Armagh will study footage of Rian O’Neill’s controversial red card before deciding whether or not to appeal his dismissal against Tyrone in Saturday’s All-Ireland SFC clash in Omagh.
The Red Hands claimed a hard-earned 0-13 to 0-11 win over their Ulster rivals to end a run of four Championship games without a victory.
However, the main talking point of the game was the straight red issued by referee Martin McNally to O’Neill after an off-the-ball clash with Tyrone defender Cormac Quinn just shy of the half-hour mark.
Read more: Recap as Tyrone withstand comeback to edge 14-man Armagh in Championship epic
Speaking to reporters after the game, Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney said he had not seen replays of the incident at that point, but had spoken to O’Neill to get his account.
“Rian says somebody pulled him down by the jersey,” stated McGeeney.
“He tried to get up three or four times and someone kept hold of the jersey. I haven’t seen TV footage of it, but I’m sure we’ll get a fair hearing.”
When pressed if Armagh will appeal the decision in order to try and clear their joint-captain to line out against Galway in the third round tie in a fortnight’s time, McGeeney stressed that they’ll examine the footage before making a final call.
On losing their star player in such a crucial game, McGeeney added: “Those sorts of things are probably immeasurable. He has been scoring, not heavily, but leading heavily.
“He is a huge character in the team and it’s a massive blow. After losing all the scoring chances and that on top of it- that just compounded us for about 10 minutes and we found it really hard to get going at the end of the first half.”
McGeeney felt that Armagh should have been well ahead in the game before O’Neill’s red card.
Niall Morgan was called into action twice in the first quarter. The Tyrone ’keeper made a wonderful save to deny Conor Turbitt from palming into the net inside the opening minute before denying Jason Duffy after 14 minutes.
Armagh also created a few overlaps with Morgan retreating back towards his goal, but a few wayward passes proved costly, much to the frustration of the Armagh boss.
“We had three or four goal chances in the first 15 minutes and we should have had the game out of sight,” added the Orchard County manager.
“To me when you go down to 14 men, there has to be a settling-in period, which we had and they got two or three points. Even in that period, we missed two or three easy chances as well.
“I thought the fellas showed real character. They’ve shown throughout the year that they can live with any team. It is just our execution that has been poor at times.
“It wasn’t just the goal chances, we had them running back three times and then a poor pass let them off the hook. I thought we were very energetic in moving the ball forward."
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