Kerry Survive But Only Just!

Sunday 07.04.2013

Club

Tyrone endured a horrendous opening thirty five minutes against a very fluid Kerry side today at Omagh before they staged a remarkable second half comeback that saw them lose to the visitors by a single point. The home side were poor in the first half as they allowed Kerry to boss the game and control possession. Paul Galvin won huge amounts of break ball and with Tomas O Se given the freedom of the park Kerry swept forward in droves. O Se gave a man of the match display as he rolled back the years with countless marauding surges forward one of which resulted in a goal for his team to put them in control of the match.
Kerry reached the break leading 1-13 to 0-5 but could have been even further in front had they converted any of the goal chances they created. Tyrone struggled with the pace and support play of their opponents but in spite of being outplayed for long periods of the half they did create several great chances of goals in the first period themselves. A goal eventually came early in the second half when Stevie O’Neill finished to the net. This score and the presence of Conor Gormley enthused the rest of the team and the home team hit six fine points to close the gap to four.
At this stage Kerry were rocking but even though a Mark Donnelly goal helped Tyrone reduce the gap to a single point just before the end and even hit the post they just could not get the equalising score and Kerry held on to win by one. This result means Kerry stay in Division One for next year while Tyrone can look forward to a semi final clash next Sunday at Croke Park against Kildare.