NFL DIVISION TWO Tyrone 1-16 Monaghan 1-8:MONAGHAN JOINED Meath in making the drop to Division Three following their heavy defeat at Healy Park, as Tyrone swept to a seventh straight win.
Monaghan manager Eamonn McEneaney, however, promised a positive response from his players. “All we can do is regroup, get them back into training and to make an impact in the championship,” he said.
Kyle Coney was in sparkling form up front for Mickey Harte’s side, hitting eight points.
Six Coney scores helped Tyrone lead by 0-10 to 0-3 at the break, with Paul Finlay hitting all Monaghan’s scores from frees.
Substitute Ciarán Hanratty pulled back a goal for Monaghan within 20 seconds of the restart, and they closed the gap to four points. But Tyrone regrouped to kill the game off with points from Coney, Owen Mulligan and Cathal McCarron, who also blasted home a late goal.
McEneaney will be hoping his injured players will be fit in time to face Antrim in the Ulster Championship opener. “Obviously the loss of so many players has killed us over the past while. Conor McManus and Tommy Freeman, in particular, have been a huge loss to us, and you can’t win a whole pile without your talismen.”
TYRONE: P McConnell, A McCrory, Justin McMahon, PJ Quinn, C McCarron (1-1), P Harte (0-1), R McMenamin, M Murphy, C Cavanagh (0-1), R McNabb, Mark Donnelly, S Cavanagh (0-2), K Coney (0-8, 0-5 frees), S O'Neill, O Mulligan (0-3, frees). Subs: C Gormley for McMahon, N McKenna for S Cavanagh, A Cassidy for Murphy, P McNeice for O'Neill, D Carlin for Quinn.
MONAGHAN: M Keogh, V Corey, D Mone, K Duffy, D Malone, D Wylie, David Hughes, E Lennon, D Clerkin, P Finlay (0-4, frees), Darren Hughes, N McAdam, C McGuinness, K Hughes, S Gollogly. Subs: D Morgan for Duffy, T Freeman (0-2, 0-1 free) for Malone, P Dooney for Gollogly, C Hanratty (1-0) for McGuinness, C McManus for Clerkin.
Referee: M Higgins(Fermanagh).
