Cards fall into place for Tyrone

Ulster SFC Semi-final/ Tyrone 2-15 Donegal 1-7:All-Ireland dreamers, beware! It was not just that Tyrone cruised into the Ulster final in Clones. The important fact was that they did so by tapping into the brand of bold, glittering football that left them in a class of their own two years ago.

They smoked Donegal, the league champions and recent conquerors of Armagh, with some astonishing moments of football in a dud of a match.

It was a day when the cards all fell into place for Mickey Harte. The Ballygawley man declined to go into panic mode in the black days of March when it appeared Tyrone football had lost something more than the genius of Brian McGuigan.

Back in March, when they were thumped - in every sense - by a ravenous Donegal side on a wet Saturday night in Omagh, it looked as if the team of champions had lost heart for the game. If Donegal plunged them into a period of soul searching that evening, then it was against the same opposition that they announced their rude health again. And how.

After that league defeat, Brian Dooher, the grand old man of this Tyrone outfit, sat disconsolate in the damp, floodlit air. He trooped off a tired man.

It was impossible not to think of that image as Dooher made another lone walk here yesterday.

This time, however, it was to a ringing ovation from the stands and from his team-mates. The Clann na nGael man was in stunning form here, rejecting the best efforts of three Donegal markers as he drove his team on with his unique brand of speed, workaholic endeavour and uncanny reading of the breaking ball. For good measure, he kicked five points from play, heartbreakers for the opposition.

In the end, the only thing that brought him down was a stray elbow by Donegal's frustrated talisman Colm McFadden.

As he lay for treatment, Harte decided to give his captain the encore, and Dooher's leaving of the field was one of the great Clones moments, the old place erupting as though Haile Gebrselassie were cantering to glory in some vast Olympic palace.

With Dooher in that sort of form, it augured well for Tyrone. They had dominion over all parts of the field, overwhelming the green-and-gold midfield alignment and setting in motion their adventurous wing backs.

No All-Ireland team mixes backs and forwards quite as beautifully as Tyrone. Add to that the supreme athleticism of Seán Cavanagh, the heckling, biting street smarts Ryan McMenamin brings and the brooding solidity of Conor Gormley and the central column was there.

Gradually, they made Donegal look uncertain and finally dizzy. Donegal forgot they were playing against a system and as they fell into their default mode of short-passing, the circling Tyrone packs closed and stripped them of the ball.

Labouring on the ball is lunacy against Tyrone, and Donegal were slow to learn that here.

Dooher's first point of the second half came when Donegal took six hand-passes to move the ball out of their own half before finally being whistled for over-carrying. Corner back Dermot Carlin grabbed the ball and clipped an angled ball for his captain to chase down, and Dooher let fly first time.

That was the difference. It pushed Tyrone to 1-9 against 1-4 and suddenly they were moving with ominous freedom and urgency. At times over the next 20 minutes, they performed as though Donegal were some hastily cobbled challenge outfit.

Raymond Mulgrew's goal was sensational and, originating from a free, had the look of the training-ground set-piece about it, involving Colm McCullough and Stephen O'Neill before Owen Mulligan supplied the killer ball.

Mulgrew's finish though, was pure power and style, and Brian McGuigan, the long-term absentee from the number 11 shirt, probably saluted it.

There were other highlights - a bullet pass from Mulligan into O'Neill, who smartly pointed, and a wonderful slip pass from Colm Cavanagh to his brother that was probably cooked up in the back garden years ago.

Cavanagh senior, like a true accountant, elected to take a point with the Donegal defence beaten. Tyrone were in no need of another goal then.

Cavanagh's midfield stablemate Kevin Hughes also had a gaping goal chance. It could have been worse for Donegal.

How dramatically it all went wrong for the league adventurers! It is true that even in the league play-offs and particularly against Armagh, their form seemed to be dipping, as though they were conscious defeat would loom sooner or later.

Adrian Sweeney was a late inclusion to the team, and from the beginning Ryan McMenamin decided to take him on a Disneyland ride around Clones, tearing into attacking country with the big Dungloe man barrelling behind him.

Sweeney won ball but the Tyrone defence showed him to his right with the courtesy of ushers guiding a man up the aisle of a church. Not once did Sweeney get a free shot with the mighty left foot.

Donegal competed with Tyrone for a half here.

McFadden bossed the Tyrone back line to such effect that Harte replaced Enda McGinley with Joe McMahon after just 13 minutes. By then, Donegal had worked a wonderful goal, made by a brilliant McFadden shimmy and a clever catch and pass by Brendan Devenney. Kevin Cassidy did well with his low, neat finish.

That gave Donegal a 1-2 to 0-2 lead and they didn't score again for 25 minutes, when Devenney tapped over a free. That was mostly because they were outplayed by Tyrone, pure and simple. But they were also psyched out of it here. They abandoned their plans.

Even in the formidable company of Gormley, Devenney looked as though he could make things happen but Donegal stopped believing in the long ball.

Trailing by 2-11 to 1-5 with 20 minutes to go, they looked ripe for pulverising by Tyrone.

But Tyrone don't go in for showboating. It is not Mickey Harte's style. Polished as was this day, well, it was achieved too easily.

Still, Tyrone will be lauded as champions elect now. Nothing Harte can to about that. They are undeniably back, contenders and dangerous - if they were ever anything less.

TYRONE: 1 J Devine; 2 R McMenamin, 3 C McGinley, 4 D Carlin; 5 D Harte (0-1), 6 C Gormley, 7 P Jordan; 8 K Hughes (0-1), 9 S Cavanagh (0-1); 10 D Dooher (0-5), 11 R Mulgrew (1-1), 12 E McGinley; 13 C McCullough (1-1, pen, free), 14 C Cavanagh, 15 O Mulligan (0-3, 2 frees). Subs: J McMahon for C McGinley (13 mins), S O'Neill (0-2)for E McGinley (46 mins). Booked: McCullough (68 mins).

DONEGAL: 1 P Durcan; 2 N McGee, 3 P Campbell, 4 K Lacey; 5 P McConigley, 6 B Monaghan, 17 E McGee; 8 N Gallagher, 9 K Cassidy (1-0); 10 B Roper, 11 C Bonner (0-2), 12 R Kavanagh, (0-1); 13 C McFadden (0-1), 14 B Devenney (0-2, 1 free), 24 A Sweeney. Subs: K McMenamin (0-1)for Roper, R Bradley for Sweeney (both 46 mins), N McCready for Campbell (61 mins). Booked: Roper (15 mins), McConigley (35 mins), Campbell (44 mins), McMenamin (53 mins, 67 mins), Gallagher (62 mins). Sent off: McFadden (red, 65 mins), McMenamin (two yellows, 67 mins).

Referee: D Coldrick(Meath).