Tyrone - 1-13 Galway - 0-11:Springtime in Pomeroy. Once the sun had cast away some troublesome rain that briefly threatened to spoil the start of the match, this was unspoiled league activity.
And certainly once Brian Dooher's 52nd-minute goal dispelled any chance of a competitive denouement, this Allianz Division One A fixture was unspoiled by any unseemly excitement.
The teams had made contrasting starts to the league.
Galway, fleet-footed and high-class, purred past Donegal whereas Tyrone got into a fumble with Roscommon and ended up losing a match that was theirs for the taking. Yesterday, with manager Mickey Harte resting the Errigal Ciarán players whom he leads into an All-Ireland club semi-final in less than a fortnight, the unwary tipster might have felt that the visitors had the advantage.
But enthusiasm for the fray is a significant weapon at this time of the year and Tyrone had bags of it whereas Galway's appeared to have been lost en route.
In all areas of the field the winners had the upper hand. Their forwards caused more trouble and finished accurately, their centrefield cut Galway's supply lines and their defence covered hungrily to prevent any easy chances.
Galway manager John O'Mahony normally greets such early-season defeats as disasters. Yet on this occasion he seemed more perplexed than agonised.
"We didn't compete at all. It was a poor performance and we're disappointed. It looks as if we were great last week and terrible this week. I'm sure the truth is somewhere in between," he said.
"We were just getting back into it when the goal came and they always seemed able to hold their advantage with a few scores when they needed them.
"We allowed Tyrone to run at us and we didn't have as much of the ball as last week. We also had nine players involved in Sigerson this week. That's not looking for excuses - I'm sure Tyrone had quite a few as well."
Harte reckoned the contrasting results the previous week had helped. "We set out to redress the balance after losing last week, when we played well enough to win," he said.
"The players knew they had to dig in and we knew that Galway would come along today without thinking as much about it as we did."
Those motivations became apparent as the match got under way. Tyrone's forwards moved quickly and sweetly and kicked their chances.
Eoin Mulligan gave Kieran Fitzgerald a hard time on the edge of the square and Galway's deputy full back was frequently dragged out of position as his tormentor's bleached head surfaced all around the attack.
Mulligan followed his top score against Roscommon with the man-of-the-match accolade and deserved it, especially for a second half when he was almost exclusively the source of Tyrone's best moves. He had good support in the first half, with Frank McGuigan kicking three from play.
There was none of the previous week's assurance about Galway, whose defence looked sorely tried.
They recovered slightly and, having trailed 0-1 to 0-6 after 15 minutes, clawed it back to 0-4 to 0-8 by half-time and looked moderately dangerous on the attack.
They were probably happy with the interval score - Tyrone were certainly disappointed.
There was a fair amount of clattering going on in the match. Referee Eugene Murtagh flashed his yellow card a bit but the exchanges seemed more clumsy than malicious. Still the injuries certainly mounted for Tyrone.
Stephen O'Neill - an injury doubt beforehand and only brought in as a late replacement - hurt his arm and had to go off before half-time, as did Declan McCrossan who left the ground on crutches.
With the matches coming thick and fast - there's a third series next week - every injury is a potential problem and Harte will hope he's not short even more players for the trip to Dublin.
Just as Galway looked to have set up a great final quarter when Tommy Joyce cut the deficit to two, 0-7 to 0-9, Tyrone cleared the table. Mulligan won possession on the right - which in the second half was a regular Via Dolorosa for Galway - and cut in from the wing before releasing Dooher, who grabbed the goal that pushed the match beyond Galway.
It did take a good save by Pascal McConnell from Alan Kerins to stop an immediate response but from then on the westerners looked all out of ideas.
Micheál Meehan discovered the flip side of the senior game after his acclaimed debut, while Derek Savage went wandering for ball but frequently ended up surrounded on the half line while less likely shootists roamed inside.
But Tyrone's defence was tight and claustrophobic - with the impressive Philip Jordan pulling off an acrobatic save in injury-time to deny Galway even superficial consolation.
TYRONE: P McConnell; R McMenamin, C Holmes, C Gormley, P Jordan, G Devlin, D McCrossan; R Mellon, K Hughes (0-1); B Dooher (1-1), B McGuigan (0-1), S O'Neill (0-2, both frees); F McGuigan (0-4), E Mulligan (0-4, one free), S Cavanagh. Subs: S Mulgrew for O'Neill (19 mins), C Gourley for McMenamin (26 mins), C Lawn for McCrossan (52 mins), M Coleman for B McGuigan (62 mins), D Carlin for Gourley (70 mins).
GALWAY: A Keane; B Dooney, K Fitzgerald, R Fahey; M Comer, J Divilly, S de Paor; J Bergin. K Comer (0-2, two frees); P Clancy, M Clancy (0-1), A Kerins (0-2); M Meehan, D Savage (0-1, a free), T Joyce (0-3, one free and one 45). Subs: D O'Brien (0-1) for Meehan (56 mins), L Colleran for Comer (62 mins), N Joyce for P Clancy (63 mins).
Referee: E Murtagh (Longford).
