O'Rourke proud as Tyrone answer critics with battling defeat to Armagh

The sides played out an Ulster championship epic. 

TOGETHER: Tyrone manager Malachy O'Rourke. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Enda McGinley had spoken about Tyrone being at a “low ebb” last week. The whispers off the record were even more disturbing. Their people had stopped turning out for their team. A bond appeared broken after a troubling spring spent in Division Two.

The worry was that Tyrone would make the short trip to Armagh and sully a rivalry that has been a staple part of the GAA’s sense of self for almost 25 years. And if that happened then where would it leave Malachy O’Rourle and his team?

It looked grim after the first quarter. Just one point scored. Six conceded. It ended with a loss after extra-time but everything from the 18th minute to the 90th will go down as pure profit for the visitors who will feel they have turned a corner here.

They never gave up. Not after that terrible start. Not after any one of their many wides. Not after they lost Brian Kennedy and then Darragh Canavan to injuries in the first-half. Not when a goal adrift with seconds of normal time on the clock.

“We’re disappointed but we couldn’t fault the effort of the boys from first whistle to last, and especially when we lost our captain and our vice-captain so early on in the game,” said O’Rourke as evening started to descend.

“It could have been a day to fold up the tents and forget about it. In fairness to the boys, they battled for each other right the way through, showed a great hunger, showed the defensive work, so we did a lot of things right. Having said that, going forward we missed a lot of chances. Overall disappointed but overall a lot of pride.” 

They knew their efforts up to this hadn’t been good enough. No rumour mill was needed for that, but McGinley had spoken about positive vibes in training when on RTÉ and O’Rourke echoed that after this Ulster preliminary round barnbuster.

Maybe the venue and the opponent helped.

The Tyrone manager spoke more than once about the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds as the toughest place to play Championship football. The fear of embarrassment is a strong motivator for proud players. So are naysayers.

Was some of the talk over the top?

“I’m not going in to that. I don’t want to listen to it myself because I have more to do with my time. It’s just annoying for the group and the lads involved who are putting serious commitment in.

“That’s the way of the world and we just have to put up with it. It was up to us to try and answer that as best we could and, in terms of the endeavour, we couldn’t have asked for more.”