Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney was left wondering ‘what if?’ after his side slipped to yet another penalty defeat – this time at the hands of the Ulster juggernaut that has become Donegal.
The martial arts blackbelt must have thought his side had chopped down Donegal as they led by four points with 19 minutes to go.
But the Armagh manager was counting the cost of very small margins and he admitted it himself after yesterday’s pulsating Ulster Final.
The man known better as Geezer admits that he’s the one left with egg on his face despite the vast majority of people thinking what else his side could have done to put Donegal away.
“The standard from both teams, serious pace, serious tackles… It is a ball one way or a ball the other, a slip one way or a slip the other,” McGeeney said.
“When you lose, you’re the gobshite, but that is just the way it goes.”
In the end it was Shane McPartlin’s penalty strike which cost them the game but no one man could take the blame for losing this epic encounter.
And McGeeney was generous knowing that the headlines about him falling again in a penalty shoot out were just about to be written.
“Sure what can you do about it, I can’t control what is written. And when you win a game by a point or a penalty shoot-out, it was the same against Derry last year, we were doing a lot of things wrong and they were doing a lot of things right.
“But listen, we all know that is sport. We need headlines and drama; it is all part of the game and you get used to it.”
However, he denied that his side have developed into a team of flakers when it comes to the big occasion and admitted that Donegal had what it takes to grind out a hard-fought victory.
“I wouldn’t say it is a pattern. We are a team that comes from behind and we have done that on more than one occasion, and today the turning point was probably Oisín Conaty being through and their man got half a block on it and it just dropped into the keeper’s hands, and that would have put us five up. But Donegal are a good team as everyone is pointing out, and you just have to give them credit, that’s it.”
