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Eoghan O'Gara, left, celebrates the game's first goal with scorer Diarmuid Connolly. ©INPHO/Donall Farmer
AS IT HAPPENED

National Football League as it happened: Dublin v Armagh

Dublin’s footballers had it all their own way against Armagh in Croke Park this afternoon. Here’s your minute-by-minute report.

We went minute-by-minute for the meeting of Dublin and Armagh in the National Football League Division 1. It was a tiny bit one-sided…

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on this afternoon’s action. E-mail niall@thescore.ie, tweet @thescore_iepost a message to our Facebook wall, or leave a comment below.

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Dublin 4-17 Armagh 1-10

Good afternoon all, and welcome to part two of the afternoon’s GAA entertainment. Cork have just edged the Dublin hurlers in a gripping Division 1A encounter. Now, it’s the turn of the Dublin footballers who face Armagh. Throw-in is in a couple of minutes.

Here are your teams.

Dublin: Savage; Daly, O’Carroll, McMahon; McCarthy, Brennan, Dias; MacAuley, Fennell; P Brogan, A Brogan, Flynn; Connolly, O’Gara, Quinn.

Armagh: McEvoy; Mallon, Donaghy, McKenna; Dyas, Duffy, McKeever; Lavery, Mackin; Forker, Mallon, Duffy; Rafferty, Kingham, Watters.

We’re off and running with Armagh playing into the Hill in this first half.

Eoghan O’Gara picks up where he left off against Laois last week. He ghosts back inside McKenna as if he’s not there and kicks the first point of the game. Dublin 0-01 Armagh 0-00

GOAL! Dublin 1-01 Armagh 0-00 (Connolly, 8′) It’s first blood Dublin as Diarmuid Connolly finishes off a brilliant attacking move. Michael Dara MacAuley launches the break before finding Mossy Quinn, who passes back inside to Connolly to apply the finish.

GOAL! Dublin 2-01 Armagh 0-00 (Quinn, 9′) Two goals in two minutes for Dublin, and Armagh are in all sorts of trouble in these opening 10 minutes.

If the first goal was well-worked by the Dubs, the second is an absolute gift from the Armagh defence. McKenna’s pass is intended for McKeever but it’s nowhere near it’s target and Quinn nicks it away before slotting it past McEvoy.

Forker gets Armagh’s first, but after Fennell draws a brilliant save from McEvoy, Quinn restores Dublin’s seven-point advantage with the 45. Dublin 2-02 Armagh 0-01

It’s all too easy for the Dublin forwards in these opening 15 minutes; they’re being given all the time and space they need to pick their passes and find free men. Connolly cuts it back to Paul Flynn, who makes no mistake. Dublin 2-03 Armagh 0-01

Paddy O’Rourke has seen enough of Dublin’s dominance in these opening 15 minutes. He hauls off James Lavery and replaces him with Gavin McParland. Ouch.

Forker swings over a beautiful point with that left boot of his, but it’s very much in vain as Dublin bounce back with two scores of their own.

Mossy Quinn gets the first, twisting and turning Mallon before scoring, and then Connolly waltzes through the middle of the Orchard defence before popping over an easy score. Dublin 2-05 Armagh 0-02

McParland has certainly helped Armagh’s since coming on. He kicks two points in quick succession as the clock ticks towards the 25th minute. Dublin still lead by seven. Dublin 2-05 Armagh 0-04

Michael Dara MacAuley bounces off Malachy Mackin and bursts through on goal before fisting over his first point of the afternoon. Dublin 2-06 Armagh 0-04

GOAL! Dublin 3-06 Armagh 0-04 (Connolly, 28′) It’s only getting worse for Armagh. This one is all about Michael Dara MacAuley who creates all the space with a surging run and then finds Connolly with the handpass, allowing the St Vincent’s clubman to finish for his second of the afternoon.

Another change for Armagh. Billie Joe Padden on for John Kingham. What type of impact will the Mayo native be able to have on this increasingly one-sided contest?

Dublin could be even further ahead in truth. Mossy Quinn is off-target with a 45 directly in front of the posts.

HALF TIME: Dublin 3-07 Armagh 0-05

Alan Brogan kicks the final score of the half as Armagh trudge back to their dressing room to mull over an 11-point deficit. It’s not pretty, much like the football they’ve played in the last 35 minutes.

It’s cup of tea time for me. If you’ve any thoughts on that rather one-sided display, send them in to niall@thescore.ie.

We’re back underway. Can Armagh find some sort of foothold in this second half?

Aidan Forkin opens the scoring in this second half. Dublin 3-07 Armagh 0-06

Michael Dara MacAuley wins a mini-battle with Billie Joe Padden and pops the ball forward to James McCarthy who has raced on from the back to kick a point unchallenged. Dublin 3-08 Armagh 0-06

Brian Mallon kicks a pair of points to shave another few points off the deficit. It’s been much better from Armagh in the opening six or seven minutes of this half as Dublin take their foot off the gas a bit. Dublin 3-08 Armagh 0-08

Oof, Forker skews a rather simple free badly wide. Armagh really can’t afford to let many more chances like that slip away.

Eamonn Fennell has a chance to get the Dubs’ fourth, but his shot is straight at McEvoy who flicks it over the bar. Dublin 3-09 Armagh 0-08

GOAL! Dublin 3-09 Armagh 1-08 (Rafferty, 49′) The start of an Armagh revival, or a false dawn for the Orchard men? Probably the latter, but you’ve to give Gavin McParland great credit for his determination. His shot is deflected across the face of goal by Rory O’Carroll and Rafferty follows in to bury it past Savage.

Connolly kicks a pair of frees — one off the deck and one out of his hands — to stretch Dublin’s lead back to 12. Dublin 3-11 Armagh 1-08

Well-worked score by Dublin as MacAuley fields inside the large rectangle and pops it off to Eoghan O’Gara to point. Dublin 3-12 Armagh 1-08

Patient play by the Dublin forwards who bide their time after Armagh get back to smother a promising break. It’s worked back to Paul Flynn in space and he splits the posts. Dublin 3-13 Armagh 1-08

GOAL! Dublin 4-13 Armagh 1-08 (Connolly, 60′) That’s Connolly’s hat-trick. He takes a perfect line to collect O’Gara’s pass and burns Donaghy for pace before curling his shot around McEvoy into the bottom-right corner.

The points are raining in now for Dublin. Johnny Cooper gets two, and O’Gara and Quinn both add one more each. Dublin 4-17 Armagh 1-10

RED CARD! As we tick towards injury time, Dublin’s Philly McMahon sees red for a second bookable offence. A disappointing end to the day for him.

FULL TIME: Dublin 4-17 Armagh 1-10

I’m not sure if “one-sided” is really the word to use here. Dublin win by 16 points, and Pat Gilroy will know that it could’ve been considerably more. The Dubs kicked more than their fair share of wides and could even afford to take the foot off the gas in the opening 10-15 minutes of the second half before kicking on to finish the game with a flourish.

Plenty of men in blue deserve praise, and even though Diarmuid Connolly got a hat-trick, Michael Dara MacAuley was probably the Dubs’ star man today. Tireless work in midfield, and some really nice creative play going forward.

Dublin manager Pat Gilroy, speaking to TG4:

When you put up scores like that, you have to be pleased. There’s still a lot of little things that we could improve on but at the same time, it’s good to get that kind of score together.

They went in today and some times they don’t. In fairness, the lads were fairly lethal when they got the chances.

It was very important for us to go out and try to continue what we did in the first half. That’s what the league is all about, it’s about building a bit of capability.

We’ve a tough schedule ahead of us but it’s great to be playing games.

Before we leave it, here’s a round-up of the rest of today’s scores from Divisions 1 and 2 in the football.

NFL Division 1

  • Kerry 2-16 Donegal 1-08
  • Mayo 0-11 Down 1-13

NFL Division 2

  • Monaghan 2-24 Louth 1-15
  • Galway 1-12 Meath 1-11
  • Kildare 2-13 Derry 2-08

Check back later for a full round-up of all of today’s results.

National Hurling League as it happened: Dublin v Cork

Two to watch: the National Football League games you really shouldn’t miss today

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