Ethan Rafferty says Armagh's surprise defeat to Down in the Ulster championship still stings a bit for the group, admitting that "it's still not fully out of our system yet".

Kieran McGeeney's side have won three All-Ireland qualifiers since last month's loss to the Mourne men in Newry, including last Saturday's victory over Tipperary in Thurles, and now face Kildare at Croke Park on Saturday week for a quarter-final place.

Fermanagh and Westmeath have also fallen on the Orchard men's sword this summer but Rafferty says there's still some regret left over from their derby defeat up north.

"It was a hurtful one on the 4th of June and it's not fully out of our system yet," Rafferty told The Irish News.

"It's something that has to drive you on. We didn't do ourselves justice that day, we didn't do the management justice, we didn't do Armagh justice at all and that's something that we want to improve on.

"We want to make the right steps to correct that. We've got three wins on-the-trot, we're going well and there's a good buzz about the camp as there always is when you're winning. We want to keep that going."

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