Sky Sports deny Harte claims that they requested narrower pitch

SKY SPORTS have flatly denied Tyrone manager Mickey Harte’s claim that they requested that the pitch in Healy Park in Omagh be narrowed to accommodate extra equipment.

Harte insisted he or his management team had nothing to do with alterations to the dimensions but when contacted a Sky Sports spokesperson denied this was the case.

“This is incorrect. Sky Sports did not ask for the pitch to be narrowed, nor would we ever make such a request,” the spokesperson said. Sky Sports made efforts to contact Harte yesterday to clarify the situation.

Harte confirmed the pitch in Healy Park had been narrowed for the visit of Dublin, but the Tyrone manager insisted the move was made after a request from Sky Sports. Reports emerged in the build-up to Saturday’s game that the dimensions in Omagh would be tighter than usual for the visit of the All-Ireland champions, but Harte claimed that Tyrone had accommodated the broadcaster.

“This narrowing of the pitch is nothing to do with me at all,” the Tyrone boss (right) said.

“That was a request from Sky, that they would like more clearance at the side for all their technology. The Omagh St Enda’s club asked me would I be OK with that and I said ‘that’s fine, work away’.

“There are people reading too much into that, a conspiracy theory, but it was nothing to do with that, it was a practical matter.”

Harte witnessed a major improvement on 12 months ago when his side were demolished in Croke Park, but he admits they missed too many chances to turn over the Dubs. “We probably wouldn’t be totally happy with our shot conversion, but that’s not always about the person kicking the ball. In a game like that, against quality opposition like Dublin, you’re under pressure every kick you’re taking, so that’s actually going to reduce your percentage success anyway,” he said.

Tyrone had the chance to move to within a point in injury-time, but Ronan O’Neill pulled his free wide. Harte insisted that Kevin McManamon ran across O’Neill’s eyeline in the taking of the free, something referee David Coldrick punished in the first half when a Tyrone player encroached on a Dean Rock free.

“I made the point to David Coldrick, in a very mannerly fashion, that I just felt one wee thing that happened in the first-half, when he let them have a retake of a free, when one of our players ran across the eyeline of the kicker. And at the very end there, when Ronan O’Neill was taking his kick, which was at a very vital time in the game, I felt that Kevin McManamon could have shook hands with him on the way past his kick.

“So I just made that point in a pleasant manner to the referee, and he said he honestly didn’t see it, and if he had seen it he would have done something about it, so I have to accept that.”

Harte’s side produced a brilliant late surge that had Dublin on the back foot for the final 15 minutes.

“We just went for it. There’s no point in trying to defend a five or six-point deficit. You had to go for it, and we decided to do that, and that maybe took them a wee bit by surprise.

“(Dublin) are still the team to beat, is that 25 games now? That is a fairly high bar to be working off. Until a team have the ability to break that, they are going to go on being the trend-setters.”