Dr McKenna Cup: Armagh 1-11 3-9 Cavan

Martin Dunne and Niall Mac Eochegan

Cavan registered their first win of this year's McKenna Cup with a four-point victory over Armagh in the Section B game at the Athletic Grounds.

Tomas Corr and Martin Dunne scored goals for Cavan in the opening 17 minutes, before Gavin McParland pulled one back for Armagh before the break.

The visitors led 2-5 to 1-5 at half-time and Dunne added his second goal of the game after 42 minutes.

Armagh midfielder Kieran Toner was red-carded in the last minute of the match.

Toner was dismissed for a second bookable offence.

A more experienced Cavan side led from start to finish against an experimental Armagh outfit, which included seven debutants.

Played in front of a crowd of 2,346, Cavan were always in command after their early goal burst.

Midfielder Corr burst through the middle after a great pass from Cian Mackey and drilled a low long-range shot to the net after seven minutes.

Dunne took advantage of a defensive blunder in the Armagh fullback line to curl the ball past Niall Geoghegan.

Ten minutes elapsed before Armagh got their first score through rookie Niall McConville.

Gearoid McKieran's point stretched Cavan's lead to 2-4 to 0-4 after half an hour.

McParland replied instantly with a goal for Armagh, just minutes after he had moved to full-forward, and the home side trailed by three points at the break.

Armagh made a bright start to the second-half with three points in as many minutes but Dunne's fisted goal after 42 minutes wiped out their good start.

Stefan Forker was impressive for Armagh and hit 0-6, four from frees, while McKiernan hit four from play for Cavan.

The result means that the final game in Section B between Down and Armagh on Wednesday will decide who goes through to the semi-finals of the competition.

Armagh: N Geoghegan; C McKeever, J Donnelly, F Moriarty; N Rowland, A Forker, M Shields; S Harold (0-1), K Toner; G McParland (1-0), N McConville (0-1), E Rafferty; D Carville, S Forker (0-6, 4f), E McVerry (0-1)

Subs: A Duffy for Rowland (23), C Rafferty (0-1) for Carville (29), B Mallon (0-1) for McConville (48), D McKenna for A Forker (59), S Campbell for Mallon (70)

Cavan: J Reilly; O Minagh, K Brady, D Barkey; P Reilly, A Clarke, J McCutcheon; T Corr (1-0), G McKiernan (0-4); D O'Reilly (0-1), D McKiernan, M McKeever; C Mackey, M Dunne (2-2, 2f), N McDermott (0-2, 2f)

Subs: J Hayes for Minagh (34), N Murray for Brady (47), O O'Connell for Dermott (66), D Tighe for O'Reilly (70)