No action expected on Linden incident

There is unlikely to be any further action taken in relation to Sunday's controversial Ulster club football final in advance of the winners, Crossmaglen, playing in next weekend's All-Ireland quarter-final.

There has been a great deal of comment in respect of the incident in which Mayobridge player manager Mickey Linden suffered concussion, lost two teeth and was forced to leave the field in the 14th minute after a challenge by Crossmaglen's Francie Bellew. Referee Michael Hughes of Tyrone took no action, although he subsequently showed Bellew a yellow card for a separate incident.

Danny Murphy, secretary of the Ulster Council, said yesterday there was no meeting scheduled for this week and that he didn't foresee an extraordinary meeting being called.

"We will await the referee's report, which we're expecting in a couple of days. The council absolutely does have recourse to video evidence and if we need to look at it, we will.

"Only last week we dealt with the Derrygonnelly-Carrickmore (Ulster club championship) match and handed down suspensions to five players arising out of incidents in the game. A great deal of the evidence was taken from the match video. We have all of our matches videotaped."

Crossmaglen are scheduled to play British club champions An Ríocht Kerry Gaels this weekend. Gareth O'Neill, who received a straight red card, will automatically miss the match, but Bellew's case - should the Council decide to pursue it - would require an investigation and it is unlikely that the matter would be considered before next month's scheduled meeting.

"We had a meeting last week and I wouldn't see us calling an extraordinary meeting," said Murphy.

Meanwhile, the Ulster football championship match between Tyrone and Down could be forced out of Clones by a major cycling event. A road race is due to be held in the vicinity of the Monaghan town on May 22nd next year, the date for the first round fixture.

The game has been fixed by the Ulster Council for Healy Park in Omagh, but a switch to a larger venue is widely anticipated. The Tyrone venue has a capacity of around 20,000, and county board officials have suggested they would be willing to concede home advantage.

Casement Park now appears to be the overwhelming favourite to stage the game, which will be the fourth championship clash between the sides in three seasons.

Ulster Council PRO Martin McAviney confirmed that officials were aware of a cycling event on May 22nd, but stressed that no decision had been taken on the venue for the Tyrone-Down game in any case.