Tyrone Through To All Ireland Semi Finals.

Saturday 03.08.2013

Club

Mickey Harte’s Tyrone team were forced to dig deep and show considerable character to overcome a determined Monaghan this evening at Croke Park on a final score of 0-14 to 0-12. They had to do it the hard way playing the entire second half with fourteen men following the sending off of Martin Penrose at the start of the second half.
Tyrone looked nervous early on as the Ulster champions raced into a three point lead after eight minutes with corner forward Conor Mc Manus causing all sorts of problems for the Red Hand defence. Early yellow cards for Cathal Mc Carron and Conor Clarke meant that defensively Tyrone were walking a tightrope. However both these players produced excellent performances in spite of their early cautions and along with Ciaran Mc Ginley, Conor Gormley, Peter Harte and Dermy Carlin they kept the Farney forwards under wraps for long periods. They reached the break two in front following super points from Sean Cavanagh and Joe Mc Mahon as Tyrone began to make the most of their chances.
Monaghan were well and truly rattled and as the teams left the field at half time several of their players and their subs became involved in incidents which resulted in Martin Penrose receiving a red card before the resumption of the second half.
With numerical advantage Monaghan began to get on top but once again Tyrone refused to buckle as the Cavanagh brothers drove their team forward at every opportunity. Work rate and commitment were the order of the day as the Moy pair produced their best joint display of the year.
Peter Harte put Tyrone in front again on forty five minutes after Dick Clerkin had landed a magnificent equalising point for Monaghan. Harte was central to much of Tyrone’s best play in the second period as he covered every inch of the Croke Park pitch in a display that showed he is close to getting back to his best. Ciaran Mc Ginley and Mattie Donnelly were also on target but Monaghan refused to panic and in spite of being reduced to fourteen men themselves they tied the game with seven minutes remaining.
By this stage Tyrone had lost sub Paddy Mc Neice to injury but his replacement Ronan Mc Nabb and another replacement Ronan O’Neill were helping to turn the game in Tyrone’s favour. The Omagh youngster swung over a super point to edge his side in front again and Sean Cavanagh doubled that advantage with two minutes remaining. With Mc Nabb showing he is a man for the big occasion Tyrone showed all their experience and composure as they saw the game out with a lesson in possession and ball retention to make it through for a semi final clash with the winners of Sunday’s quarter final between Donegal and Mayo.