Orchard can resist pluck of Red Hand

A COMING Armagh is the last thing Mickey Harte will have wanted to see waiting for his Tyrone side at Croke Park today. A jittery performance in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final saw Harte’s Red Hand pretenders dumped out by a Mayo team on a come-from-the-dead run similar to that this term of today’s opponents Armagh. And the omens are there to indicate that Tyrone may be in for another very tough afternoon. Harte’s men may be Ulster champions, but the feeling is that they might not have beaten the best of the rest in their own province in reaching the last eight – Donegal and Down having already departed the scene from the qualifiers. A heartbreaking promotion near-miss from Division 3 looked to have set Armagh back, especially when it was then followed by a surprise defeat to Down in Newry. But the way in which they have bounced back since has been eye-catching. Victories over Westmeath, Tipperary and Leinster finalists Kildare at Croke Park have seen Kieran McGeeney’s men resurrect their season. And the Orchard boys won’t be short of experience in their dressing room today, led as they are by a man who has done it all before. Tyrone have been talked up for the best part of two full seasons now, but we’ll find out today whether that was all just hype and bluster or they’re ready to have a go at Dublin. But if they aren’t razor sharp, Armagh may just run them very close indeed.