Kieran McGeeney has challenged Jamie Clarke to make his latest Armagh comeback a success.

The gifted Crossmaglen attacker made his return to the inter-county scene as a 54th minute substitute in yesterday's facile McKenna Cup victory over Queen's University after spending last summer in America.

"With Jamie, it's how far he wants to go. He's a good player, but I suppose these past couple of years, he's had itchy feet," the Armagh manager told RTE.

"He's committed to us for the year, but we've a lot of young players coming through. Young Ben Crealey, Kieran Higgins, have been exceptional so far for us this year, and are both still U21s."

McGeeney admitted that Armagh found the students hard to break down as they turn their thoughts to a local derby showdown with Down in midweek.

"Queen's were quite resoluted in the first 20 minutes, but I would have been just a wee bit disappointed in our patience - we tried to squeeze passes through that just weren't on, which gave them the chance to counter," he noted.

"We got more game time into Ethan [Rafferty] as he's been gone for a while, same with Niall Grimley, Jamie as well. We've got a lot of positives out of the win."

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