Tyrone's hunger consigns Armagh to second sitting

So far all this talk of second chances in the football championship was kept hushed, the fear being it might help take a team down.

Well now it can help raise voices, become a consolation, and for Armagh, Wicklow and Leitrim, something to look forward to instead of the tiresome void that would normally set in with defeat at this stage of summer.

So yesterday afternoon in the football championship added a new meaning to the term winners and losers and nowhere was it more evident than in Clones, where the attendance peaked at just over 30,000. There Tyrone won through to the Ulster semifinal 1-14 to 1-9 at the expense of champions Armagh, who lose their quest to win an historic third provincial title and instead take the losers' route to another day in the sun.

Youth and hunger were the big difference here, the latter helped on by Tyrone's isolation during the foot-and-mouth spell. Suffering most from this combination was the Armagh defence, who at times acted like backseat passengers when serious driving was required. Tyrone's charge was aided by one of the quickest goals ever seen in a championship game, ending with the young Owen Mulligan guiding the ball into the net. Stephen O'Neill, just a year older at 20, helped build on that lead so that Tyrone enjoyed an opening blitz that cut deep into the Armagh nerves.

Diarmuid Marsden helped Armagh reduce some of the damage approaching the break and although they enjoyed a similarly quick goal at the start of the second half, scoring just one point in the final half hour of play was ultimately fatal. So Tyrone it was who comfortably advanced to play the winners of the Derry-Antrim clash.

In Tuam, Galway put on their expected show in the first round of their Connacht title defence and also sent the losers (in this case Leitrim) into the new qualification group. After the 3-24 to 3-5 victory, Galway manager John O'Mahony didn't have a whole lot of tactics to talk about but there was that question of the missing Donnellan brothers John and Michael. "Of course they were missed," he said, "there was no question of that. But I'd love to have everybody available to me and that includes the Donnellans. Everything that is done by me, the management, the county board is for the good of Galway football and I am in constant contact with all the players on my panel. My only wish is that the best players are available and starring for Galway."

Dare one say it but the Donnellan's picked a good day for a break. With Padraig Joyce back to his majestic best, Galway were up 2-8 to 1-1 at the break and never looked back. Leitrim did well to get their goals and could have had a few more but they know it could have been worse if Michael, for one, had been in town.

Candidates for narrowest losers of the day were Wicklow, who fell by a single point to Carlow, 0-9 to 0-8, in the Leinster championship first round replay in Newbridge. The game seemed destined for extra-time until defender Joe Byrne popped over the decisive point, and Carlow now meet Kildare in Croke Park on June 3rd.

But winning the title of losers of the day must be Dublin, who fell out of the Leinster hurling championship without any consolation of another day under summer skies. Leading Laois by two points and with the clock ticking into its fifth minute of injury time, they watched desperately as Paul Cuddy fired from 30 yards out to crack the sliotar into the net, and with it crack Dublin hearts.