AN END TO his winning run in All-Ireland senior finals with Tyrone and a loss on the biggest day of the football calendar as Dublin’s run of glory continued.
But for Mickey Harte amidst the disappointment and regrets in Croke Park, there was a strong sense of pride at his team’s battling qualities until the final whistle.
After being wiped out in a semi-final last August, Tyrone were seven points adrift at the interval this afternoon yet did not allow that position to morph into a hammering.
They succumbed by six points at the final whistle, Harte hailed his players for that display of fight until the match was over.
“I think the credit our boys deserve is that they didn’t allow this be the battering it was last year, they fought until the bitter end. Even in that comeback we had chances to close the gap better than we did, we didn’t do it and you pay the price against a quality side. I just can’t fault the players for the effort they put in.
“On the field you could see the disappointment in every player because they gave a lot out there and because of the really good start we had.
“Then in the second half it is always damage limitation to a degree. You try to get back at the opposition, but they are a quality side. Even when we get a few scores they can pick a few more and they are always keeping you at arms length.”
Paul Mannion’s first-half penalty was a decisive moment in changing the course of the match. When viewing the incident from the sideline, Harte had felt Tiernan McCann had made ‘a serious attempt’ in trying to stop Mannion’s shot.
“I only saw it in live time, I didn’t have any replay or anything else. In live time it looked to me like a serious attempt to block the ball.
“I’m sure a closer view on the television will confirm or deny that. I can’t be anymore definitive than that. I’m not going to see it as a penalty anyway, but I thought he didn’t put a footblock in or take the player out, did he dive to block the ball?
“It was a pity, even more of a pity was the second goal. The second goal came with a wee bit of a catalogue of things that might have been different.
“I think there was a foul out on the side, I think Jonny Cooper played on, the referee had blown the whistle and let the game go on. Then there was an apparent call for a foul in the box and he waved that on, that turned out to their advantage too.
“So small things – the game turns or hinges on small things. We had been five one up and even in that time we had a few bad shot selections, I think if we had went six up or if we had retained possession then who knows what kind of a trend the game would have taken.
“Suddenly it was 2-6 to 0-5 in a very short period of time. That is very disappointing given the way we opened the game.
“It was a really positive start, it seemed such a shame that we were so far behind in such a short space of time.
“(There’s) no point in sour grapes – that isn’t saying it would have made us win the game, but they are little things that change the trend of the game in a very significant way.
“Dublin were full value for what they did today, they are a very good side and can play football anyway you want to play it.”
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