Early goals make it a stroll for sharp Tyrone

Ulster SFC Semi-final replay/Tyrone 3-19 Cavan 0-7: Three Tyrone goals within the opening half hour of play in Clones on Saturday evening ended Cavan's interest the Ulster football championship. Peter Canavan, Stephen O'Neill and Philip Jordan all hit the net to render a semi-final rematch a virtual no-contest.

Having fought back heroically to force a draw six days earlier, Cavan buckled under the strain the second time around.

Canavan was on fire, just like old times for the Tyrone faithful, who cheered his every move as he racked up a 1-7 tally, with Stephen O'Neill not far behind on 1-5. Yet it was only in the second half that Tyrone looked truly convincing.

Remarkably, Cavan had the better of the first-half exchanges, but were trailing by nine points at the half-time whistle, having failed miserably in front of goal.

Tyrone, in stark contrast, were clinical and capitalised upon almost every scoring chance.

"We were flattered a bit at half-time to be leading by nine points, because we weren't nine points a better team," admitted Tyrone manager Mickey Harte.

"But there were those nine points on the scoreboard and that was very good for us.

"We had to come out in the second half and begin to dominate the game, and if we couldn't do that, one goal from Cavan was going to bring them straight back into it. And the best way to defend goals is to attack, and we did that at the start of the second half."

Canavan won a penalty which O'Neill netted in the fourth minute and, eight minutes later, Canavan himself banged in a goal to cap a flowing move. And when he supplied the inch-perfect pass for wing back Jordan to blast home a third in the 27th minute, the nightmare was taking shape for Cavan, who trailed by 3-4 to 0-4 at the break.

And when the Red Hands reeled off five points in as many minutes at the start of the second half, it was all over for Cavan.

"And again, it's always true, when you've got a bit of a cushion and a lead, it seems to be easier to get those scores," Harte added. "Last week, we were under pressure, and we had so many wides. Today, we had scarcely any wides, so that's the confidence that a bit of a lead gives you, and it was nice to have it."

Cavan's stand-in boss Martin McElkennon still felt there was hope at half-time, despite the gaping deficit facing his side, but all thoughts of a revival soon disappeared when Tyrone clicked into gear after the restart.

"There's two halves to a game and we just didn't compete, that was it," said McElkennon. "We had eight or nine attacks in the first 20 minutes, and they had four or five, and at that stage they were two or three goals up. So the goals seemed to kill us off early on."

While Tyrone were clinically efficient in taking their scores, Cavan were wayward to the extreme, hitting seven wides and scoring just four points.

"The week before we were getting the scores and Tyrone weren't, so that was the difference," added McElkennon. "If we had put those seven wides over, it probably would have been level at half-time."

He insisted that his side would recover and mount a challenge in the qualifiers. "There's another game next week, and I certainly intend giving it a big push for the next week. I'm not beaten yet, and I hope the lads feel the same.

"They're a bit down at the minute. Things just didn't go the way that we intended. We didn't see the goals coming as early in the game. We had as many attacks as Tyrone in the first half, and Tyrone had only one wide in the whole game."

TYRONE: J Devine; R McMenamin, C Lawn, S Sweeney; D Harte, G Devlin, P Jordan (1-1); C Gormley (0-2), S Cavanagh (0-1); B Dooher, B McGuigan, M Penrose (0-1); P Canavan (1-7, three frees, one 45), S O'Neill (1-5, one free), E McGinley (0-1). Subs: M McGee for McMenamin (50 mins), J McMahon for Lawn (60 mins), O Mulligan (0-1) for Dooher (63 mins), E Bradley for Sweeney (69 mins), C McCullagh for Canavan (69 mins).

CAVAN: J Reilly; M Hannon, D Rabbitt, K Fannin; A Forde, Peter Reilly, Pauric Reilly; N Walsh, P McKenna; M Cahill, M McKeever (0-2, two frees); M Lyng (0-1, 45); J O'Reilly (0-3), D McCabe, L Reilly. Subs: J Jordan for Fannin (14 mins), F O'Reilly (0-1, free) for McCabe (half-time), Paddy Brady for Lyng (56 mins).

Referee: P Russell (Tipperary).