Armagh pick up where they left off before red mist descends against Tyrone

Armagh 2-14 Tyrone 0-14

Well that descended quickly. Just when it seemed these best of enemies were content to play out on yellow warning terms only, they gathered for one mass restless farewell at the Drumarg terrace end and all red broke loose.

Normal time had just elapsed, six minutes of added time announced, Armagh a relatively safe five points clear. For reasons not immediately evident, a dozen or so players from each team suddenly got stuck into the other - directly in the faces of the spectators - some falling to the ground and wrestling around as if mimicking mixed martial artists.

It wasn’t particularly vicious and it certainly wasn’t pretty. Match referee David Gough’s mood for high physicality was already low, and he’d clearly seen enough. Greg McCabe was singled out first and shown a straight red, before Gough assembled four Tyrone players and flashed them all red in quick succession - including captain Padraig Hampsey, 2021 player of the year Kieran McGeary, and defenders Michael McKernan and Peter Harte. Is that a record?

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Gough consulted the rounds alright, only no one saw five straight red cards coming, especially not Tyrone’s four to Armagh’s one. It finished off a pretty miserable afternoon for the All-Ireland champions, still looking for the first win anywhere since that triumph. Ten points down at half-time, and that might have been a lot more, they battled hard to reduce the deficit to four, just before the end of normal time, although there’s no denying Armagh had them in their grip.

Even before Gough’s spray of red there was a sense the game wouldn’t end with 30 players on the field; they also finished with 13 yellow cards between them, seven for Armagh, including manager Kieran McGeeney after five minutes, for encroaching on the sideline.

Tyrone co-manager Feargal Logan, better known perhaps for being more diplomatic on these matters, appeared genuinely bemused by their greater share of red, a record in his mind anyway. “I’ve never seen that in my life before, and I’ve been around a lot of football, four men getting straight red cards like that,” he said.

“Let’s just hope we can get a good look at the video, and things will potentially balance themselves out again. It didn’t seem that one-sided a row to me, but anyway all we can do for the moment is live with it, as best we can.”

Describing it as “classic Ulster football” and “two teams that go back a long way”, Logan also hinted strongly the cards would be appealed: “It was good hard stuff, it’s just unfortunate that it finished with a picture like that, and let’s hope we see fairness and balance and common sense prevail as the week develops.

“It’s not an easy job refereeing heavy games like that, David Gough is good referee, clearly. We’ll have to watch the video, and maybe it was so imbalanced that it turned out that way, but anyway that’s for another today. Today we’ll just have to lick our wounds and commend Armagh.”

Before a near capacity crowd of 14,328, Armagh picked up exactly where they left off against Dublin last weekend, especially Rian O’Neill. This time O’Neill played a much deeper role around midfield, even more obviously influential at times, and finished with 0-4, two frees (although notably perhaps Tyrone didn’t bring Hampsey out to mark him).

Despite playing into the strong wind, Armagh quickly put distance on Tyrone, O’Neill setting up their first goal after six minutes with a peach of a pass to McCabe, who blasted his shot past Niall Morgan. They’d six different scorers by half-time, the second goal coming in added time just before the break, Tiernan Kelly’s brilliant run setting up Jason Duffy for his close-range shot.

Two goals converted, two other big chances missed, Armagh were well deserving of their 2-8 to 0-4 advantage, Tyrone looking lethargic and at times even a little ruffled. Darragh Canavan kicked the best of their first half scores, two more scores coming from their full back line.

Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney wasn’t offering much insight to the red card event, more suitably focused on another impressive performance of his team, suitably dressed in a slightly more menacing all black alternative kit.

“Literally, you see where we stand, we can hardly see the game, never mind that,” said McGeeney. “Talking to Greg (McCabe) there, he feels hard done by When you have a bit schemozzle like that there, it’s really hard to see. I’m sure everybody’s going to be looking at videos tonight and there’s going to be solicitors all over the place.

“Listen, Tyrone are the All-Ireland champions and again, it’s not trying to undermine a good two points. They got a hammering from Kerry and came back and won the All-Ireland final.

“It’s only two games in. That’s all it is. Listen, great start. We’d probably be disappointed with our second half. Top teams are always going to have their purple patch against you, they seemed to be able to get a lot of frees there against us there that got them back into the game. The boys did well and kept their composure when it counted.”

Ciaran Mackin is fast becoming a revelation around midfield, Jarly Og Burns was in fine attacking form, and Armagh finished with 11 different scorers in all, a healthy spread at any time of the year, their replacements also making the sort if impact desired. Only when Tyrone went down route one in the second half did they cause Armagh some trouble, winning their share of frees at least, Cathal McShane converting seven of them in the league half.

“Our first half was well below standard,” added Logan. “In fairness the spirit in the second half was outstanding, players put in a massive shift. It’s just unfortunate that everybody didn’t get to see it come down to the wire, to see who would come out on top. There’s always goal chances, but everything just melted away once the mayhem broke out.”

Armagh: B Hughes; S Sheridan, A McKay (0-1), A Forker; Connaire Mackin, N Rowland, J Og Burns (0-1); Ciaran Mackin (0-1), T Kelly (0-1); J Hall (0-1), R Grugan (0-2, both frees), G McCabe (1-0); A Nugent (0-1), Rian O'Neill (0-4, two frees), J Duffy (1-1). Subs: S Campbell (0-1) for Kelly (half-time), M Shields for Connaire Mackin (44 mins), C O'Hanlon for Duffy (57 mins), J Morgan for Rowland (63 mins).

Tyrone: N Morgan; M McKernan (0-1), P Hampsey (0-1), L Rafferty; C Meyler, F Burns, P Harte; N Donnelly (0-1), B Kennedy; K McGeary (0-1), D Canavan (0-1), N Sludden (0-1); D McCurry (0-1, a free), M Donnelly, C McShane (0-7, all frees). Subs: J Monroe for Donnelly, C Shields for Rafferty (both half-time), P Donaghy for McCurry (45 mins), C McKenna for Donnelly (53 mins), B McDonnell for Sludden (70 mins).

Referee: David Gough (Meath).