Leaders Armagh won’t allow complaceny to creep in, says coach Chris Parker

There are only seven games remaining to clinch the one automatic spots in the AIL top flight but there is no talk of promotion around the Palace Grounds, with Parker all too aware there is still a lot of hard fixtures coming Armagh’s way, starting at Old Belvedere.

“There is no pressure on, without wanting to sound clichéd we are not looking past this Saturday because as soon as you do that you slip up,” said Parker.

“The fixtures in this league… it is not as if there are any easy ones, we still have to go away to a number of the top sides and everyone is going to take points off each other, and it is going to go down to the last one or two fixtures of the season.

“We just have to make sure that come Saturday at 4pm we’re still sitting top of the league and if we can do that from week to week, we’ll see where we end up.”

Parker was delighted with the result and performance in Co Kildare last week.

“Naas is always a very hard place to go and we knew we would have to up our performance from the previous week, and the boys really delivered what we asked of them,” he said.

“I think it was one of our most complete performances of the year so far, so [I was] extremely pleased – then we got into the changing rooms and heard some of the other results and got an extra bit of pleasure out of it.

“I was delighted with the performance the squad produced last week,” he added.

“The momentum is there, we just have to keep it rolling I guess and the performance really helped us last week. We got through a couple of games not performing well and eking out victories but to play so well and have such a comprehensive win was really pleasing.”

Old Belvedere are fourth in the table, nine points behind Armagh, and Parker is expecting a difficult game.

“It’s very difficult, they are unbeaten at home, they are a tough enough proposition. They have got that unbeaten home record, which is something that they will take a lot of pride in and won’t want to let slip.

“They are a young squad, high work rate, energetic, extremely good at the breakdown, so it is certainly a big task that we have got this week on the road.

“We’ll try to take the positives from last week and the momentum and hopefully secure the result.

“I think that monkey is off our backs a wee bit about winning on the road and winning outside Ulster, but we just have to make sure we back up performances.”

Neil Faloon replaces winger Andrew Willis in the only change from last week.

Buoyed by their big win against Buccaneers last week, ninth-placed Banbridge travel to Naas as they look to escape the relegation dog fight.

Malone are six points adrift of Bann at the foot of the table and travel to third-placed Highfield.