Aaron McKay spoke to the Newry Reporter following Armagh's draw against Galway. The result means that Armagh have topped their All-Ireland SFC group.
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00:00Aaron, where do you start with that? Look, to be fair, you're dead and buried with 15
00:04minutes to go, but you've got the surge, you've got momentum and ultimately you've got a result.
00:08Yeah, we wouldn't be happy with the first half performance out of there. We had eight
00:12shots inside the D and they only conferred a half. So, that's not going to be good enough
00:16going into later on down the lane. So, we have to be better in and around the score
00:20zones. But, I suppose we've got our lungs warmed at half-time with our performance and
00:25we had to lift it. We probably should have lucked out in the first quarter and the second
00:28half as well. Now, luckily we got a good pass on, turnover and that sort of kicked
00:32us in the year then and luckily we've seen it out now.
00:35Do you feel that, obviously the goal was the turning point and the crowd, I don't know
00:39if you felt on the pitch, the crowd are going bananas. Is that something that actually gives
00:42you as a team, it might simplify it to say it's momentum, but do you feel that?
00:46No, it definitely does. Even when we're playing away sometimes, I don't know what today is,
00:50it's a neutral game, but there are a lot of fans that come in their droves to take over
00:54the place and especially when you get a goal or a score like that there, it really lifts
00:57your mental back up. You don't get this going again. I don't know about the fans, they're
01:01always hurt anyway, so again, I don't know what's going to happen.
01:03It was a tough battle today, wasn't it? Goalie, they're a good side, so to get a result against
01:07them, do you feel good?
01:08Yeah, they're a big physical team. They've obviously won Conor three years in a row,
01:12so we knew coming into this it wasn't going to be easy. Now I know there was the likes
01:15of Comer there and Fulford, who's a big loss to them. I haven't watched them play in the
01:18final, but we have a few injuries as well and we just have to feed the teams the players
01:22we have and we're just delighted. We're in the quarter-final now, we can have a wee bit
01:26of a reset, get a few bodies with a few niggles sorted out and give the next quarter-final
01:30a good rattle.
01:31I feel like after every RMI game, we're always talking about the subs, the boys who come
01:34in and again you saw it there, OisÃn O'Neill leading Nugent and of course Campbell came
01:37up with the score at the end of the game. At risk of repeating ourselves over and over,
01:41it is great to have the likes of those quality boys coming in.
01:43Yeah, we were probably criticised over the years. We didn't have impact off the bench
01:48on things, especially in games like this. When it comes to the knockout phase, we've
01:52got a big point in that this season. We have to have impact off the bench. Champions are
01:56winners, the likes of Soupy, OisÃn and Nugent are boys of starters on any other day. So
02:01it's up to us when we do start the game to get the game to a position where they can
02:04come on and get us over the line. Thankfully, the boys were able to come off the bench and
02:07do that for us.
02:08How important was it to get this result today? You're not out playing next week, you've
02:11got a two-week break now and you're straight into Croke Park.
02:14Obviously, you would have had three games potentially in three weeks. At this level,
02:19because of the condensed calendar, it's not great. If someone picks up soft tissue in
02:23three days, they could miss all three games. It's great to have a week off now, we can
02:28reset. We knew today, if we didn't finish top of the group, if we had to go through
02:33the qualifier next week, we'd only be able to get a Kerry-Dublin in the quarter-finals.
02:36It would have been no tougher draw. We're just delighted now, we're straight into it.