Armagh overcome Tyrone by the narrowest of margins in extra-time nail-biter

It needed extra-time but Armagh overcame fierce rivals Tyrone in a nail-biter at a sold out Box-It Athletic Grounds this afternoon.

The super subs made their impact, with Oisin O’Neill getting 0-6 off the bench whilst Conor Turbitt grabbed the winning score in extra-time.

It took seven minutes before the first score, but it went the way of Armagh with Callum O’Neill converting a free. The home side then had a goal chance for Darragh McMullen, but his powerful effort was impressively blocked by Peter Teague.

Blaine Hughes slotted over from the resulting ‘45 before Tyrone got their account up and running through Conn Kilpatrick. Armagh then had a purple patch where they slotted over four points in quick succession via Cian McConville, Ross McQuillan and two for Callum O’Neill.

Tyrone lost their talisman Darragh Canavan due to an injury just 20 minutes into the game, but they grew into the contest as the first half progress by scoring three of the net four points. Seanie O’Donnell, Mattie Donnelly and Ciaran Daly all opened their accounts during this period with Tomas McCormack scoring at the other end. Indeed, Tyrone could have been even closer on the score-line, but they missed 11 shots in the first half.

The next score went Armagh’s way with McMullen paying off a long solo run by clipping the ball over the last score of the half to send Armagh into the break with a 0-8 to 0-4 lead.

Tyrone came flying out of the traps to start the second half by nailing the first three points through Donnelly and two from Ethan Jordan. It took 12 minutes for Armagh to register their first score of the half and it came from the boot of substitute Conor Turbitt.

Kilpatrick notched his second of the game in response and full back Peter Teague slotted over to get Tyrone on level terms for the first time with 15 minutes to go.

Armagh hadn’t been at the races all second half but up stepped Oisin O’Neill with a monster two-point free 11 minutes from time to put them back in the lead. The same man followed that up by converting a free and another from play moments later to see Armagh lead 0-13 to 0-10 late on.

However, Armagh couldn’t see out their lead in the 70 minutes. First, McMullen was shown a second yellow card and sent off, and then Tyrone got the crucial score – a goal from Ben McDonnell to level the game and take it to extra-time.

The Orchard County got off to a perfect start in extra-time, with McQuillan pointing just after throw-in before Oisin O’Neill and McCormack combined with a slick handpassing move which was finished by McCormack palming the ball into the Tyrone net. However, the visitors quickly cancelled out those scores with two-pointers from McKernan and Kilpatrick in quick succession.

A Donnelly point briefly had Tyrone ahead, but two frees from Oisin O’Neill restored Armagh’s lead at 1-16 to 1-15 at the interval of extra-time.

The second half of extra-time was a tense affair with only two points scored. Tyrone’s Eoin McElholm had levelled it before Turbitt scored what proved to the winner. Tyrone had a late goal chance which McElholm pulled wide, before Niall Morgan couldn’t convert from a ‘45 which would have taken the game to penalties.

Armagh will travel to Brewster Park to take on Fermanagh in the quarter-final in two week’s time.

MATCH STATS

Armagh: Blaine Hughes (0-1, 1’45); Peter McGrane, Aaron McKay, Callum O’Neill (0-3, 2f); Ross McQuillan (0-2), Gareth Murphy, Jarly Og Burns; Tiernan Kelly, Ben Crealey; Greg McCabe, Darragh McMullen, Tomas McCormack (1-1); Cian McConville (0-1), Jason Duffy, Oisin Conaty.

Subs: Conor Turbitt (0-2) for McCormack (43), Oisin O’Neill (0-6, 1tpf, 3f) for McConville (50), Joe McElroy for McQuillan (56), Rory Grugan for Burns (62-64, temp), Grugan for C O’Neill (65), McConville for Duffy (ET), McQuillan for McElroy (ET), McCormack for Grugan (ET), Paddy Burns for Crealey (ET), McElroy for Conaty (HT ET), Duffy for McCabe (87).

Tyrone: Niall Morgan; Cormac Quinn, Peter Teague (0-1), Niall Devlin; Ciaran Daly (0-1), Joey Clarke, Michael McKernan (0-3, 1tp); Brian Kennedy, Conn Kilpatrick (0-4, 1tp); Seanie O’Donnell (0-1), Ronan Cassidy, Ben McDonnell (1-0); Darren McCurry, Ethan Jordan (0-2, 1f), Darragh Canavan.

Subs: Mattie Donnelly (0-3) for Canavan (20), Kieran McGeary for Kennedy (27), Eoin McElholm (0-1) for McCurry (49), Lorcan McGarrity for Jordan (57), Ciaran Bogue for Cassidy (65), Aodhan Donaghy for Daly (73), Ben Cullen for McGeary (78), Aidan Clarke for Quinn (85).

Referee: Noel Mooney (Cavan).