Tony Kernan insists Armagh intend to beat Cavan when they meet in their Ulster SFC opener at Breffni Park on May 29th.

The hosts recorded a thumping 17-point victory in the league clash of the two sides at the same venue early last month - a result which ultimately cost the Orchard County their Division Two status. While Cavan powered up to the top flight, Kernan is adamant that Armagh can turn the tables on them:

"It was a long journey home," the Crossmaglen ace told The Irish News. "There was quite a bit of reflection afterwards and the week after the game - it wasn't an experience that I'd ever like to repeat again and we'll be doing all in our power over the next five weeks to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"Thinking about closing the gap or trying to get beat by less than 17 points… that sort of attitude wouldn't be tolerated in our camp. We are going out to win the first game of the Championship against Cavan, that's what we are planning to do and that's what we hope to do.

"We are going to spend the next five weeks working towards it. We haven't forgotten how much we were beat by. We are trying to work on what we did wrong and make sure that, when we go to Cavan, we win the game.

"From our point of view, we ended the league getting relegated, but we drew a wee bit of optimism from the last three results and we need to keep trying to improve and progress and be ready for Cavan.

"I think the Cavan game sparked us into a couple of decent performances. We still didn't get the results that we wanted - we would have liked to be winning each of those games and staying in Division Two. It hasn't been perfect since, but it certainly has been an improvement.

"Being relegated is something we'll deal with next year, whenever we start the league again. As soon as the match against Derry was over, our attention switched to the Cavan game and that's all that we are focusing on."

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