Harte: We weren’t good enough
Tyrone manager Mickey Harte was offering no excuses over his side’s first championship loss to Armagh since 2005.
He conceded that Armagh deserved their Healy Park win, but he had warm words of praise for the efforts of his 14-man team, who had defender Mattie Donnelly sent off after half an hour.
“We can’t argue about it. Armagh came and played well, and dominated the game, and maybe got the rub of the green here and there.
“As you can imagine, it’s not very pleasant. It’s not a good day when you go out of the championship, when you have no second chances or no other chances left.”
Harte had to make massive alterations after centre back Donnelly picked up a second booking after 30 minutes.
“I have to admire the energy the players put into it after Mattie was sent off. We actually played our best football after he was sent off, and I think we got four or five points on the bounce from a very difficult position.
“So it was a credit to do that, and I suppose they worked continuously right throughout the second half. There were probably a few things that didn’t come off for us that we needed to come off to keep ourselves in the game.
“But Armagh were just able to pick off enough scores to do them, and it’s full credit to them. They played a good game today and it was enough to beat us. It’s very disappointing, but I can’t argue with it.
“We gave it our best and we took what was coming at us and we weren’t good enough to win the match, and that’s it.”
The Red Hands, two points behind at the interval, slipped ahead early in the second period, but they were soon on the back foot again, and unable to quell the Armagh rising.
“We had been playing with the breeze, and at one stage we had been four points down playing with the breeze, and a man down.
“So that was always going to be difficult. We got the two points before half-time, which gave us a degree of belief that we could get something out of the game, and then we started the second half well as well.
“So it’s very disappointing that with the energy and effort they put into the second half, that they didn’t get more out of it, but Armagh were in a strong position, having the extra man, being able to play the full-time sweeper and being able to pick off enough scores to keep their noses in front.
“We got back level, but you know, it was always going to be a very difficult task to keep that going to the very end, and be able to stay ahead.
“But we thought we could do it, and we believed we could do it at half-time, but the truth of the matter is that we didn’t.”
Meanwhile, silence emanated from the Armagh camp, where a media boycott remains firmly in place.
