AS he turned away towards the Cusack Stand with the destiny of Dublin’s unbeaten run having just left his hand, Niall Sludden gestured with his hand in the air in an attempt to convince.
Tyrone were protecting a three-point lead with just under ten minutes to play when his right-footed effort went straight over the top of the post.
Another few inches inside and it would have been a fourth point of the evening for the Dromore man in another superb shift.
He might have been able to convince the human eye that he’d scored but the umpires went straight to HawkEye, which flashed ‘Níl’ up on the screen.
”I knew to be honest. I put my hand up to try and convince a few people but HawkEye’s technology, and it’s hard to convince technology.
“It’s a pity I didn’t get it, and I’d another one I hit the post, but sometimes they go over and sometimes they don’t.”
Instead of being registered as a fourth score beside his name, it went down as the last of Tyrone’s 13 wides that would ultimately undo their bid to beat Jim Gavin’s side.
From a personal perspective, it backed up his own credentials as a big stage player. In the hugely disappointing loss to Mayo last August, his first half display was one of the very few positives Tyrone took.
In the collective sense, the improvement in the Tyrone display was arguably as important as the point they added to the two they’d won against Roscommon.
“It’s something to build upon. It shows us that we can challenge the top four, the Gaelic elite as they say. Hopefully it gives us a bit of self belief.
“We had a few boys missing there, we’ve a few coming back, so competition should be fierce in the squad.
“We were quite timid last year against Mayo and we kind of sat back a lot. Defensively tonight, especially in the first half, we were quite solid. Offensively we’ve got a bit of work to do and continue to improve. But it’s a work in progress and it’s still only February.
“In the second half when we started running the ball, we were creating a lot of overlaps and coming through the middle, especially for the goal.
“We just have to get back to work on the training field, at our score-taking and ball retention. When we got turned over, they came up the field and punished us with a couple of scores. Those are the scores that killed us really.”
The Red Hands were five points to the good heading into the final ten minutes in Croke Park on Saturday night but ultimately the loss of Mark Bradley to a red card told.
Up until then, they had seen the benefits of a manful effort in front of their own goal which led to Jim Gavin labelling them as “very defensive”.
But having restricted the Dubs to just four points, two from play, in the opening 50 minutes, the lack of options on the counter led to wave upon wave of attack from the home side in the final quarter.
Battling the All-Ireland champions and the elements together, Mickey Harte’s men held out until Dean Rock landed a brilliant equalising free-kick from 50-metres four minutes into added time.
“We’re a bit disappointed,” admitted Sludden.
“We had opportunities and especially with the lead we’d built up, it’s just a pity we couldn’t hold on. We just have to learn from this and take it on.
“It was a lot trickier [after the red card]. These things happen and you just have to get back to the battle trenches. We had chances and weren’t clinical enough up front.
“When you don’t do that against the All-Ireland champions, they’re going to punish you. You have to give them credit because they kept going.”
With Cavan and Monaghan both due in Healy Park before a trip to Ballybofey for a third consecutive Ulster derby after the two-week break, Tyrone will be confident of building on a solid start.
“It’s very important to get that start. If you don’t get the points on the board you’re playing a bit of catch-up and you’re under a bit of pressure with the number of tough games you have in Division One.
“Hopefully we can build on that and take it forward. We know the next game is going to be pretty tricky, we’ll get back to the training field and aim for two points again.”
