Three In A Row For Red Hands

Wednesday 09.01.2019

County

Tyrone 0-10 Fermanagh 0-4

It was a case of mission accomplished for Tyrone as they made it three wins out of three in the McKenna Cup when accounting for Fermanagh at Healy Park on Wednesday night but it certainly wasn’t easy against the visitors who set up very defensively.

For long spells Fermanagh played fifteen behind the ball which left them difficult to penetrate but while they led three times during the game Tyrone never looked back from the moment David Mulgrew gave them the lead nine minutes into the second half. That was their first score from play as Peter Harte kicked three equalisers from frees after Aidan Breen, Conall Jones and defender Kane Connor had put the visitors in front. It was 0-2 apiece at the end of a first half that was played in heavy fog and produced little or no quality football.

After Mulgrew had put Tyrone in front defender Ciaran McLaughlin got forward to land a quality score as well. Substitute Garvan Jones knocked over a free to make it a one point game again but that proved to be Fermanagh’s last score of the contest. Conan Grugan and substitute Kyle Coney both hit fine points from play, keeper Niall Morgan converted a long range free from the left wing and Harte took his personal haul to 0-5 with a further two frees. Fermanagh finished the game with thirteen men when the Jones brothers Conall and Ryan were both black carded in the same incident late on after their side had already used all their substitutes. Tyrone now face Derry in the semi final in Armagh on Sunday with Donegal and Armagh clashing in the other one.

Tyrone: N Morgan (0-1, 1F), L Rafferty, HP McGeary, C McLaughlin (0-1), B McDonnell, R Brennan, P Harte (0-5, 5F), C Grugan (0-1), B Kennedy, N Sludden, C McCann, R Gray, D Mulgrew (0-1), C McShane, R O’Neill. Subs: K Coney (0-1) for Gray, D Canavan for N Sludden, R Sludden for Mulgrew, D McClure for Grugan, A McCrory for McDonnell

Fermanagh: T Treacy, J Cassidy, C McManus, K Connor (0-1), U Kelm, J McMahon, L Cullen, T Clarke, R Jones, A Breen (0-1), K McDonnell, D Teague, C Corrigan, C Jones (0-1), C Magee, Subs: R Lyons for Teague, G Jones (0-1, 1F) for McDonnell, D McGurn for Clarke, C Flaherty for Magee, S McGullion for McMahon

Referee: J McQuillan, Cavan