It's getting hairy at the bottom of Division Two following Galway's 2-14 to 1-13 victory over Armagh in Tuam.

The result sees the Tribesmen leapfrog Laois into joint fifth place, alongside Armagh, with one match left to play. Armagh - who welcomed back Aaron Kernan today - are anxiously looking over their shoulders as they host high-flying Donegal in the last round next weekend.

Quick out of the blocks, Galway found the net twice inside the opening four minutes to take a 2-8 to 0-9 interval lead.

The Tribesmen could hardly have wished for a better start to the match, goals from Eddie Hoare and Michael Martin propelling them into a 2-1 to 0-1 lead after just five minutes!

Paul Conroy and Tony Kernan had swapped the first two points of the match before the hosts lashed home those two quickfire majors to put themselves in the boss seat.

Points from Rory Grugan and Eugene McVerry kept the Orchard County in touch and the gap was down to three points by the time McVerry clipped over his second point on 20 minutes, 2-3 to 0-6.

Sean Armstrong (free) and Paul Conroy were both on target as the hosts restored their six-point cushion coming up to the half-hour mark, 2-7 to 0-7.

It was double scores in favour of the westerners after Armstrong pinged over a '45' but the Orchard County fired the last two points of the opening period through Kernan (free) and Jamie Clarke to trail by five at the interval.

Kevin Dyas slotted Armagh's third successive point upon the restart but the visitors were reduced to 14 men when Gary McCooey got a black card on top of a yellow … and therefore a red…

Paul Grimley's charges kept plugging away and Tony Kernan's goal saw them move within two points of their opponents, 2-9 to 1-10, with a quarter of the match left to play. After the gap was reduced to one by substitute Aaron Kernan, Martin gave the Tribesmen some breathing space by providing just their second point of the second half.

Dyas reduced the margin to one and Finian Moriarty tied the scores up for the second time in the game - 1-13 to 2-10. But Galway finished like a house on fire…

James Kavanagh and Paul Conroy hit two quick points to put the Tribe back in the ascendancy. Then Mike Farragher and Tom Flynn added two more super Galway points as Alan Mulholland's men recorded a vital win.

Galway - T Healy; K Kelly, F Hanley, D O'Neill; G Bradshaw, G O'Donnell, P Varley; F O Curraoin, T Flynn (0-1); M Lundy, E Hoare (1-1), J Kavanagh (0-2); M Martin (1-1), P Conroy (0-3), S Armstrong (0-5). Subs: C Mulryan for F Hanley, M Farragher (0-1) for M Lundy, D Cummins for M Martin, D O'Connell for J Kavanagh.

Armagh - P McEvoy; A Mallon, A Findon, M Murray; M Shields, K Toner, R Grugan (0-2); S Harold, P O'Neill; C Rafferty, K Dyas (0-3), E McVerry (0-2); J Clarke (0-1), T Kernan (1-3), K Carragher. Subs: G McCooey for P O'Neill, F Moriarty (0-1) for M Shields, O MacIomhair for M Murray, A Kernan (0-1) for R Grugan, B Mallon for O MacIomhair.

Referee - D Fahy. Tweet

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