Great Win For Senior Hurlers

Sunday 16.05.2021

Tyrone’s senior hurlers produced a superb closing fifteen minutes to come from behind and defeat Monaghan 1-25 to 2-13 in Sunday’s opening Allianz National League fixture played at O’Neills Healy Park.

Damien Casey seemed to have picked up the scoring mantle from fellow Dungannon man Paul Donaghy after his exploits on Saturday for the county’s senior footballers as the Eoghan Ruadh led the line with 1-16 of his team’s total.

Casey opened the scoring for Tyrone after three minutes with a fine point. Monaghan’s response was immediate as they hit 1-3 inside the next six minutes to move five clear. Hugh Byrne pointed from midfield while the outstanding Stephen Lambe hit 1-2 to put his team in a strong position. Scores from Casey and Rory Weir kept Tyrone in touch before Shane Slevin and Fergal Rafter pointed to put Monaghan five in front again.

Michael Mc Shane’s side landed four out of the next five points to drag themselves back into the game with Tiernan Morgan and Casey contributing a brace apiece. With almost thirty minutes on the clock Tyrone were looking well placed but they were knocked back with a real sucker punch goal from Lambe minutes before the break.

With the clock showing only four minutes of the half remaining Tyrone roused themselves once more.Three Casey minors and one from Rory Weir had the gap down to a single point before Monaghan’s Rafter converted a superb 65 to send the sides off at the break with Monaghan leading 2-7 to 0-11.

Stephen Lambe extended the visitors’ lead immediately after the break but points from CJ Mc Gourty and Casey narrowed the gap slightly. Fergal Rafter and Niall Gartland hit points to ease the pressure on Monaghan as Tyrone began to ring the changes and ask questions of a tiring Farney defence.

The Red Hands were now applying greater pressure all over the field and with younger, fresher legs, they made their greater fitness tell. Casey hit six of his team’s next seven scores while midfielder Brian Mc Gurk hit the score of the match to level the game with fifteen minutes left on the clock.Monaghan managed a mere two points from then until the end of the game. 

The real turning point in the game came with seven minutes remaining.when Tyrone midfielder Bryan Mc Gurk was hauled to the ground as he bore down on goal. Mark Treanor was sin-binned reducing Monaghan to fourteen men for the remainder of the game. To add insult to injury Damien Casey fired the resultant penalty to the net to put Tyrone four clear with minutes left. 

The Red Hands finished strongly as confidence surged and four further points from Casey allied with one apiece from Mc Gourty and Connor Mc Nally gave manager Michael Mc Shane the perfect start in his new position. Fergal Rafter did add one final score for Monaghan but it was purely academic and means that Tyrone will travel to Longford next week in the hope of making it two wins from two.