AS THESE derby days go, it was as good as it gets for Tyrone manager Mickey Harte. An engaging tussle with Armagh, a convincing win and a match that looked like a promotional dream for Ulster football given the fall-out from the Derry-Monaghan game a week ago.
“I hope everybody looking on will give this is as much air space as they did the other one last week,” Harte said afterwards as his team stretched and warmed down at the centre of the field.
“And if that’s the case we are back on an even keel in Ulster and can go forward from here. I say congratulations to Pat McEnaney, I think he handled the game excellently, he was totally consistent and you knew what you were getting from him, I couldn’t praise him enough today, he made that game.”
So there it was: seven days after Monaghan manager Séamus McEnaney found himself in the dock with the rest of the Monaghan-Derry fraternity, his brother is singled out for whistling a good game.
This match fairly raced along and it was a relief it did not boil down to a free-kicking contest. What looked like being a one-sided match flipped after Armagh mounted a significant comeback, forcing Harte to make a few urgent changes. “It is always a concern when a team comes back at you when it seems you are in an unassailable position, to which to a degree it was. We had a lot of possession right after Conor’s goal but we didn’t make much of it. Call that complacency, call it carelessness, call it what you will but we are guilty of that.”
It was a luxury to be able to call on Brian Dooher when Armagh were pressing. Harte smiled at the memory of the latest Dooher point-from-nothing, one from a seemingly inexhaustible talent for landing audacious points. After that, he dropped deep and helped clear the Tyrone decks.
“It is what you would expect from him (Brian Dooher). We didn’t put him in to stand about, we put him in to do a job – which he did. That is his first intercounty football since the All-Ireland final last year. You would hardly ask any other player to do it, but Brian Dooher is Brian Dooher. He is definitely one of a kind.
“I suppose experience was the key ingredient. Our players have been around the block a few times, they have been in tight situations before that they have made their way out of.”
Justin McMahon was taken off during the Armagh’s brightest period of play. The fullback had been majestic at times but Harte confirmed he was not withdrawn because of injury. “Justin McMahon hadn’t played much football in recent times either with a hamstring injury he had in one of our league match. It was more of a tactical thing than anything else and sometimes you have to make changes in response to something your opponents are doing as well.”
Armagh manager Peter McDonnell could have read the game any way he chose. His boys might have earned a draw or even stolen a win. But they could just as easily have been wiped out. They played brightly in parts and yet found themselves in a small hole after half-time.
“We controlled that game for the first 20 minutes, we failed to take the scoring opportunities that had arisen for us, we failed to be more ruthless in front of goal in that period. Tyrone got a goal against the run of play and ultimately that was the score that separated the sides at the end. Heads did drop, performances did fall off either side of half-time, then we got to a point in the second half when we could quite easily have capitulated, packed up and said right let Tyrone charge across the finish line here.
“The lads found resolve deep within them, they upped their workload and started to play a more simple game, a more direct game and a threatening game and forced it into a competitive situation again. We were unfortunate not to get something out of the game.”
