ARMAGH SUCCEEDED in contradicting all the best-held views on the importance of midfield control in Gaelic football yesterday when they failed to translate their midfield dominance into scores on the board.
An unforgivable tally of 18 wides, against four for Tyrone, puts Armagh's self-destructive performance into context. Their wayward shooting also compounded a failure to take full advantage of a numerical superiority - Tyrone corner back Chris Lawn was sent to the line for a second bookable offence 50 minutes into a curious tie.
Tyrone manager Danny Ball could not resist saying to the dejected Armagh players afterwards: "Thank God your shooting was so poor. We had more than our share of luck".
Brian Canavan, joint manager of Armagh admitted: "It was the worst frustrating experience I have ever had to sit through. It's entirely our own fault. I never saw a team dominate so much and lose".
Tyrone won the toss and captain Peter Canavan opted to take wind advantage. Armagh's superiority in general awareness, combined skills and midfield edge soon became apparent. There were early indications of Jarlath Burns' superb midfield performance and Tyrone were relegated to a containing role.
It soon became equally apparent that Armagh's finishing power was suspect. Key strikers such as Oisin McConville and Gerard Houlahan, were among those who had seemingly left their shooting boots at home and were eventually replaced.
By the time the match was 20 minutes old, Armagh had not only shot themselves in the foot, but machine gunned it off by chalking up seven wides.
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing," said Brian Canavan. "We had practiced this morning on the way to the match and the lads couldn't miss putting them over."
Still, they somehow refused to allow repeated forward errors to dampen their spirits and Tyrone remained under great pressure.
Good ball, the sort that Peter Canavan likes, was not filtering through to the home side's front line. A stubborn display by the Armagh half backs, Andrew McCann, Damien Horisk and John Rafferty, saw to that. Rafferty, a late call up, policed the roaming Ciaran McBride well and found time to set up dangerous Armagh attacks, besides getting in a few shots in himself.
Armagh's attacking errors were seen to rub off on their defence in the second quarter, poor kicks out presented Tyrone with gifts and goalkeeper Brendan Tierney had tot put on a class act to deny Peter Canavan a goal near half-time. Tierney also made a name for himself in the third quarter, making a great save from a Mattie McGleenan effort.
But McGleenan, who started his first championship match of the season was not to be outdone. In the 66th minute, he netted the only goal of the match - a score that put the issue beyond doubt. The question was, however, did he push corner back Just in McNulty before finishing?
Up to that suspect goal, Armagh had been very much in contention. They had hit the front with a McConville point after 54 minutes (0-11 to 0-10) . The extra-man role, filled in turn, by Paul McGrane and Cathal O'Rourke, suddenly looked likely to be a factor. The relief for Tyrone supporters was enormous when Peter Canavan levelled the scores with yet another superbly-struck free in the 56th minute.
Alarm bells were ringing in Tyrone ears and, not surprisingly, Brian Dooher was sprung from the bench, dead leg and all. He had the satisfaction of restoring the lead with a great point moments before McGleenan's clinching goal.
McGleenan had already wasted his best chance of a goal in the first half when the opportunity was laid on by Peter Canavan. Instead, the full forward could only manage a point.
That score, however, helped Tyrone to lead 0-9 to 0-5 at the interval. The torture continued for Armagh spectators early in the second half when McConville and Kieran McGeeney contributed to three wides from easy positions.
The threat of the winners' full forward line was exaggerated by Canavan's five pointed frees. McGleenan (1-2) and McBride (0-1) contributed to that front line's aggregate tally of 1-8.
