O'Neill keeps Tyrone top

Tyrone 1-12 Cork 0-13: A late penalty enabled Tyrone remain top of Division One A at Páirc Uí Rinn yesterday. Stephen O'Neill, the game's most influential player, tucked away a low, left-footed effort to the left of goalkeeper Kevin Murphy.

It came four minutes from the end of normal time when unbeaten Tyrone were clinging to a 0-12 to 0-11 lead. Cork substitute Kieran O'Connor misplaced a pass and in his efforts to reclaim the ball pushed Seán Cavanagh just inside the square.

O'Connor, who had replaced captain Seán Levis for a yellow card offence, suffered the same fate himself, the third Cork player to do so. Brendan Ger O'Sullivan was first to walk after 54 minutes.

Cork battled to the end, reducing the margin with late points from James Masters and Conor McCarthy.

The teams were level eight times in all, with Tyrone leading 0-9 to 0-7 at the interval. O'Neill filled the full-forward position, swopping places with Ryan Mellon at centre forward from the throw-in, and he gave Martin Cronin a torrid time.

Barely 10 seconds after the resumption Cavanagh increased Tyrone's advantage. Cork responded with Levis darting from right half back to fire over a splendid point and Hayes kicked a free following an incident which resulted in a yellow card for Tyrone defender Michael McGee. Cork drew level with a Brendan Ger O'Sullivan point after 46 minutes.

Tyrone hadn't scored for 20 minutes when O'Neill kicked over a superb 40-metre point. Masters and Mellon exchanged points before O'Neill's penalty.

CORK: K Murphy; N Geary, M Cronin, G Murphy; S Levis (capt, 0-1), A Lynch, E Sexton; N Murphy, D Kavanagh (0-1); J Masters (0-5, one free), C McCarthy (0-2), K McMahon; S Hayes (0-1, free), BG O'Sullivan (0-2), K O'Sullivan (0-1). Subs: F Gould for K O'Sullivan, A Cronin for McMahon (both half-time), M Ó Croinín for Hayes(inj, 53 mins), C Murphy for BG O'Sullivan (54 mins), K O'Connor for Levis (60 mins), D Duggan for O'Connor (67 mins). Yellow cards: BG O'Sullivan (54 mins), S Levis (60 mins), K O'Connor (70 mins)

TYRONE: P McConnell; R McMenamin, E McGinley, M McGee; J McMahon, G Devlin, B Donnelly; B Meenan (0-1), P Donnelly (0-1); B Dooher (capt, 0-1), S O'Neill (1-5), S Cavanagh (0-3); M Coleman, R Mellon (0-1), C McCullagh. Subs: C Lawn for Coleman, M Penrose for McCullagh (both half-time), E Bradley for McGee (41 mins), L Meenan for Kavanagh (68 mins). Yellow card: M McGee (41 mins)

Referee: M Deegan (Laois).