Armagh stun 14 man Kerry

Allianz Football League Division One

Kerry 0-10

Armagh 2-08

Armagh pulled off the shock of the year so far when they secured an away win over Kerry in this Allianz Football League Division I clash.

The Orchard County caught the home team on the back foot with a fantastic start which saw them edge 1-3 to 0-0 ahead inside the opening 15 minutes. 

Wing forward Aidan Forker was on fire in the early exchanges and managed to score three of his side's four points in the first half. One of the game’s main turning points came in the tenth minute when the ball broke to centre forward Brian Mallon, who forced his way through the Kerry defence and fired into the bottom corner of the net to get the opening goal of the game.

Jack O'Connor's men then got themselves back into the game with three successive points through young corner forward James O'Dongohue and Sean O'Sullivan. However, the Kerry boss was still not impressed by his sides lethargic opening and he replaced O'Sullivan with the experienced Declan O'Sullivan but that change had little impact on the course of the game as Armagh led at the break by 1-4 to 0-3.

Things got better for the visitors when their second goal arrived shortly after the restart from John Kingham. Again the Kerry defence was exposed and Armagh took full advantage of the opportunity through the full forward, who finished well.

The Kingdom did respond to that setback and managed to narrow the gap with three points of their own through Bryan Sheehan and Declan O'Sullivan. It looked as if Kerry would kick on from there on their home patch but Armagh retaliated with three points of their own, the best of which came from Forker. Last year's beaten All-Ireland finalists were then reduced to 14 men with just over six minutes remaining as Tomás Ó Sé was sent off.

The visitors sealed the two points on offer with a fine individual score from Colm Walters from range to maintain their unbeaten start to the season.