As Ulster Football Championship contests go, Saturday’s preliminary-round tie between Armagh and Antrim at the Athletic Grounds might just remain in the memory until about Tuesday but I wouldn’t bet on that.

For Armagh, it was a case of ‘job done’ and ‘move on to Cavan’ with the performances of eight-point Conor Turbitt and midfielder debutant Shane McPartlan, who kicked four scores from play, added bonuses.

As he picked up his man-of-the-match award, Turbitt played down his efforts.

“There are certain things we need to tidy up but overall it was a good performance by us all,” said the Clann Eireann man, who seemed to have so much time to go about his work at the Athletic Grounds.

“We’ll look no further than Cavan. That’s all we’re looking forward to.”

There wasn’t a lot of other substantive chat coming out post-match from Armagh and how could there be because this game told them precisely nothing about the prospects of going deep in this year’s championship despite the superb displays of Turbitt and Clan na Gael club-man McPartlan.

Antrim talked a good game beforehand

Sadly for Antrim, it was more of the same in championship terms as they remain without a win in Ulster since their 2014 victory over Fermanagh.

As ever, Antrim talked a pretty good game going into this match but unfortunately weren’t able to deliver one out on the pitch as the gulf between teams that operated in Divisions One and Three this year was obvious for all to see.

Antrim manager Andy McEntee, despite being in his first campaign with the Saffrons, already knew plenty about the inadequacies of his side after their wildly fluctuating League form but was disappointed with their lack of ambition at the Athletic Grounds, as an inhibited and inaccurate first-half display already had the game out of reach by the interval.

“I don’t think we were as adventurous or as positive as we had planned to be,” lamented the former Meath manager.

“In the second half, we had a little bit more of a go and we created three, possibly four goal-scoring chances.

“And again we didn’t take all the opportunities that were presented to us, whereas Armagh didn’t miss that many really.

“When it came down to it, we weren’t good enough on the day. We needed to play at our best level and for Armagh to dip a little bit and I would say neither of those happened really.”

Saffrons run into Orange roadblocks

McEntee pointed out that the first-half stats had shown his side to have wasted 10 scoring opportunities by either kicking wides or dropping shots shot into Ethan Rafferty’s hands – thereby effectively starting Armagh attacks.

To this observer, it appeared that a number of those first-half Antrim shots had been of the ‘Hail Mary’ variety, with Armagh clearly fashioning more obvious scoring opportunities but McEntee insisted his side should have been much closer than 0-10 to 0-4 in arrears at the break – particularly given their first-half wind advantage.

“There were a couple of really good opportunities from central positions in the first half, with that wind behind us, it wouldn’t have been a stretch.

“We probably just lacked a little bit of composure but then again Armagh are putting pressure on you all the time. It’s a different level than lads are used to.”

Time and time again, Antrim players ran into orange-clad roadblocks in the first half, particularly out on the flanks as both Saffron skipper Peter Healy and young centre half-back Joseph Finnegan wistfully pointed out afterwards.

“Armagh had a plan to let us get down the wings and trap us in there and we fell for it four or five times in the first half when one man was going down the line and all of the sudden, there were three men surrounding him,” reflected Healy.

“There was probably three or four scores from that alone in the first half.

“We tried to push up in the second half. We had a couple of turnovers higher up but at that stage, we probably needed goals to get back into the game and it was too late.

“We got the goal but they steadied the ship and got two scores at the other end (almost immediately).”

Antrim will give Tailteann Cup ‘a good rattle’

Finnegan felt the Saffrons had just been totally unable to deal with Armagh’s “hard press”.

“You are running down that sideline and three of them are coming at you,” said the championship debutant.

“With their press, they knew how to force us into those mistakes.”

Despite another chastening Ulster Championship day, manager and players alike were insisting afterwards that the Saffron squad would remain together to, in Healy’s words, “give the Tailteann Cup a good rattle”.

After the comprehensive Ulster defeat by Cavan 12 months ago, a number of players peeled away from the squad before the Tailteann Cup opener against Leitrim and a poor performance ensued at Carrick-on-Shannon.

“Why wouldn’t they?” insisted McEntee when he was asked whether he was confident that the squad would remain intact for the second-tier competition this time round.

“We’re very much focused on trying to keep the group together and getting at least another three games into this team. You can train all you like but playing games like this and playing competition is vital for this group.”