Louth's Sam Mulroy reveals late clock confusion in dramatic win over Armagh

Mulroy only discovered there was a clock at the Inniskeen ground with 30 seconds of the game left to play

Sam Mulroy: "I knew as soon as I got the ball in my hands I had to shoot, so it was just about making space and trying to get a shot off." Pic: ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

Louth gamebreaker Sam Mulroy has revealed that he only found out with 30 seconds to go that there was a public clock in Inniskeen.

The Louth captain pinched a late goal to see off Armagh and secure an All-Ireland quarter-final place after getting his kick away just seconds before full time.

The RTÉ TV coverage of the game actually indicated that 70 minutes was up before Mulroy kicked from around 48 metres out.

The timing issue generated debate on The Sunday Game with pundits Tomás Ó Sé and Conor McManus initially claiming there was no clock on site at Páirc Grattan before clarifying later in the programme that there was.

A mobile digital clock was located in the corner of the ground beneath the scoreboard, at the opposite end of the field to the one Louth were shooting into in the second half.

That clock indicated that Mulroy got his shot away with a couple of seconds to go though it was relatively difficult to see and it appears that players weren't made aware of its existence at all.

Asked if he knew there was a clock in the ground, Mulroy shook his head and said he only found out from the referee in the closing moments.

"I didn't know there was, all game, and then the last 30 seconds when we were working the ball up the pitch, I actually asked Conor Lane, I said, 'What's left?' and he goes, 'Look in the corner'," revealed Mulroy.

"I knew as soon as I got the ball in my hands I had to shoot, so it was just about making space and trying to get a shot off, and that's what happened."

Louth's James Maguire and Donal McKenny celebrate after the game. Pic: ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

There was still a giant slice of luck about the goal that brought Louth from two points down to one ahead, securing their first ever Championship win over Armagh. With Louth duo Conor Early and Conall McCaul applying pressure, and two more Armagh defenders around him, Armagh goalkeeper Ethan Rafferty failed to catch Mulroy's high delivery which dropped in over his head.

"Madness, it was a blur," said Mulroy of those moments. "I knew we were under pressure obviously. It just worked out that we got a shot away. I didn't connect as well as I would have liked but look, sometimes you need a bit of luck and it ended up in the net."

It looked initially like Mulroy wasn't going to get his shot away in time. And even when he did, Armagh's Joe McElroy was only inches away from blocking the kick.

"It was just take a yard and get whatever shot you can get away," said the centre-forward. "As I said, I didn't connect to it as well as I would have liked, I didn't have as much space as I would have liked, but I knew time was of the essence, so it was just going to be what it was going to be."

Mulroy finished with 1-2 and his goal that secured a fourth win from four games in Inniskeen, across the last three seasons, will be remembered by supporters for decades. But an equally important intervention that he got little credit for was a clearance he made off his own goal line late in the first half.

Mulroy said it was a sign of a team that's willing to do anything to win.

"That's definitely what I'm most proud of, that we never stopped, no matter what happened, no matter where we were at," said the All-Star.

"In that game we had a never-say-die attitude, it's just a testament to the boys in that dressing-room that they just never know when to give up."

Louth will contest their second All-Ireland quarter-final in three seasons on Saturday or Sunday week.

"It's just about the next day now, and although our supporters will enjoy what we've done, as they should, we have to park it pretty quickly and get the bodies right," said the Naomh Máirtín man.

"Because the benefit of beating Armagh is that you have an extra week to rest, and we'll have to take that and use it wisely."