Ulster SFC Tyrone 0-14 Down 0-10: SEÁN CAVANAGH was quick to admit the second half of Saturday evening's Ulster senior football championship semi-final, at Casement Park, was not pretty to watch. That, however, didn't bother the big Moy man as Tyrone defeated Down to keep their hopes of back-to-back provincial titles alive for another while.
This was the proverbial game of two halves – the first highly entertaining with some superb point taking, the second a scrappy affair of little scoring and missed chances.
“The second half cannot have been too pretty to watch but we ground out a result and that is all that matters to us just now. We are into another Ulster final against Monaghan or Fermanagh and we must now work towards that,” insisted Cavanagh.
When Stephen O’Neill limped off after only 11 minutes with a heel injury, Cavanagh moved into the edge of the square with Brian McGuigan coming off the bench to resume his former role at centre-forward and contribute, as usual, to the overall team performance.
“When you see one of the best players in Ireland walking off so early it is not brilliant but when you look at our bench with the likes of Brian there you know that it is not a case of panicking,” said Cavanagh.
Down stormed out of the blocks, against the wind, with skipper Ambrose Rogers tearing through from midfield, Dan Gordon and Benny Coulter making life a little uncomfortable for the Tyrone defence and points being popped over as Down rushed into a 0-8 to 0-4 lead after 18 minutes.
Marty Clarke, from which much was expected, and Danny Hughes also buzzed around with effect.
Tyrone, at the start, switched Joe McMahon from left-half forward to right-half back to curb Coulter with Peter Harte adopting a sweeper’s role and, in typical McMahon fashion, the Omagh man proved effective.
While Rogers showed no signs of his recent injury and sliced through to hit over two good points in the Down rush, it took old reliable Brian Dooher to steady the Tyrone ship. The captain hit a great point from the left in the sixth minute and added another seven minutes later to help stem the Mourne scoring spree.
Hughes’s point on 18 minutes was Down’s last point of the first half as Tyrone finally got to grips with the situation with Marty Penrose hitting over frees and Seán Cavanagh scoring a massive point from play as Tyrone reeled off six unanswered points to lead by 0-10 to 0-8 at the break.
It was expected that Down, with wind advantage after the restart, would again slip into gear but not so. Half-time replacement Paul McComiskey did convert a free-kick in the 37th minute but it was 27 more minutes before another Down flag was raised.
Two points was the sum total of the challengers’ scoring in the second half – in fact their total for the last 55 minutes of the game. Scoring chances went abegging with Clarke being guilty of sending a few placed balls wide of the target and other efforts dropped short.
With three minutes left, Down created a much-needed goal chance but Coulter and Hughes were both denied brilliantly by an alert Pascal McConnell when only three points separated the sides.
Exchanges were tough but never dangerous with referee Gearóid Ó Conamha lively with his yellow card.
One Tyrone player, who seemed to land a punch, was lucky that yellow was the colour flashed at him.
“The win over Donegal didn’t make us a great team overnight and, hopefully, this defeat won’t make us a bad team. I have to stand up and take the criticism and now we must regroup for the qualifiers,” reflected Down manager James McCartan.
“If I had known where it went wrong I’d have corrected it. It is hard to figure out what changed. We were 8-4 up against the wind and then it was a disappointment to be 10-8 down at half-time.
TYRONE:P McConnell; M Swift, Justin McMahon, D Carlin (0-1); Joe McMahon (0-1), C Gormley, P Jordan; C Cavanagh (0-1), K Hughes; B Dooher (0-2), S Cavanagh (0-3, 2f), P Harte; M Penrose (0-5, 3f), Stephen ONeill, O Mulligan (0-1). Subs:B McGuigan for ONeill (11), Sean ONeill for Swift (42), T McGuigan for Harte (64), R Mellon for Dooher (69), C McCullough for Mulligan (71).
DOWN:B McVeigh; D Rooney, B McArdle, D Rafferty; K McKernan, J Colgan, C Garvey; A Rogers (0-2), K King; D Hughes (0-1), M Poland (0-2, 1f), B Coulter; C Maginn, D Gordon (0-1), M Clarke (0-3, 2f). Subs:P McComiskey (0-1, 1f) for Poland (ht), D OHagan for Garvey (52), P Fitzpatrick for King (60).
Referee:G Ó Conamha (Galway)
