extra man. No matter what there’s always pressure taking a free kick.

“I could hardly hear anything never mind him, so it’s great to have that support even when they’re sent them down here. It’s not that they’re not very accommodating to Armagh, they’re brilliant people and looked after us really well but we would have thought they would have looked at other places. But I’ve given up years ago on understanding the CCC.”

The Orchard boss said he wasn't too bothered by some of criticism levelled at him following the relegation to Division Two and Ulster Final defeat but his happy his side have reached back-to-back All-Ireland quarter-finals.

“It’s very hard to know what’s going to keep people on TV happy,” McGeeney said. I know what keeps the supporters happy though, more games and more competitive games. Nearly every game this year in the round-robin system has been competitive. A couple of year’s ago we were complaining that we don’t have enough games. Then they were saying we have too many games. “Then there was dead rubbers and now there’s no dead rubbers. Some of the games today, every player was fighting for every score. It wasn’t even winning the game, it was fighting for every single score  and to me the system is much better.

It’s not the leadership of the GAA I’d give the credit to. There are teams that are really leaning right into it. You look at Westmeath from our group. Everybody wrote the off and they pinned every one of us to our collar. They were just unlucky against Galway to lose a man, it was a drawn game up until that. Huge credit goes to Dessie Dolan. And the same with Sligo. I know they had a bad day today, but still they were really pushing teams. So, I think it’s been a good system. Even teams that are trying to develop get a lot more games and there’s a lot more to be happy about.”

Having come so close to teams such as Kerry and Galway but fallen short McGeeney hopes that getting over the line on Sunday is something his team can build on.

“We have talked about that amongst ourselves,” said McGeeney.

“We have fallen short in some areas. But in any of the Championship games it always comes down to the wire and we’re always there or thereabouts and I do think this was a big team for us to get over the line against.

“They are a big team and hopefully that will give us a bit of momentum going into the next game.”