Derry's championship campaign continued to spiral out of control this afternoon, falling to a heavy 3-17 to 0-15 defeat at home to Armagh in their All-Ireland round robin clash.
Mickey Harte's men came into this game on the back of a hugely disappointing defeat against Galway a couple of weeks ago, having completely failed to turn up for the fixture in Salthill.
It was assumed that they would be much improved in front of their home support this weekend, but that did not prove to be the case.
Armagh were the dominant side right from the outset of the game, with their ability to create goalscoring opportunities the main difference between the teams. They would raise two green flags during the opening half and couple have easily added another couple of goals to that total.
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25 min: Derry 0-04 - 2-05 Armagh
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Trailing by eight points and having the wind for the second half, it was expected that Derry would make a better first of things after the interval.
However, that did not materialise. By the time Rian O'Neill notched Armagh's third goal on the hour mark, the game was all but over as a contest.
As Derry looked to be closing the gap. An O'Neill goal to make it three for Armagh. Derry sending off for McFaul in 59th minute.
60 min: Derry 0-12 - 3-13 Armagh
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Derry would be reduced to 14 men soon after, with substitute Ciaran McFaul receiving a red card after he followed a yellow card with a black a few minutes later.
In the end, Armagh would run out as comfortable 11-point winners.
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Sean Cavanagh says Mickey Harte must accept blame for Derry form
While this was arguably the finest performance we have seen from Armagh in quite some time, it will lead to more questions about the current state of Derry.
They certainly do not look anything close to the team that were so impressive in the league, with that Ulster Championship defeat against Donegal looking like it has completely knocked the stuffing out of them.
Jim McGuinness' side exploited Derry's roaming goalkeeper in that game, something that led to a number of goalscoring opportunities. There were a few similar incidents in the Armagh defeat, with the league champions persisting with the tactic despite the issues it has caused them in recent times.
Speaking on RTÉ after the game, Sean Cavanagh said that manager Mickey Harte must accept the blame for their dip in form due to the way he has set up the team.
From a Derry perspective, you would have to be asking why they haven't learned the lessons from the Donegal game here.
I think we expected them to be learned against Galway, they weren't, with the space at the back.
We know historically that Mickey can be a very stubborn man. That stubbornness seems to be costing him right now, because he seems to be refusing to change the openness and how easy Derry have to been to play against in the championship.
It's going to be difficult to change at this stage...
When there's no one tackling you for 70 metres and you're able to run the football like that, it's just so slack from Derry. It was like that all day, Armagh were given space to play in and revelled in it.
If you're Derry, you are asking 'where was our defence, where was our runners, where was our trackers'. We haven't seen Derry like that in so, so long.
Derry certainly have not altered their approach despite their poor results in this year's championship, something that seemed to cost them once again this afternoon.
Questions will now be asked about the county's approach in 2024, with Mickey Harte demanding that the team go all out right from the early stages of the league. That resulted in some excellent performances earlier in the year, but one has to winder if it is costing them now that they have reached the latter stages of the championship.
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