Chairman Martin McAviney has defended Ulster Council's decision to delay throw-in at the Athletic Grounds on Sunday.

Provincial chiefs were caught on the hop when double the anticipated crowd flocked to the Armagh county grounds for the opening-round McKenna Cup clash with Tyrone, and throw-in was moved from 2pm to 2:30pm. Orchard County manager Kieran McGeeney branded the move as "extremely stupid" and "beyond belief" but McAviney says starting a match with 4,000 spectators still outside the venue is a no-go:

"We apologise for what happened," he say in The Irish Examiner. "We certainly didn't expect over 8,000 at the Athletics Grounds. For a first round Dr McKenna Cup game you couldn't expect that sort of a turnout.

"There was disappointment among the managers. Kieran said the game should have gone ahead at 2pm but you can't do that anymore. He said the game should have gone ahead because people arrived late, but you can't do that.

"We thought we had enough people there to cater for the crowd. Evidently, we didn't. It was our first day back, that's where we were at. With our entry system there is a double-up on personnel in relation to selling tickets and then collecting tickets.

"We expected a good crowd, just not that crowd. In our defence, we reckon we had over 4,000 in the ground by the original throw-in time of 2pm.

"Those are the people who came on time. We should have been able to cope with the surge that followed after. We should have been a small bit better prepared.

"We did get the message out to people in the queues what the delay was over. Traffic and car parking wasn't an issue, tickets were.

"The initial report from the local authorities present was that the situation and how it unfolded was dealt with adequately by ourselves and the Armagh County Board."

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