'Presence, guile and experience'

Suddenly, it was like old times again. The mere appearance of Peter Canavan delivered a sense of wellbeing around Healy Park in Omagh and greater Tyrone. The masses headed away for Carrickmore, Ardboe and the parishes of Errigal sodden, but happy to discover that Tyrone's ever-favourite son still has a bit of a game left.

Canavan is like a faith healer to this county. With his return to the Tyrone team, all the bothersome questions and worries didn't seem to matter anymore.

"It wasn't just the scores he got," acknowledged Mickey Harte afterwards. "It was the presence, that guile and experience. It was a battle with 15 minutes to go and to be able to bring Peter Canavan in at that stage was nice."

Few players other than the Errigal Ciarán man could make such an immediate impression on the championship. When he ducked out of the Tyrone panel in early spring, citing a lack of fitness, some felt the writing was on the wall. His departure and the lust for travel of other key men like Brian McGuigan and Kieran Hughes began to weigh against Tyrone's promise.

The withdrawal of captain Brian Dooher yesterday morning furthered Down's cause for optimism. But Canavan changed all that. A current zipped through Healy Park the moment number 18 made his way on to the sideline.

"Ah, all the subs get a big roar," Canavan said later. "Some of us even get a big roar coming back off again. But it was nice to get out there. The hamstring was niggling at me this past few weeks, but thankfully it worked fine out there today."

Sixty seconds after his arrival, Martin Penrose scored the goal that weakened Down's resolve. Tyrone never looked back and the grand old man ran the show.

Mickey Harte stood in the rain and smiled at this latest turn from his old clubman. No more than Canavan's return late in the All-Ireland final two years ago, things could not have gone more perfectly.

"I was hoping I might be able to bring him on in a situation where he might enjoy himself. We knew because of injury and sickness he wouldn't be able for 70 minutes, but he was comfortable going in for that time. I mean, we are no world beaters at this stage, we are just like any other team trying to find our form and we know that."

There were shades of it out there in the mud and grease but as Tyrone advance, they still have issues to sort out. The full back question may be a case of horses for courses.

"Well, I felt Chris Lawn was very unfortunate because in the first four or five one-on-one battles he did very well, but then he just slipped for Benny Coulter's goal and I thought his afternoon was going to be destroyed.

"But he had the experience to keep on working and Ryan McMenamin going back in there maybe didn't do any harm either."

Owen Mulligan trotted off the field. It was not one of his more prolific afternoons, but his industry was a marvel of a different kind. As he leaned against the tunnel wall, he seemed satisfied with the day's work.

"We knew it would be a tight game and it was. Very physical out there, but that is what you want. It's a big step up from league football and if you have the upper-body strength to deal with it, it's fine and I think our fitness showed out there. I felt we were flying."

That was true at the end when Tyrone cantered home. It was a dismal close to a game that had promised much for Paddy O'Rourke.

"Well, we suffered for not getting the ball into the forward line and into Benny Coulter. It didn't matter who was marking him because we weren't getting the ball in when we needed to."