Paddy O'Rourke is hoping to see a backlash from his Armagh team in tomorrow's All-Ireland football qualifier against Donegal.

The NFL Division 2 champions were walloped by Monaghan in their Ulster SFC quarter-final, but O'Rourke is hopeful they can redeem themselves in Crossmaglen.

"It was a very disappointing result," he said in the Irish News.

"We were very disappointed with the performance and obviously we'll be looking to change things around. We will have to improve massively on our last performance to try and get anything out of this game."

The former Down All-Ireland winning captain refused to blame the dismissal of Brian Mallon just before half-time for the Orchard County's dismal showing against Monaghan.

"It was very disappointing to lose Brian but lots of teams have been able to handle the game with 14 players. On the day, we weren't."

Armagh's preparations for tomorrow's game have been hit by injuries to Ronan Clarke, Martin O'Rourke, Ryan Henderson, Finnian Moriarty and Colm Watters, who won't feature against Donegal.

"We are short a lot of players that we'd like to have, so it is a very tough match for us as Donegal seem to be more or less at full strength," he added. Tweet

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