Football

Mickey Harte open to calling Armagh home while Omagh out of commission

Tyrone defeated Armagh in a Dr McKenna Cup Section A game at the Athletic Grounds last week, before beating Down at the same venue last Sunday. Tomorrow night they take on Monaghan in the McKenna Cup final, again in Armagh. Picture by Declan Roughan
Tyrone defeated Armagh in a Dr McKenna Cup Section A game at the Athletic Grounds last week, before beating Down at the same venue last Sunday. Tomorrow night they take on Monaghan in the McKenna Cup final, again in Armagh. Picture by Declan Roughan Tyrone defeated Armagh in a Dr McKenna Cup Section A game at the Athletic Grounds last week, before beating Down at the same venue last Sunday. Tomorrow night they take on Monaghan in the McKenna Cup final, again in Armagh. Picture by Declan Roughan

MICKEY Harte admits he would be open to playing home games – including possible Super 8 outings this summer - in neighbouring Armagh while Healy Park is out of commission.

The Omagh venue will close for major remedial works in May due to ongoing flooding issues, and is expected to be out of action until the spring of 2021, leaving the Red Hands searching for an alternative.

And Harte admits the Athletic Grounds - where Tyrone have beaten Armagh and Down in recent weeks, and where they take on Monaghan in tomorrow night's Dr McKenna Cup final - could be one of the options if they have to look outside the county.

“That’ll be up to the county board to choose that,” he said.

“It depends then what criteria that venue needs to meet to go there. If there isn’t a second pitch in Tyrone that meets the criteria required to play at that level, then we might have to go outside the county.

“I suppose we’ve been in Armagh a lot of late, it wouldn’t disappoint us if we had to go there, but that’s another story for another day.

“I don’t know what the outcome of that will be but I don’t think we’ll be short of places to go and it’s good that other counties would welcome us if we needed it.”

A number of high-profile games have had to be switched to alternative venues as a result of issues affecting Healy Park during recent years.

As well as a new surface, phase one of the project will also include a drainage programme, the erection of catchment nets behind both goals and new fencing around the perimeter of the venue.

A second phase will then focus on the building of new turnstiles, improvements to the toilet facilities and other projects to improve the clubrooms in time for celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the ground in 2022.

And Harte admits the time had come when “something had to be done”.

He said: “This has been in the offing for a while and we all know that, come the spring time of the year, it always had been trouble getting rid of the surface water.

“That was a pity because we never felt we consistently had the kind of surface we like to play on, on our home ground on our home League games.

“Something had to be done, it’s been put on the long finger for a number of years now so the time has come and we’ll have to be without it from May.”

As for matters on the field, Harte has described as “wishful thinking” anybody expecting Dublin’s success to drop off after Dessie Farrell replaced the man who led them to five in-a-row, Jim Gavin.

“It’s a very natural ascension to the job that he has taken and I’ve no doubt he’ll be very good at it,” said the Tyrone boss.

“The reality is they’ll still be a serious force and who knows when they can be hauled in? But that’s the challenge for any of us who have aspirations to do that.

“We have to keep believing it’s possible.”