Down using history as their ally

WHEN Kieran McGeeney was playing with the great Armagh team of the last decade, people often talked about football being a game of inches.

And so it proved yesterday in what was another terrific All-Ireland semi-final.

Perhaps it was the three or four inches of the crossbar to deny Robert Kelly a last-gasp goal or the inches wide of the post to deny Eamon Callaghan a second-half goal – or the 48 inches Benny Coulter was standing inside the square for his disputed goal.