Mickey Harte: "It's difficult to explain Derry's downturn in championship form"

First half goals from Ross McQuillan and the excellent Conor Turbitt typified an opening half in which Derry's inability to retain possession gifted Armagh numerous chances and left the home side eight behind at the break. Despite a bright opening to the second half, didn't improve with Armagh too often making hay in the wide opening spaces of Derry's defensive half.

It's easy to forget that only NINE weeks ago Derry were defeating Dublin in Croke Park to lift the Division One title and while injuries have played a part, Harte conceded he was struggling to pinpoint the cause of Derry's swift fall from grace.

"I suppose it's a sort of a three-in-a-row disappointment that they're just not reaching the levels they did in the league,and particularly the league final," explained the Derry manager, "It's very hard to explain what has happened, but I mean, we can only look at it and see what our eyes are telling us, that we're getting bad beatings. It's very hard to put your finger on it.

"Yes, Armagh played with a huge intensity there today, but I think we gifted them the key to the door, so to speak. You might say that comes with the pressure and intensity they put on, but if you take a closer look, I think we gave away some crucial balls and it wasn't really intensity that caused it, it was errors on our part. It's very hard to deal with that.

"When you're trying to beat your way back into a bit of form, conceding goals like we did in the first half, then it's an uphill battle all the way. We did start the second half with a bit of a flurry but you needed to continue that without giving anything away - or at least get very close before they got another score or two themselves. When that happened, it was a question of just finishing out the game, I suppose. It was inevitable they were going to win."

Derry now face a make or break clash with Westmeath, a game which is tantamount to knock-out. The winner will finish third in Group one and secure an away preliminary quarter-final against one of the group runners-up.

"Well, nobody has experienced three challenging defeats because you used to not be able to get them," added Harte on his team's current run of form, "Two was enough in the past. No, it's a new place to be, to lose three challenging matches in a row and, look, at it as what it is.

"People saw what happened there today, as well as me, and I find it hard to explain it. I can't explain the difference in the performance of our team. The players are still very good players, they couldn't have won Division One without being very good players. And suddenly within a couple of months, they're not playing with the quality we saw from them.

"So, look, we'll have to just do our best to dig through the debris and try and come out with something better for the next game."