Ulster chief defends decision to delay throw-in
A larger than expected crowd of 8,463 turned up at the Athletic Grounds for the clash of Armagh and Tyrone, forcing officials to delay the start by half an hour
Armagh boss McGeeney was scathing in his criticism, accusing the Ulster Council of substandard organisation: āI think itās extremely stupid. Itās beyond belief that we would hold up a game because people turn up late,ā he fumed. āThe Ulster Council said it was a health and safety issue. I canāt see it. Just because they havenāt it organised or havenāt got enough people together. If a game is set for two oāclock and we decided to come at half two, would that be acceptable.ā McAviney apologised for the inadequate number of ticket distributors, but stood by their decision to admit all spectators into the ground before allowing the game commence. āWe apologise for what happened. We certainly didnāt expect over 8,000 at the Athletics Grounds. For a first round Dr McKenna Cup game you couldnāt expect that sort of a turnout.ā
āThere was disappointment among the managers. Kieran said the game should have gone ahead at 2pm but you canāt do that anymore. He said the game should have gone ahead because people arrived late, but you canāt do that.
āWe thought we had enough people there to cater for the crowd. Evidently, we didnāt. Yesterday was our first day back, thatās where we were at. With our entry system there is a double up on personnel in relation to selling tickets and then collecting tickets.
He added: āWe expected a good crowd, just not that crowd. In our defence, we reckon we had over 4,000 in the ground by the original throw-in time of 2pm.
āThose are the people who came on time. We should have been able to cope with the surge that followed after. We should have been a small bit better prepared.
āWe did get the message out to people in the queues what the delay was over. Traffic and car parking wasnāt an issue, tickets were.
āThe initial report from the local authorities present was that the situation and how it unfolded was dealt with adequately by ourselves and the Armagh County Board.ā



