Ulster chief defends decision to delay throw-in

Ulster Council chairman Martin McAviney has hit back at Kieran McGeeney’s comments after Sunday’s delayed McKenna Cup fixture, claiming the correct decision was taken in postponing the 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: “I think it’s extremely stupid. It’s beyond belief that we would hold up a game because people turn up late,” he fumed. “The Ulster Council said it was a health and safety issue. I can’t see it. Just because they haven’t it organised or haven’t got enough people together. If a game is set for two o’clock and we decided to come at half two, would that be acceptable.” 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. “We apologise for what happened. We certainly didn’t expect over 8,000 at the Athletics Grounds. For a first round Dr McKenna Cup game you couldn’t expect that sort of a turnout.”

“There was disappointment among the managers. Kieran said the game should have gone ahead at 2pm but you can’t do that anymore. He said the game should have gone ahead because people arrived late, but you can’t do that.

“We thought we had enough people there to cater for the crowd. Evidently, we didn’t. Yesterday was our first day back, that’s 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: “We 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.

“Those 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.

“We did get the message out to people in the queues what the delay was over. Traffic and car parking wasn’t an issue, tickets were.

“The 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.”