Champions hit Clones running

TYRONE...1-17 DERRY 1-6: No one said it would be easy. The All-Ireland champions, first day out, against the old enemy Derry. All the stress and toil and jarring of the championship. That at least was trying to get the car into Clones.

All too easy on the field of play though. Tyrone just striding out with unbridled ferocity, Derry slow and stale and bereft of imagination. Not so much a championship marker then as an exhibition of high-quality football, unfortunately from one team only.

Strictly speaking, this 11-point victory leaves Tyrone on the same footing as the other teams left in Ulster: quarter-finalists. Only as good as the last game and all that. But this result will resonate. Tyrone are back to defend their title with fresh ambition and even more dynamism. As bad as Derry were, this is a team that doesn't intend being stopped.

In front of 22,243 they produced some chillingly good football. Scores were consistently impressive and the attitude unflinching. As an operation it was cruelly effective and, though partly helped by Derry's reduction to 14 men for the second half, it was a team performance of near perfection.

Still some players hit greater heights, like Seán Cavanagh, who stood out cleanly at midfield like the Taj Mahal. Kevin Hughes surprisingly filled the vacancy in the forward line, starting at full forward, and collected a well-deserved 1-2. Mark Harte sent over some of the finer points of the afternoon and ended with 0-4, and Colm McCullagh, making his first championship start, hit a cool 0-2.

Defensively too they've become even more watertight. Conor Gormley and Ryan McMenamin hardly blinked with the challenge of Paddy Bradley and Enda Muldoon. Philip Jordan, typically adventurous, was rewarded with a first-half point.

Considering players like Owen Mulligan and Stephen O'Neill started on the bench, and Peter Canavan has still to return, it's fair to say Tyrone look an even better outfit than a year ago. Their only wish after a result like this is that Derry had taught them a little more about where they're at.

Even before the ball was thrown in there was a sign of things to come. Tyrone huddled together like brothers, Derry hanging about like passengers - the difference in morale all so evident.

Tyrone had already put 0-6 on the scoreboard before Derry got their first score, a hard-won free from Paddy Bradley on 30 minutes. By then it was clear Derry were not up for the occasion, sluggish and vividly off the pace.

There was the gratuitous Ulster pulling and shoving but nothing excessive. Tyrone's superiority was too far above that. It was wing back Pádraig O'Kane who got his marching orders on 35 minutes for a second personal foul, his first booking coming just two minutes earlier. That was a setback for Derry but not the killer. Tyrone could have donated the extra man and still won comfortably.

Despite all their supremacy, Tyrone went into the break just five points clear - 0-7 to 0-2. Derry's nerves though were already shot, with Muldoon hitting some horrendously bad wides and the rest of the forwards hardly even trying. Whatever tactics they'd worked out were obviously left behind on the bus.

Still, Derry were out early and eager for the second half, presumably having had their tea without milk and sugar. Then came the killer blow. Brian Dooher mishit a shot at goal, but Harte beautifully collected and kicked the ball into Hughes. A simple sidestep later, the ball was in the net, and Tyrone were eight points clear. Game over.

From there to the end one needed constant reminding this was championship football - Derry were almost that poor, their lack of fitness all too apparent. Harte extended Tyrone's lead before Muldoon and Bradley launched a brief response but Harte and Hughes just sharpened their swords, and Cavanagh kept cruising in top gear.

On 55 minutes came the score that defined Tyrone's intent. Jordan started a move and from Cavanagh to Hughes to Colin Holmes the ball came back to Cavanagh, and he fired it straight between the posts. Dooher quickly added another when bursting through like a freight train and Tyrone now had 1-12. Derry were still stuck on 0-4.

And so thoroughly steamrolled did Derry look that their supporters were making a swift exit - despite the 15 minutes left to play. But they didn't miss much. Another superb score from Cavanagh split the two points from Paddy Bradley and to chants of Olé the game was now in full exhibition mode.

In the closing minutes Harte finished off two more fine moves with deadly accuracy, underlining his breakthrough in Tyrone's starting line-up - and giving the perfect answer to any talk of nepotism. Enda McGinley laid on the first and the second he collected from Jordan, and finished with a magical turn.

Nearer the end, Conleth Gilligan fired a ball towards the Tyrone goal, which deflected off the defenders and into the hands of corner back Pádraig Kelly. He tried his luck and managed the textbook consolation goal.

McGinley and substitute Stephen O'Neill (initially a blood replacement for Dooher) got the last two scores of the game, so only Brian McGuigan went scoreless in the Tyrone forward line. A small detail that hardly mattered in a masterly display from the All-Ireland champions.

TYRONE: 1. J Devine; 2. R McMenamin, 31. C Gormley, 4. C Gourley; 5. B Donnelly, 6. G Devlin, 7. P Jordan (0-1); 8. C Holmes, 9. S Cavanagh (0-4); 10. B Dooher (0-2), 11. B McGuigan, 14. E McGinley (0-1); 13. M Harte (0-4, one free), 20. K Hughes (1-2), 15. C McCullagh (0-2). Subs: 24. J McMahon for Donnelly (half-time), 25. S O'Neill (0-1) for Dooher (66 mins, inj).

DERRY: 1. B Gillis; 2. S M Lockhart, 3. N McCusker, 17. P Kelly (1-0); 5. P O'Kane, 6. K McGuckin, 7. F McEldowney (0-1); 8. F Doherty, 10. Patsy Bradley; 11. C Gilligan, 9. E Muldoon (0-1, a free), 12. J McBride; 13. J Kelly, 14. Paddy Bradley (0-4, three frees), 15. P McFlynn. Subs: 18. R Lynch for McFlynn (31 mins), 22. J Donaghy for J Kelly (50 mins), 21. J Bradley for Patsy Bradley (67 mins).

Referee: B White (Wexford).