THE FIRST surprise in this afternoon of the unexpected was when Down manager Ross Carr appeared on the sidelines. Earlier in the day, Carr had somehow got a temporary lifting of his sideline ban stemming back to incidents in the league, apparently because he was not allowed proper time to pursue the full appeal process.

The last surprise was when he seemingly skipped off afterwards, thus avoiding media probing into exactly how he pulled it off. It was left to Down captain and midfielder Dan Gordon to assess their game, and he quickly put the satisfaction of the draw in context.

"Well, there was still nothing achieved today," said Gordon. "A draw is as good for them as it is for us. But we have another game next week, and we'll see what happens there. We fought hard out there, but we have fought hard all year. We've realised we've had enough hard-luck stories.

"We had an indifferent league campaign but we fought hard through that as well, never gave up. And that showed today.

"The replacements did very well . . . and for the first time in five or six years, we have an extremely strong squad. But this is not a defining day for us. Next week will be."

Centre back Liam Doyle also praised the replacements: "When the team was named on Thursday night, I know there were four or five players very disappointed not to make it. Them boys got the chance in the second half, like big Ambrose Rodgers, and made a big difference. The bench told on the day, but we needed them, especially on a hot day like that.

"But it was still the old story - we just didn't do ourselves justice in the first half. We were all very disappointed. DJ Kane (the Down selector) had some very stern words for us (at half-time), but we didn't need that.

"We knew coming out for the second half that we had to put in the work and the effort."

For Tyrone manager Mickey Harte, the inquisition began with a reminder his team had never lost a replay under his guidance.

"Well, you can't talk about stuff like that," he smiled. "Both teams will learn a lot from today, and both teams will come on. Whoever manages the lessons best will be ahead at the end, and that's the challenge facing both of us.

"Maybe there was a little bit of complacency on our part. But that's what happens when you have what looks like a good lead. Players just don't stay as focused as they ought to do. . . We got plenty of warning signs that Down were on the way back, and the fact that we didn't deal with them was worrying, to say the least. It made for a long second half."

Philip Jordan and Seán Cavanagh agreed complacency came into play: "Sure, we'd be happy enough to get the draw," said Jordan, "although we'd be disappointed enough with how we performed. I think for the first 20 minutes we played as good as we have all year, but after that maybe we thought we were in a semi-final, and Down took advantage of that. We should have seen the signs, but we have something to improve on anyway. I mean in the end we were lucky enough to get the draw."

"Yeah, we probably got a wee bit complacent," said Cavanagh. "But Down have attacking players, are always dangerous and showed that in the second half, and to be honest, we're happy to be still in the Ulster championship tonight.

"Down are up there with the best teams in Ulster; people just don't realise that. The defence was great in the second half, and as far as I'm concerned you can flick a coin to see who will win the replay."