Gaelic Games NFL Division One A/ Tyrone 0-12 Cork 0-8: You know what they say about a little pain and frustration. Sometimes it brings out the best in people. And does wonders for determination. That, it seems, is what's happening with Tyrone football.
Just how much the events of the early rounds of this Allianz National League is now influencing their game only Tyrone know. But after the opening losses to Dublin and Fermanagh, and all the surrounding controversy, they'll head to Mayo for next Sunday's final round knowing a victory would send them into the semi-finals. That definitely qualifies as a dramatic turnaround.
Yesterday's victory over Cork - a round three refixture - was as comfortable as it needed to be. Deferred from March 5th because of a frozen pitch, the playing surface yesterday was very wet, which obviously prevented any vintage Tyrone football. Yet they still smothered their opponents as the game progressed and had the final nail driven in long before the finish.
They also left Cork with directly contrasting fortunes. They'll travel to Monaghan next Sunday for a relegation play-off, and spirits won't exactly be high after this. Once again their scoring was desperately infrequent and insufficient.
Cork did have two good goal chances that could have changed the game, but Tyrone don't believe in mercy. In fact they never gave them any hope, easily handling their first-half efforts to lead 0-5 to 0-2 at the break, before ensuring Cork chased in vain from then on.
With Brian Dooher reinstalled in the half-forward line it was the closest manager Mickey Harte has come to his All-Ireland line-up this season. Dooher's rustiness is non-existent and he covered his usual yardage with that familiar lopping stride, chipping over one inspiring point before half-time.
Joe McMahon put in another strong performance at centre back, as did Conor Gormley at full back. Stephen O'Neill's accuracy problems continued, however, and he hit six truly uncharacteristic wides before landing his first score from a free on 50 minutes - yet he still ended with 0-3.
Perhaps the most ominous thing then about this result is that Tyrone still won impressively, without ever really impressing:
"Yeah, there were a lot of unforced errors," admitted Harte afterwards. But you only have to walk across the field to realise why. It's easy to talk about the quality of football up in the stands, but I know the players were doing their very best out on the field. Cork do have some tall, physical players, and they always cause problems. But we hung in there, and certainly in the second half played more like a team.
"We just wanted to give ourselves every chance of getting into the semi-finals. The key to this was two league points. We're fortunate now to find ourselves in that position, which didn't look likely after the first two rounds. We go to Castlebar knowing if we win we're probably through."
There's probably a lot more in the tank of Sean Cavanagh, Brian McGuigan and company. Colin Holmes and Kevin Hughes played in patches, and with 16 wides in total there is clearly much room for improvement.
The sides were level at 0-2 eacg after 20 minutes, by which stage O'Neill had already hit four wides. Graham Canty did have something to do with that.
Yet Cork, crucially, couldn't get themselves in front despite some good passages of play from David Niblock, James Masters and Derek Kavanagh. A free from Masters had levelled the scores, but then Cork went the rest of the half with nothing. Tyrone made the most of what they got and closed out the half with points from Dooher, Cavanagh and Martin Penrose.
Cork's game soon started to fall apart. Tyrone began to put some crispier passing together, and when McMahon sent over a huge point on 55 minutes it was clear Cork were in trouble. They were down 0-9 to 0-6, and wouldn't score again until the last two minutes.
Kevin O'Sullivan had Cork's best goal chance on 65 minutes, but was denied by a fine save from Pascal McConnell. "Disappointed obviously," was the assessment of Cork manager Billy Morgan "The trouble with our game is the scoreboard yet again. I mean eight points is just not good enough. We should be getting double figures at least, and we're not. It's as simple as that.
"But our defence did very well, and had at least 50 per cent of the play in the first half. We just couldn't get close enough to them in the second half. We've to go north again now to survive. Possibly a draw will do us. Although obviously we're not going to play for a draw."
TYRONE: P McConnell; R McMenamin, C Gormley, M McGee; D Harte, J McMahon (0-2), P Jordan; C Holmes (0-1), S Cavanagh (0-2); B Dooher (0-1), B McGuigan, K Hughes; M Penrose (0-2), S O'Neill (0-3, one free), R Mellon (0-1). Subs: None used.
CORK: A Quirke; M Prout, G Canty, M Shields (0-1, free); S Levis, G Spillane, N O'Leary; D Hurley, D Kavanagh; C McCarthy (0-1), D Niblock (0-2), K McMahon; J Masters (0-3 one free), N Murphy, K O'Sullivan (0-1, free). Subs: F Gould for McMahon (50 mins), D Goulding for Masters (60 mins), S O'Brian for O'Leary (62 mins).
Referee: E Murtagh (Longford)
