Tyrone and Armagh must do it all again after the 2005 Ulster senior football championship final ended in a draw at Croke Park. The O'Neill County dominated most of the exchanges but goals from Oisin McConville and Stephen McDonnell were critical as Armagh nicked a 2-8 to 0-14 draw. With two minutes to go, Tyrone appeared to be over the winning line, leading by four points, but McDonnell struck for a goal and Paul McGrane knocked over the score that ensured yet another draw in this year's Ulster championship. The game started 15 minutes late and the delay seemed to affect both sets of players, who were slow out of the blocks as the early play was tattooed with a series of poor wides. Peter Canavan uncharacteristically missed a simple free in the second minute after Francie Bellew's tug on Stephen O'Neill and Martin Penrose collected the rebound, which he drove wide. Canavan - carrying an injury - had two more efforts in as many minutes but dropped one short before his third attempt tailed to the left and wide. Armagh's first attack came in the fifth minute but Stephen McDonnell was also off target and Canavan had another wide from an unforgiving angle off his left boot. Martin O'Rourke and McDonnell also spurned chances before O'Neill cut inside Bellew to open the scoring off his weaker right foot after ten minutes. O'Neill doubled the Red Hand advantage from a free directly in front of the Hill goals following Kieran McGeeney's rash tackle on Canavan. Sean Cavanagh burst through the middle and tried to place the ball over Paul Hearty into the Armagh net but the energetic midfielder's touch let him down and the opportunity was gone as the shot screwed wide. O'Neill brought his tally to three with another sweet right-foot strike from play and the Tyrone full forward (free) made it 0-4 to no score in the 20th minute. Armagh just couldn't get into it and O'Rourke fired their fifth wide in the 22nd minute. Oisin McConville finally opened their account when he dinked over in the 24th minute and concerned Orchard boss Joe Kernan decided to shake things up by throwing Paddy McKeever into the action in place of O'Rourke. In the 26th minute, McDonnell pointed a 45 after John Devine fumbled Aaron Kernan's shot over the end line. John Toal picked up a knee injury on the half hour following a late tackle from Gavin Devlin and was replaced by Philip Loughran. Two minutes from the break, Aaron Kernan clipped over a close-range free but this was negated by O'Neill's fifth point at the other end. O'Neill had the goal at his mercy on that occasion but blazed his shot over the bar. Bellew pulled O'Neill's shirt and picked up a yellow card but the Tyrone full forward - his side's only first-half scorer - missed the resultant free and the O'Neill County led by two points at the end of a scrappy, low-scoring opening period, 0-5 to 0-3. Tyrone brought Eoin Mulligan and Mark Harte in at the break for corner forwards Martin Penrose and Peter Canavan. Armagh were very hard done by four minutes after the re-start when it looked like they should have been awarded a goal: Chris Lawn fouled Ronan Clarke and Kernan dropped the 14-yard free short. However, goalkeeper Devine appeared to be over the line when he gathered the ball and the umpire should have reached for a green flag. Two more O'Neill points sandwiched a Brian Mallon effort for Armagh and the defending champions trailed by three points eight minutes into the second half, 0-7 to 0-4. Unstoppable O'Neill brought his - and Tyrone's - tally to eight as Mickey Harte's men led by double scores. Ten minutes into the second half, Armagh struck for a goal: McDonnell broke free and had his shot parried by Devine but McConville was on hand to grab the loose ball and ram it to the back of the net. If Armagh had been unfortunate with the earlier 'goal' incident, they were fortuitous this time as the Crossmaglen man picked the ball clean off the ground and it should have been a free out. McDonnell drew Armagh level with a point from a 45 but O'Neill immediately put Tyrone back ahead with his ninth point. Clarke's brilliant effort came back off an upright. Clarke fisted the equaliser and Tyrone captain Brian Dooher became his team's second scorer of the evening when popping over the lead point on 52 minutes, 0-10 to 1-6. Man of the Match O'Neill popped over another free and Conor Gormley came through unopposed from midfield to make it 0-12 to 1-6. Tyrone could have been home and dry but for wides from Cavanagh (twice) and sub Joe McMahon. Armagh substitute John McEntee kicked an excellent Armagh point from distance on the stroke of the hour but McDonnell had two disappointing wides - one from a quickly-take free in front of the posts after Ryan McMenamin's foul on McConville. Cavanagh punished Armagh's wastefulness with a left-footed effort and Dooher's controversial high effort put four points between them with five minutes to play. McEntee kicked two wides but McDonnell demonstrated his quality when pouncing for a goal two minutes from the end. McConville picked out the Killeavy clubman on the edge of the square and the strong Orchard attacker gained possession at the second attempt and fired to the net. Within 30 seconds, Paul McGrane slotted over the equaliser after McGeeney gathered the kick-out. Tyrone - J Devine, R McMenamin, C Lawn, S Sweeney, D Harte, G Devlin, P Jordan, C Gormley 0-1, S Cavanagh 0-1, B Dooher 0-2, B McGuigan, M Penrose, P Canavan, S O'Neill 0-10, E McGinley. Subs - O Mulligan for Penrose, M Harte for Canavan, Joe McMahon for D Harte. Armagh - P Hearty; A Mallon, F Bellew, E McNulty, A Kernan 0-1, K McGeeney, A O'Rourke; J Toal, P McGrane 0-1, M O'Rourke, T McEntee, O McConville 1-1, S McDonnell 1-2, R Clarke 0-1, B Mallon 0-1. Subs - P McKeever for M O'Rourke, P Loughran for Toal, J McEntee 0-1 for T McEntee, M Mackin for Mallon, C McKeever for Kernan Referee - P McEnaney (Monaghan). Tweet

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