All-Ireland SF Qualifier Tyrone 1-16 Galway 0-11 The setting was in keeping with Tyrone's agenda - a functional, loss leader of an afternoon at Croke Park.
A paltry crowd drizzled around the stadium's immense confines witnessed the All-Ireland champions move a step farther down the road of their title defence. It also served as a small gathering for what will surely prove to be the last rites of John O'Mahony's Galway, a side that over seven years has delighted and frustrated while re-establishing the county as a football force.
On Saturday the real sign that their time had come was in the application of the first-half performance. They gave it their best and it wasn't good enough even to win the first half. As in last year's exit against Donegal, Galway missed some great goal chances and the only reason they weren't seriously damaged was Tyrone's shooting was appalling until the final 10 minutes.
But Tyrone are slowly reassembling their title challenge and this was a win over status opponents. It also brought the return of Peter Canavan after 10 months of injury.
Within three minutes of his arrival he slung over a trophy point from out on the right sideline and did enough to confirm the team will be greatly enhanced by his restoration.
Manager Mickey Harte was all business as usual in the aftermath, glad to be through and encouraged by the signs.
"We're far from the finished product, as you would have seen from the number of wides we had. It nearly cost us. We have to be mindful that Galway missed a penalty and that Pádraic Joyce hit the post when it might as well have been a goal and several other scares.
"If any of those had gone in, the game might have had a different complexion. That's how games go. They run away from one team because things don't go their way.They ran away from Galway today and we capitalised."
Tyrone had to make one change before the throw-in, with Mark Harte failing a fitness test and Michael Coleman taking his place. Galway set out their tactical plans with a number of switches.
Declan Meehan switched wings at the back and tracked Brian Dooher for the afternoon whereas up front they pulled Micheál Meehan out to the half forwards, presumably to bring him more into the play, and pushed big John Devane into the corner, signalling the intention to go high against Tyrone's full backs.
When the teams had their highly commended league semi-final encounters in April it was noticeable that Galway had taken a leaf out the champions' book and energetically harassed them in possession. This was repeated on Saturday and in the opening 20 minutes Tyrone were pressurised with a number of blocks and dispossessions.
"I believed Galway worked harder than we did in the first half," said Harte, "and consequently I felt that we should be the fresher team in the second half. They had to work harder to stay in touch and we should have been farther ahead. I thought it would be a big challenge for them to work as hard as that for both halves."
His instincts were correct. Nonetheless Galway could have been more comfortable. In the 23rd minute Matthew Clancy had a chance when a ball broke to him in front of goal. Under pressure he clipped it wide.
Four minutes later Pádraic Joyce was adjudged to have been fouled by Conor Gormley and was awarded a penalty. Derek Savage took the penalty, despite having missed a similar kick in April's league semi-final and kicked a bad wide minutes previously on Saturday. He stubbed his shot and it trickled towards Pascal McConnell.
Then again things could have been worse for Galway than a two-point deficit. Brian Donoghue, who played well in goal, spread himself well in the 10th minute to kick away a goal attempt by Seán Cavanagh and in the second quarter Tyrone's forwards began to move.
Owen Mulligan was a constant affliction for Gary Fahey and Stephen O'Neill also saw a lot of ball. In the 12th minute Mulligan capitalised on a slip by Tomás Meehan to work the ball via Dooher to Brian McGuigan, who cracked home a great finish.
The goal sent Tyrone into a lead that they never lost although Galway twice narrowed the gap to a single point.
At the start of the second half both sides had reasons for regret. Tyrone kicked an astonishing sequence of wides while Galway nearly engineered a couple of goals with Pádraic Joyce sharp and alert and desperately unlucky to see a ball he had slipped past McConnell come back off the post.
By the start of the final quarter, though, the margin was down to one. But for every Galway hard-luck story Tyrone had their own. On top of the wides, there was a chance on the hour for Canavan when O'Neill's shot came off the post straight into his arms. Maybe surprised, he was a bit slow, but Donoghue did really well to get a hand to the shot.
By then the match was over. Four points ahead, Tyrone pushed on to win the last 10 minutes by 0-6 to 0-2.
"Sport is an emotional thing," said a clearly emotional O'Mahony later. "You know what you want to achieve and you've been down the road before. I believe in those fellas. That's it.
"The immediate thing now is that we're heading on the train and I'll be sitting with the under-21 lads - we've six or seven on the panel and we've a date on Wednesday evening in Castlebar. We'll have to see that out before making any dramatic decisions. I've talked to the lads and that's it for the moment."
TYRONE: 1. P McConnell; 2. R McMenamin, 31. C Gormley, 4. C Gourley; 5. J McMahon, 6. S Sweeney (0-1), 7. P Jordan (0-1); 8. K Hughes, 9. S Cavanagh (0-3); 10. B Dooher (0-1), 11. B McGuigan (1-0), 12. G Cavlan; 19. M Coleman, 14. O Mulligan (0-5, two frees), 15. S O'Neill (0-4, two frees. Subs: 27. P Canavan (0-1) for Coleman (55 mins), 25. L Meenan for Mulligan (69 mins), 20. B Collins for Dooher (71 mins).
GALWAY: 1. B Donoghue; 2. K Fitzgerald, 3. G Fahey, 4. T Meehan (0-1); 7. D Burke, 6. P Clancy, 5. D Meehan; 8. J Bergin, 9. S Ó Domhnaill (0-1); 13. M Meehan, 11. M Donnellan (0-2, one free), 10. M Clancy; 15. D Savage (0-1), 14. P Joyce (0-4, three frees), 12. J Devane (0-1). Subs: 21. T Joyce (0-1) for M Clancy (30 mins), 22. N Meehan for M Meehan (59 mins), 23. N Joyce for Savage (67 mins), 20. D Mullahy for Bergin (67 mins).
Referee: M Monahan (Kildare).
