Tyrone test no surprise to Armagh boss McGeeney

By Shaun Casey

THE pre-match hype suggested Armagh would comfortably see off their arch-rivals Tyrone to kickstart their championship campaign but Kieran McGeeney has been around too long to buy into that native.

From even before the rivalry peaked in the noughties, of which McGeeney was a key figure, there is never much between the two counties when it comes to championship football.

Sunday’s Ulster Championship preliminary round followed along that same script. Armagh came out on top eventually, after extra time, but Malachy O’Rourke’s Red Hands pushed them to the pin of their collars.

Armagh were minus a man for the additional 20 minutes of play. Darragh McMullan picked up a second yellow card before the final whistle, so McGeeney was proud that his team dealt with that disadvantage.

“I’ve been watching football for almost 40 years now and I’ve yet to see Tyrone put out a bad team,” McGeeney said following Armagh’s 1-17 to 1-16 triumph.

“I thought we were in control a lot of the time and we gave the ball away. Even for the goal, we gave the ball away three times along the sideline there. It was just silly things.

“In fairness to the fellas, it couldn’t be easy being down a man in the modern game, it’s very difficult to play against. To do that for the last ten minutes of the game and the whole of extra time and to come out winners, it says a lot for them, although not playing at their best.”

Armagh looked to be in control during the opening period of the encounter and marched into a 0-6 to 0-1 lead, but the Orchard County boss felt they dropped their guard from that position.

There were 8-4 ahead at the halfway point, but Tyrone did briefly get their noses ahead until the introduction of Oisin O’Neill swung momentum back in the favour of the home side. Ben McDonnell then netted late on to force extra time.

“I think when we were 6-1 up, we stopped playing well,” McGeeney continued. “We started getting sloppy. We just gave the ball away a lot. We didn’t test them at different times but you have to give credit to them.

“They were able to slow the game down, get vital scores at different times. A couple of two-pointers. It’s not our finest day but credit has to be given to Tyrone too. They came here, written off and fought and fought.”