The Orchard county led by 0-8 to 1-2 at halftime and things didn't get any better for the Yeatsmen in the second half.

Three points in as many minutes by Ryan Gaffney, Gerard Enright and Cathal Carville at the start of the first half gave Armagh a dream start.

With Barry McCormack controlling the play in the halfback line, the visitors were on top all over the field during the opening 25 minutes. A Colm Crowley goal on the rebound, on the half-hour mark, after a Paul Seevers 65 was blocked, gave Sligo some hope for the second half.

Gerard Enright got Armagh off the mark after 30 seconds of the second half and a Cathal Carville goal in the 50th minutes put the visitors 10-points clear and ended any flickering hopes of a Sligo comeback.

ROSCOMMON HAVE WAY TOO MUCH FIREPOWER

Roscommon cantered to a 7-27 to 1-6 win over Fermanagh in the Nicky Rackard Cup at Athleague yesterday.

The descended into target practice for Roscommon as early as the 22nd minute of the first half. At this stage, the Roscommon side led by 0-10 to 0-1 and the question on everyone's lips was how much would the home side eventually win by. Fermanagh, for all their endeavour, simply did not measure up to the task of the home side who extended their lead to 18 points by half time, 1-16 to 0-1. Roscommon dominated every sector of the field but the platform for their emphatic win was their midfield and half-back line. Led by the ever-green Mervyn Connaughton, they never gave their direct opponents a sniff, closing them down at every opportunity.

Intelligent use of the sliotar into the Roscommon attack resulted in an avalanche of scores. Time after time, the diagonal ball into the full-forward line caught the Fermanagh defence flat-footed and the Roscommon attack certainly made hay on a perfect day for hurling. To the fore in the scoring stakes was centreforward Tom Reddington who notched three goals and five points from play, and corner man Shane Sweeney who weighed in with 2-6.

Fermanagh to their credit never gave up and added 1-5 to their first half total, their goal coming from substitute Stephen Smyth.

Roscommon now march on and it would be a shock if they fail to be crowned Nicky Rackard Cup champions.