Kieran Donaghy had no time to waste. It had only been minutes since the Armagh selector had watched his home county edge out his adopted team in Austin Stack Park but he was already heading for the exit door. Donaghy the Armagh selector was about to morph into Donaghy the Tralee Warriors basketball player.

There was some consolation for him there, as they ran out handsome winners against Killester but the Armagh camp will feel they should have taken something from the earlier game. They had been flinty and clever and organised for long periods in Kerry. And in Rian O’Neill they had a player capable of scoring from a variety of angles and distances.

But in the end, the Kerry bench rode to the rescue. Tony Brosnan curled over a beauty and Donal ‘Down’ O’Sullivan showed maturity beyond his inter-county experience to fist over when a goal was on. In the type of game it was, a point was precious and O’Sullivan’s effort gave Kerry the cushion they needed to take both points and deliver the ideal response to the defeat in Castlebar a week earlier.

“Well look, we weren’t (talking) during the week too much about tactics, this was about attitude” Kerry manager Jack O’Connor said.

“We felt we were well off it above in Castlebar. We weren’t tackling, we weren’t tracking runners. We weren’t doing any of the fundamentals that you need to do first before you play football. And I thought we did that in spades tonight.

“We gave away no goal chance, Armagh got seven from ten from play we got seven from 15 from play I think so we were possibly a bit wasteful. I thought there were a couple of wides that on another night could have gone over you know? But listen we are delighted to get out of here with the two points, that is the main thing.”

There were other positives for Kerry. Barry Dan O’Sullivan was effective in midfield again as Kerry look to fill the David Moran shaped hole in their team. David Clifford made his seasonal return - even if he was well marshalled by Barry McCambridge with help from Aaron McKay. The bench contributed two vital points. Gavin White and Paul Geaney are back in training but are unlikely to be ready for the Tyrone clash. Stefan Okunbor also got a full game under his belt.

“We didn't want to be going up to Tyrone with only two points,” O’Connor said. “Every point is hard fought for in this league. I said that before we started. I've been saying it pretty consistently that we were behind the curve starting off training and that. But I think tonight outside of the fact we had another extra week's training obviously, I think the attitude was better tonight. We weren't happy with the way we played up in Castlebar. It was an unacceptable performance and the players knew that. They didn't have to be told that but just to make sure they knew it, we told them on Tuesday night. Look they reacted the right way, that's all you can do after a bad performance is react the right way.

The Armagh panel hopped across town to watch Donaghy’s basketball win. With four points on the board and two home games remaining, there was no sense of panic from selector Kieran McKeever.

“We’re hugely-disappointed,” he said. “It’s definitely a match that we should have got something out of. We definitely should have got a point out of it, it was nip-and-tuck the whole way and we knew it would be coming down the road.

“There are loads of positives from it but it was probably those wee errors in the final four or five minutes that potentially got them across the line.

“I wouldn’t say ‘composure’, I think our composure has been really good over the last 18 months. There was a bit of indiscipline from us in defence when we had no call to engage with anybody and then there was a bit of inconsistency from the referee as well which probably helped them as well in the final stages.

“But that is something that’s out of our control and we have to lick our wounds and get ready for another big week.

“We worked hard as a unit – something that we pride ourselves on.

“But we have to stay concentrated and engaged for the full 70-plus minutes. We lost a bit of concentration towards the end and that cost us.

“There are still six points up for grabs so we’re not going to panic,” he said. “We’ll regroup before we head back up the road and we know what lies ahead of us which is Donegal next Saturday night and we’ll be ready for another battle.”

“We know what Donegal is going to take to the table. We like to think we will bring to the table after tonight and after we showed last week. We’re under no illusion what’s ahead of us but we’ll be ready for anything that Donegal fire at us next Saturday night.”