Kerry hold on as tempers flare at end

NFL DIVISION ONE: Kerry 2-10 Tyrone 0-13:A STRANGE match in Omagh ended with one of the venue's familiar eruptions in the aftermath of a confrontation between Marc Ó Sé and Ryan McMenamin. Players jostled with each other and Kerry manager Jack O'Connor had to be restrained before the teams separated with the visitors heading to the dressing-room to reflect on a satisfying victory and Tyrone staying on the field to warm down.

The match had occasionally strayed over the line of rancour and seen four players removed under the yellow-card rule but hadn’t really threatened to boil over, the main talking points being Kerry’s impressively sharp first-half form and Tyrone’s painstaking recovery from an 11-point deficit to get within a score of the winners in the end.

“We were expecting that at half-time,” said O’Connor afterwards. “Tyrone weren’t going to lie down. We expected that and relished it because these are the games that bring you on. They were going to have to score a goal because it’s very hard to dig it out with points. When you’ve a big lead you tend to sit back but we had a couple of good breaks and could have had a couple of goals. It’s a long journey from south Kerry to Omagh and we didn’t come up for the spin.

“We came up to give a good account of ourselves and if we could get a result, great. We knew we would have a battle on our hands but we were going to come up and make a battle of it anyway.”

So O’Connor’s renewed engagement with Kerry’s great nemesis of this decade ended in an encouraging first Allianz National League win in Omagh since the rivalry began. They ran the All-Ireland champions ragged in the first half, their defence smart and perceptive with Aidan O’Mahony, Marc Ó Sé and Daniel Bohan moving the ball forward with purpose.

David Moran gave further evidence of his potential at centrefield and going forward they exerted massive pressure. Darren O’Sullivan, whose pace has troubled Tyrone since he was a minor, made early incisions and Tommy Walsh caused All Star full back Justin McMahon much bother in the air. Colm Cooper was himself and rattled off 2-3 before half-time, the first goal a crisp finish after good approach work from Darren O’Sullivan and Walsh and the second a predatory latching-on to the latter’s knock-down to make it 2-4 to 0-1 by the 13th minute.

Tyrone tried to rejig the defence by bringing back Joe McMahon in a swap with his brother Justin, but the move ran aground when the former was yellow-carded for a foul on Walsh in the 17th minute. Nonetheless replacement Conor Gormley stabilised the defence on his introduction and Kerry had to work harder for their scores.

McMenamin might have followed McMahon but his rather personal interference with Paul Galvin went unnoticed whereas the victim was ticked for feigning injury. Referee Jimmy White explained afterwards that whereas Colm McCullagh had been ticked twice, the second had been unintentional and hadn’t counted – as the Donegal official explained to the player at the time.

Kerry were restricted to two points after the break but created good goal chances on the break. However Walsh hadn’t his finishing boots on and Jonathan Curran made two excellent saves in one-on-one situations, including at the end of a great 40th-minute move created by Darren O’Sullivan.

But Tyrone picked away at Kerry, running at the visitors, drawing fouls, which Seán Cavanagh converted despite a subdued display and some good marking by Aidan O’Shea (until he was yellow-carded) and previously O’Mahony. Six unanswered points cut the deficit to five. In the blizzard of Tyrone scores replacement Bryan Sheehan with a free and Darren O’Sullivan provided Kerry’s only ripostes.

“After the first half we showed flashes in the second,” said Tyrone manager Mickey Harte. “The fact they we came up with some good scores ourselves is promising. In the midst of a comeback the opposition is always going to get a couple of scores but to hold two Kerry to two points is something the players can be very proud of.”

Predictably neither manager was making much of the disorder at the end. “Tension was high at that stage at the end of the game,” said Harte. “But it was something that could be done without. It wasn’t outrageous but it wasn’t very useful either.”

O’Connor was a bit more reticent. “It was handbag stuff. I suppose the cameras caught it. It was a very keenly contested game and the adrenaline was up but it was minor stuff.”

KERRY:D Murphy; P Reidy, A O'Mahony (0-1), K Young; A O'Shea, M Ó Sé (0-1), D Bohan; S Scanlon, D Moran (0-1, free); P Galvin (0-1), Declan O'Sullivan, S O'Sullivan; C Cooper (2-3, points frees), T Walsh, Darren O'Sullivan (0-2). Subs: B Sheehan (0-1, free) for S O'Sullivan (29 mins), M Corridan for O'Mahony (42 mins, yellow), A Maher for Young (52 mins, yellow), K Quirke for Moran (52 mins), B Moran for O'Shea (66 mins, yellow).

TYRONE:J Curran; M Swift, Justin McMahon (0-1), M McGee; D Harte, R McMenamin, P Jordan; E McGinley (0-1), A Cassidy; T McGuigan (0-2, one free), C McCullagh (0-2, one free), Joe McMahon; C Cavanagh, S Cavanagh (0-6, five frees), O Mulligan (0-1). Subs: C Gormley for Joe McMahon (17 mins, yellow), K Hughes for McGee (half-time), M Penrose for Cassidy (52 mins), R Mellon for C Cavanagh (66 mins).

Referee: Jimmy White (Donegal).