Sport

Marsden the man in Armagh's darkest hour

Armagh?s prospects didn?t look too bright less than 10 minutes Ballybofey. But they turned things around to earn a replay before going on to claim their first provincial crown in 17 years and begin the greatest era in the county?s football history. Armagh joint-manager that day Brian Canavan spoke to Andy Watters...

SUPER SUB: Diarmaid Marsden introduction off the bench was key in turning around Armagh’s Ulster SFC quarter-final against Donegal in Ballybofey in 1999
SUPER SUB: Diarmaid Marsden introduction off the bench was key in turning around Armagh’s Ulster SFC quarter-final against Donegal in Ballybofey in 1999 SUPER SUB: Diarmaid Marsden introduction off the bench was key in turning around Armagh’s Ulster SFC quarter-final against Donegal in Ballybofey in 1999

THE darkest hour came just before the dawn in 1999. Armagh went into the Championship as an emerging force, the dark horses for Ulster, but Donegal started their quarter-final meeting in Ballybofey like men possessed.

Tony Boyle scored the first Tir Chonaill goal after 93 seconds and when John Duffy added another six minutes later Armagh’s Championship heartbeat began to fade.

Anxious glances were shot to the dugout where the Armagh management duo Brian Canavan and Brian McAlinden barked instructions as they racked their brains for a way to turn the tide.

Diarmaid Marsden, who had been struggling with injury, was on the bench and ‘the two Brians’ decided they had to risk throwing him in.

“Diarmaid had played very little,” recalled Canavan.

“At that time there was no backdoor, it was just knockout and we knew Marsden was the best we had on the bench. I said to Diarmaid ‘you have to go on here’ and he said ‘if I go on I’ll probably wreck myself and I’ll not be fit to play the rest of the year’.

“I remember saying: ‘If we don’t win today, there’ll be no rest of the year’ or something along those lines.”

Mardsen’s introduction immediately gave Armagh better shape up front. Paul McGrane, who started at wing half-forward switched to midfield and Justin McNulty reverted to corner-back.

Gradually Armagh reeled Donegal in. Cathal O’Rourke hit two points, Oisin McConville six and Paddy McKeever grabbed a goal before Marsden’s second point of the game edged the Orchardmen into the lead for the first time with two minutes left.

The sides swapped points again before Michael Hegarty grabbed an equaliser forcing a replay and the counties met for the second time at Clones a week later.

“It was funny because we had come back from the dead and then we felt we threw it away at the finish,” said BBC Radio Ulster pundit Canavan.

“But we knew that we had a great chance at Clones because when the Athletic Grounds was closed in 1994 we used Clones as our home venue. We made a decision that if you’re going to win something, you’re going to have to go to Clones to win it so any chance we got to play there were took it.”

That home field advantage was quickly negated - Oisin McConville, who had top-scored in the draw, had landed two more points in the replay when he was shown a straight red card by Galway referee Michael Curley.

“Oisin got sent off for an off-the-ball incident spotted by the umpire,” Canavan recalled.

“Whenever it went to Croke Park they saw a video of the incident and the fella that Oisin allegedly hit was at least two yards away from him when he fell. How the umpire saw it nobody knows.

“At half-time, and I never remonstrated with a referee before, I went into his dressingroom and I said ‘it was a despicable decision’.

“I would have known the ref and he would have known that I wouldn’t be that cross unless there was a reason because I wouldn’t have been the cross one in the camp.”

Early in the second half Donegal full-back Martin Coll was sent off too and, with numerical parity restored, Armagh went on to win by five points.

“It wasn’t straightforward, but it was a good win,” said Canavan, whose team progressed to a hammer-and-tongs semi-final victory over Derry before seeing off Down 3-12 to 0-10 to win the Ulster final.

Canavan feels that getting over the line against Donegal proved vital for the development of a group of players that provided the core of the side that went on to win the All-Ireland three years later.

This was pre-Qualifiers, so if your county was knocked out in June they didn’t play again for six months and everything – fitness, team morale, tactics… - started from scratch again for the following season’s NFL.

“If Armagh had been beat that day it would have set us back,” he said.

“We won and went on to the next round so we were able to train together for the whole summer which we had never been able to do.

“If we had been knocked out at the start of June then there was no football again until the National League and we wouldn’t have seen the players again for six months.

“You might have seen boys quitting, you never know what would have happened. If we had been beat that day it might have been the end of the road for us – it might have been the end of the road for Brian and me too. If you look at that team, there’s probably 10 or 11 of them who went on to win the All-Ireland.

There are parallels between the sides of 1999 and the current Armagh-Donegal teams. Once again Armagh are emerging whereas Donegal – reigning Ulster champions – are established.

Many pundits see the winners of Sunday’s clash at the Athletic Grounds as this summer’s likely Ulster champions, but Canavan sees Monaghan, lurking in the shadows on the other side of the draw, as a serious threat.

“Monaghan are going to be a hard team to beat at the end of it all,” he said.

“The League tables rarely lie and Monaghan and Donegal are at the top and everybody else is in behind them. I certainly wouldn’t see Armagh or Donegal as being certs.

“The big plus for Armagh is that they’re playing at home, it’s always a big advantage and Armagh supporters will get behind their team if they’re showing anything in the first 10 minutes.”

He added: “While Armagh’s League campaign was okay, it still wasn’t at the level Donegal were playing at all season. Against Tyrone I thought Donegal controlled most of the match and seemed to just do enough.

“They never put up a big score, they always seem to keep it tight and that always gives you a chance if you can get a few scores and Armagh have the potential to get goals with the likes of Jamie (Clarke).”

Clarke was approaching his 10th birthday went Armagh and Donegal produced all that drama back in 1999 and went on to win their first Ulster title in 17 years.

“We hadn’t won one since 1982 and there was a generation of great footballers who never won a Championship medal,” said Canavan.

“There were footballers in that era who were better than some of the players who won All-Ireland medals – the Grimleys, Martin McQuillan…”

Clarke hasn’t won a Championship medal either yet but he’ll take a massive step towards breaking his duck if Armagh can win on Sunday.