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Armagh got the defence of their Lidl Ladies National Football League Division 1 crown off to a great start on Saturday 25 January with a 3-11 to 1-13 win over TG4 All-Ireland senior champions Kerry in Tralee.
Armagh manager Darnell Parkinson was pleased with the opening win “We’ve had a lot of girls coming back in from club duty so these girls have been thrown in at the deep end a bit but they’ve really stood up to it,” said Parkinson.
“Once the first goal went in it gave us a bit of momentum and then you try and stay in the game and hopefully the next chance comes and luckily enough it did.”
In what was a repeat of last year’s top-flight decider, and a first competitive meeting between the counties since the 2024 TG4 All-Ireland senior Championship semi-final, an outstanding second half from champions Armagh, in which they outscored Kerry by 3-6 to 0-6, saw them claim the spoils.
The introduction of substitutes Blaithín Mackin, who struck for 1-1, and Rebecca Cunningham, with a goal, made all the difference, whilst Anna Carr in the Armagh goal was also in superb form.
Kerry manager Mark Bourke said that their challenge faded in the closing stages but they will learn a lot from the first outing of the season.
“Their goals were a result of probably us running out of legs in the last ten minutes. Our yellow card meant that it took an awful lot of effort for us to keep them at bay even though we did score one or two points with the yellow card but it could be seen that they had more legs than us in the final quarter.”
Lidl National Football League Division One Round One Results
Armagh 3-11 Kerry 1-13
Dublin 2-7 Mayo 1-7
Meath 4-4 Tyrone 0-2
Waterford 1-13 Kildare 2-7
