Armagh's second-half recovery earned a 0-10 to 1-7 draw with 14-man Cork at the Athletic Grounds.

The Rebels led by 1-3 to 0-1 at the end of a poor first half, having had corner forward and captain Paul Kerrigan sent off after 30 minutes. Meanwhile, Armagh, who trailed by six shortly after the restart, failed to score from play in that opening period. But they reeled off seven points in a row in the third quarter.

Conor Counihan's troops bossed the early exchanges but their finishing wasn't quite up to scratch as they registered a series of disappointing wides, including a Fintan Goold free and a Donncha O'Connor shot off the woodwork.

Fiachra Lynch opened the scoring on nine minutes but scores were hard to come by as both sides laboured badly.

The visitors were gifted a goal on 20 minutes when Kerrigan's poorly-struck free was dropping well short as it was fumbled to the net past rookie goalkeeper Niall Geoghan by midfielder John Kingham - a moment to forget for the two league debutants.

Kerrigan followed up with another weakly struck free that didn't come close to threatening the posts but the Rebels added another point through Mark Collins (who started in place of Colm O'Neill) before Paul Carville finally opened the Orchard account from a 25th-minute free awarded after Cork goalkeeper Ken O'Halloran picked the ball off the ground.

O'Connor kicked a majestic point to stretch the gap, 1-3 to 0-1.

The Leesiders were reduced to 14 men after half an hour when Kerrigan was dismissed with a straight red card for lashing out at Finian Moriarty off the ball and both Armagh full back Brendan Donaghy and Cork centre back Graham Canty subsequently saw yellow minutes later for their part in a brawl involving a number of players from both sides.

Goold's left-footed free from the ground opened the second-half scoring three minutes in but Armagh replacement Aidan Forker - wearing No.17 - replied with a free from the hands. Eugene McVerry converted another free from the other side - off his right boot - to close the gap to four, 1-4 to 0-3 after 42 minutes.

Malachy Mackin, who produced a Man of the Match display after moving out to midfield from the edge of the square, won that free and more purposeful running from the No.14 culminated in another McVerry conversion two minutes later. Just the goal separated the teams now and the 15 men were well on top.

McVerry dropped over his third free in five minutes to make it 0-5 to 1-4. All the momentum was with Paddy O'Rourke's side…

Mackin levelled the scores with an excellent left-footed point on 52 minutes (their first score from play), after Forker had pointed a free and the hosts were ahead within 40 seconds as McVerry then took his first score from play - Armagh's seventh successive point: 0-8 to 1-4 at the start of the fourth quarter.

But Cork levelled through a brilliant point from an acute angle by substitute Sean Kiely. Another Forker free from close range re-established Armagh's lead.

Strong Cork defending halted McVerry as he tried to get through for a goal before O'Connor fisted the levelling score. The visitors had retaken the lead via Collins with six minutes remaining and a superb Donaghy tackle denied O'Connor a Rebel goal.

Armagh levelled again courtesy of substitute Brian Mallon and McVerry missed a chance to steal the points from a last-gasp free. The final whistle sounded after two minutes of injury time.

Armagh: N Geoghan; A Mallon, B Donaghy, D McKenna; P Duffy, C McKeever, F Moriarty; C Vernon, J Kingham; C Watters, K Dyas, A Duffy; P Carvill (0-1), M Mackin (0-1), E McVerry (0-4). Subs: C Rafferty for Kingham, A Forker (0-3) for Watters, S Campbell for Carvill, B Mallon (0-1) for P Duffy, R Rafferty for Dyas.

Cork: K O'Halloran; R Carey, M Shields, E Cadogan; N O'Leary, G Canty, P Kissane; A O'Connor, P O'Neill; F Goold (0-1), F Lynch (0-1), C O'Driscoll; M Collins (0-2), D O'Connor (0-2), P Kerrigan (1-0). Subs: S Kiely (0-1) for O'Driscoll, D O'Sullivan for O'Leary, E Cotter for Cadogan, L Shorten for Lynch. Tweet

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