Mayo manager Andy Moran questions free that set up Tyrone winner

Tyrone’s All-Ireland Round 2A defeat of Mayo just happened to have two big moments that stood out a mile.

Mayo manager Andy Moran. Pic: Tom O’Hanlon/Inpho

Any one-point game is going to be littered with decisions and other snapshots that could have swung the scales. 

Tyrone’s All-Ireland Round 2A defeat of Mayo just happened to have two that stood out a mile.

There were 47 minutes played in Omagh on Sunday when Darren McCurry, just off the bench, kicked the first of what would be his four points from play. 

The trouble was that it looked to have gone wide. That’s how it looked from directly behind as he let go.

A big issue in a game like this.

McCurry has long been seen as a confidence player. Would he have landed the other three from play and the free with it that brought his final tally to half-a-dozen had that first one on the run been waved wide?

We’ll never know.

Incident number two: There was just over a minute to go when Michael McKernan was adjudged to have been pulled to earth by Aidan O’Shea. Referee Brendan Cawley blew his whistle and Niall Morgan kicked the two-pointer to win the game.

Mayo manager Andy Moran, who was more than pleased with the fight his side showed in going the full distance against Tyrone on the road, was more peeved with one than the other but ultimately sanguine about it all.

“I haven’t seen it back but that wasn’t a free, in my opinion, in the whole game. Once you carried it into traffic there you weren’t getting a free. And he didn’t seem to call the free for the initial free. He seemed to call it for the next one which was a bit strange. It is what is.

“Lads would say we got the rub of the green at other times. You are now beginning to see the new game in its full flourish. This weekend has been the tell of it. If you are a millimetre off here and not doing the right things you are going to get beaten. It’s as simple as that.”