Canavan's arrival changes all

Ulster SFC/Down 1-6 Tyrone 1-13: The rare ones elevate ordinary days into the stuff of folk tales. With 20 minutes of football yesterday, Tyrone idol Peter Canavan changed a wet and dogged May Sunday in Omagh into a celebration of a dauntless spirit and an ongoing love affair with his public.

In retrospect, it seemed almost predictable that the schoolteacher, 34 years old and 12 years a county man now, should have returned to leave them hot and panting for more in the great aluminium stand.

Perhaps Tyrone would have made a rampant burst for home even if their leader had stayed rooted among the spectators. But when manager Mickey Harte ushered him down from the seats, like a game show host calling the lucky one from the audience, the day changed utterly.

Down, living on half rations but boxing clever, were in a level game at 1-5 to 0-8 and showed no sign of disappearing. Earlier in the afternoon, their teenage stars shook Tyrone's minor team with a bold and larcenous injury-time goal for a dramatic away win. It bode well for one of those classic days of Down shocks. Then the pale and slender figure of Canavan appeared.

The new stand thundered and within 60 seconds, after Canavan flaked into Gavin Barry to poke the ball loose, Tyrone rediscovered the sweeping movement of old, with Stephen O'Neill slipping a ball for new kid Martin Penrose to drive home.

There was something about that instant goal that made Tyrone people believe again and they greeted the last 20 minutes with the type of feral passion that perhaps had gone quiet with the sad passing of Cormac McAnallen.

Glowing with a dramatic and sudden certainty, Tyrone bolted for victory. Canavan released the hitherto struggling O'Neill and he hit the target, and then he sought out Seán Cavanagh. No player seemed more pleased or reassured by the sight of The Master than Cavanagh and he galloped forward gleefully to rifle the 58th-minute point that ended the contest.

Canavan then stepped up to kick his first point of the season, a lightning move complemented by a right-footed shot on the run. A winter spent running around the Ballygawley roundabout seems to have made the old fox even quicker. He banged over a sublime free for good measure and the faithful were overcome. It was a parade. It was a comeback.

That one player's name should be on all lips at the final whistle seems unfair but that is sport. Tyrone were not the force of 2003 here but the potential is evident. If we thought they tackled Kerry with abandon in the infamous semi-final of that year, the work rate here was ridiculous.

Owen Mulligan, Enda McGinley and company made every single Down defensive clearance an exercise in distress. There were times when the Down players were forced to find their way up the field as Tyrone players closed them down like big-game hunters. McGinley had a huge afternoon, dropping deep to receive ball and burning up whatever open space Down afforded him.

Harte seems to have moved the Tyrone philosophy on, with defensive specialists like Ryan McMenamin and Philip Jordan breaking forward even as out-and-out scorers like Mulligan dropped deep into defence. There were times in the first 15 minutes, with Tyrone leading 0-5 to 0-1, their patterns of play were mesmerising.

Down needed something special to get them going at that stage - and his name was Benny Coulter. With 20 minutes gone, the Mayobridge man was in Chris Lawn's pocket but a long, perfectly placed ball from Dan Gordon gave Coulter his theatre. One sweet plant of the right foot left Lawn for dead and Coulter is a matador in front of goal.

That score re-established Down in what was a low-scoring first half and suddenly they began to find a little form. Ambrose Rogers was brave and accurate all afternoon, the midfield flickered at times, and captain Liam Doyle hit a terrific point just after half-time that sent a message out to Tyrone. Just before the restart, McMenamin picked up Coulter and the pair managed to get booked straight away.

Coulter rose magnificently to fetch the next ball and spotted Doyle. With the captain's thunderbolt, Down looked in the mood. It was hard to believe they would score only one more point for the rest of the game.

Even before Canavan's arrival, they were beginning to struggle. If anything, the Tyrone work ethic grew more intense. They kept Coulter in the deep-freeze, denying Down all but two frees from kicking range and daring their opponents to try to pass the ball through them.

Their own attacks were direct, with Down's Barry brilliantly repelling a Penrose shot off the goalline on 47 minutes.

By then, Coulter was venturing deep into his own half for possession, where someone in the crowd reminded him that "ye'll not score from there". And it was true.

Paddy O'Rourke made every change possible to try to jump-start a sequence of Down pressure but it must have broken his heart to see his opposite number introduce a killer substitute like Canavan.

He could have guessed at the torment that was to follow as the skies cleared and they whooped like in the good old days around Omagh.

TYRONE: P McConnell; R McMenamin, C Lawn, S Sweeney; C Gormley, G Devlin, P Jordan (0-1); C Holmes, S Cavanagh (0-2); P Donnelly (0-1), M Penrose (1-1), R Mellon; O Mulligan (0-3, frees), S O'Neill (0-2), E McGinley (0-1). Subs: P Canavan (0-2, one free) for Mellon (51 mins), J McMahon for Donnelly (54 mins), M Murphy for Penrose (71 mins).

DOWN: B McVeigh; M Cole, A Scullion, G Barry; B Grant, A O'Prey, D Rafferty; A Molloy, D Gordon; L Doyle (0-2, one free), A Rogers (0-3), J Clarke; C Laverty, B Coulter (1-1), R Murtagh. Subs: R Sexton for Clarke (43 mins), S Ward for Laverty (56 mins), A Rice for Barry (61 mins), D Hughes for Murtagh (65 mins), J Doran for Molloy (71 mins).

Referee: M Deegan (Laois).