‘ I WAS THRILLED TO SEE THE PENALTY GIVEN, IT WAS RIGHT DECISION’ SAYS CAREW AFTER DRAW
SLIGO manager Niall Carew admitted Armagh probably will feel hard done by after the late penalty which saw his side earn a draw in their opening Allianz Division 3 round. “I suppose when you look at the rules it was a penalty, generally they are not given but we’ll take because Armagh got a goal and Criostóir Davey was fouled right in front of the referee and they went up and got a goal so there’s a flip to everything.
“I know I’d be disappointed if I was Armagh as well but in saying that we scored 1- 14 they scored 2- 11 so that probably tells it’s own story on top of that as well.
“You know, I felt overall that we huffed and puffed a bit at times, it took us awhile to get into our rhythm but when we did then we looked dangerous.
“It was a good point for us and look we have to bring it forward now this Sunday.”
The manager said he was thrilled to get the penalty but admitted generally they are not given. “If you call a spade a spade, they are not given but in fairness to the referee in what he was doing throughout the game, he was calling them pulls from start to finish. We needed a goal obviously and we’ll take it.”
He said he thinks Armagh are going to be in the League final. “Look we’ll just take one game at a time. We have Tipperary on Sunday and we’re looking forward to that but I was impressed with Armagh, they are after coming off a good season and had a good run out in the McKenna Cup, I think they won maybe three and lost one or something like that, but they were very competitive in that.”
He said there were impressive performances from his Sligo players, including Niall Murphy, who played on despite a bug, Stephen Gilmartin and substitute Stephen Coen, who came on scored a point and was also brought down for the last gasp penalty.
“Adrian McIntyre was the one who drove us on near the end. In the last 15 minutes he won all prime possession for us when we couldn’t win it so I credit him for driving the whole thing back on. Neil Ewing, Keelan Cawley was strong all through.
“Look, we struggled in patches at times too, you know, we have a lot to improve on.
“We’ve plenty to work on and see how it goes against Tipperary.”