Tyrone not gone away yet

Tyrone 1-17 Longford 0-15:CANCEL THE retirement parties and the farewell speeches. Tyrone aren't ready to quit just yet. They met fine opposition in Longford, who acquitted themselves with pride and no little skill in the wonderful bear pit that Pearse Park has become. But as Longford manager Glenn Ryan conceded afterwards; "Tonight, we were beaten by a stronger team and there is no shame in that."

This was far from vintage Tyrone; they still have not recaptured the clinical ability to close down matches they control and coughed up possession with uncharacteristic regularity. But on an evening that should be remembered for the performance of Philip Jordan, Tyrone showed bursts of their trademark individual excellence and collective intelligence.

The Tyrone backroom introduced a raft of 11th hour changes, with Davy Harte, Kevin Hughes, Brian Dooher and Stephen O’Neill (albeit with a hamstring injury) among the names pencilled out. The incoming bunch took their chance. Peter Harte, criticised for his free-taking in the Ulster semi-final defeat by Donegal, was absolutely terrific here, firing six wonderful points from play.

“A lot of people missed the point the last day,” coach Mickey Harte said afterwards. “Peter was very good in open play. He had a few bad efforts at frees, which is unlike him. But I had no doubts about his ability to play good football and he was a class act tonight.”

Kyle Coney also started and showed flashes of the talent that marked him out as special in his minor days. Colm Cavanagh was also a big influence, particularly in the nip-and-tuck first half, winning tough ball in the middle sector, tracking back and pitching in with two points.

But left half back Jordan ran the show; collecting ball after ball, as well keeping a close eye on Donal McElligot, he stormed the Longford left flank with attack after attack.

The game-breaking goal, three minutes after half time, was pure Jordan. He won possession, spied a bit of daylight and dashed through the Longford defence, taking a return pass from Coney before finding Mark Donnelly with a perfect pass: the Carrickmore man’s finish was unstoppable.

Two minutes later, Donnelly – oozing menace now – fired just over the bar as he went for another killer strike and just like that Tyrone were 1-10 to 0-8 ahead.

It left Longford in a tough place. But, once again, they illustrated why they are such a tough proposition at home. Without complaint or negativity they just go out and play. Their inside-forward line was sharp and full of confidence: Francis McGee, Brian Kavanagh and Seán McCormack each hit three points from play, every one a quality strike.

At the other end, the Longford defence was busy but Dermot Brady and Declan Reilly led from the corners and Kevin Diffley had a strong match at centre back.

Longford did little wrong but just found it tough to cope with the swiftness and subtlety of Tyrone’s best attacks. And when they did manage to close avenues off, Ryan McMenamin seemed to be on hand to snake his way through the tiniest of gaps and win a free here and there.

Longford got little change out of Tyrone from frees, having to craft their own scores. And crucially, the never managed to punch through Tyrone’s last line to truly test Pascal McConnell; after the visitors’ goal, they realistically needed to produce one of their one.

After 50 minutes, the scoreboard stood at 1-12 to 0-12 and the crowed, estimated at 11,000, was baying for another push. Nice for Tyrone to be able to call on the services of Messrs Dooher and Mulligan (Eoin) for those last 20 minutes but it was Peter Harte whose bravery and accuracy continued to light the way for the Tyrone front men.

Fittingly it was Jordan who won the last free, which once converted left four points between the teams. They were always just that bit out of reach.

“It was hard all the way,” Mickey Harte acknowledged. “We got into good positions in the second half but never really closed it out so we had to fight to the end. People had flagged it all week that this is the one that could possibly go against the head. We saw the reason why out there: Longford played great football and it was a credit to them.”

Afterwards, as the traffic inched up the main street in Longford and the pubs became busy, Glenn Ryan stood in the corridor under Pearse Park and frowned a minute when asked if he thought his team had played against All-Ireland contenders. “You couldn’t rule them out.”

TYRONE: 1 P McConnell; 24 Justin McMahon, 3 Joe McMahon, 4 R McMenamin; 5 D Harte, 6 C Gormley, 7 P Jordan; 17 A Cassidy, 9 S Cavanagh (0-2, frees); 18 C Cavanagh (0-2), 11 B McGuigan, 12 P Harte (0-7, 0-1 free); 13 M Penrose (0-2, frees), 14 M Donnelly (1-2), 19 K Coney (0-1). Subs: S O’Neill for Gormley 50 mins), O Mulligan for Penrose (50 mins), T McGuigan (0-1) for Coney (66 mins).

LONGFORD: 1 D Sheridan; 2 D Brady, 3 B Gilleran, 4 D Reilly; 5 S Mulligan, 6 K Diffley, 7 N Farrell (0-1); 8 B McElvaney, 9 M Brady; 10 D Barden, 13 D McElligot (0-1), 12 P Barden (0-1), 19 F McGee (0-3), 14 B Kavanagh (0-3), 15 S McCormack (0-6, 0-2 frees). Subs: N Mulligan for McElligot (50 mins), J McGivney for McElvaney (61 mins).

Referee: P McEnaney (Monaghan).