All-Ireland SFC qualifier fourth round/ Tyrone 3-15; Laois 2-04: Oh mercy, there isn't much sympathy down on Qualifier Avenue. Eight days after surrendering their Leinster football title, Laois were beaten out the gates of Croke Park.
The damage was partly caused by a Tyrone team gradually re-approaching their All-Ireland winning form, but mostly by their own inability to recover from the demands of recent weekends - mentally as much as physically.
So as Tyrone walk joyously on towards their quarter-final date with Mayo next Saturday, Laois are left to wonder what they'd done to deserve this. They were fairly ruthlessly taken apart by Tyrone throughout the 70 minutes, a team whose mindset and energy levels couldn't have been more contrasting. The champions would have run all night to win this match but in fact only needed to run for the opening half hour.
By then Laois had been floored. They thought the injury problems were bad after their Leinster final replay against Westmeath last Saturday. But there was worse to come. Ross Munnelly was gone after the first half with an ankle injury that was clearly cramming his style, and the hand injuries to both Tom Kelly and Darren Rooney proved to be the feared handicaps.
Then after 25 minutes of the second half, just as Laois announced the remotest threat of a comeback, Brian "Beano" McDonald rolled over in a tackle with Tyrone's Ryan McMenamin. It looked harmless enough but McMenamin's reaction made it clear it wasn't. McDonald was stretched off and last night underwent an operation for two breaks in his right tibia. Sporting injuries don't come much worse.
Unfortunately it just about summed up the luck Laois have had since beating Meath to qualify for the Leinster football final. Team captain Chris Conway and their best defender Joe Higgins were already on the casualty list and, as manager Mick O'Dwyer repeated last week, they are players not easily replaced.
Yet even more of their shortcomings yesterday appeared to be in the head. The loss of their Leinster title coupled with the thought of playing the All-Ireland champions a week later was too heavy a dose. Just like Roscommon, Limerick and Donegal they found the challenge of rising after the provincial defeat just too much to ask, even with O'Dwyer's optimism, but especially with time so against them.
Tyrone sensed that from the throw-in and put their advantage to full use. After 30 minutes they were 11 points clear, the early destruction caused mostly by Owen Mulligan, Mark Harte and Seán Cavanagh. Both Mulligan and Harte had collected goals at that stage while Cavanagh's incredible desire to influence the game was simply proving unstoppable.
By then Laois were looking so disjointed that it seemed a humiliation was on the cards. What was left of 63,069 that paid in for the afternoon hardly raised much voice.
What ultimately saved the game from such an unbearable outcome were the two somewhat fortuitous Laois goals. The first from Beano McDonald three minutes into the second-half was helped into the net by Tyrone corner back Michael McGee. Yet that was only their second score of the game as they'd gone the entire first half relying on Shane Cooke's second-minute point.
Then on 53 minutes Kevin Fitzpatrick collected a fine pass from Gary Kavanagh and sent a thundering shot at the Tyrone goal. It was more likely to have gone in anyway but the other corner back McMenamin definitely helped send the ball on its way to the net.
That left the scores at 2-9 to 2-3 in Tyrone's favour and it wasn't outside the realms of possibility that Laois could yet make a game of it. Noel Garvan was proving good company to Cavanagh and Kevin Hughes at midfield, while Aidan Fennelly and Padriag McMahon were working hard around the back.
Instead it was a momentary lapse in their heavy fate. Tyrone replied with three superb scores from Brian McGuigan, Mark Harte (a free) and Stephen O'Neill and this time never looked back. And having regained a nine-point lead on 65 minutes, Harte completed a slick move between McGuigan and O'Neill to claim his second goal. Sin é.
There wasn't much humanity shown from the sideline officials when they announced six minutes would be added, but thankfully Tyrone had backed off enough to ensure the scoreline didn't get much more one sided.
More significantly, Tyrone had done enough to know their All-Ireland title defence is now firmly back on its tracks, and gaining some ominous pace.
Certainly Mulligan, Harte and O'Neill are playing some of the finest football of the season. Mulligan also added two superb points from play; his shot from way out to the left of goal just before half-time probably the score of the game.
The only one to rival that came moments later and from a similarly acute angle on the right, this time sent through the posts by O'Neill. Those two scores ensured Tyrone went for their isotonic drinks 13 points the better, 2-8 to 0-1.
The best player on the field by some distance was Cavanagh. The Moy midfielder made his now usual contribution of three points but also set up Mulligan's goal after four minutes after coolly taking the long pass from Gerard Cavlan. In this sort of form Tyrone are guaranteed a leader on the field.
There wasn't even any need to call on Peter Canavan, whose full rehabilitation also gives the champions a devastating option in their attack.
They're definitely on the way back, kissing goodbye to teams with remarkable ease, and closing in fast on their prize. Just like we guessed they would really.
TYRONE: 1 P McConnell; 2 R McMenamin, 31 C Gormley, 4 M McGee; 5 J McMahon, 6 S Sweeney, 7 P Jordan; 8 K Hughes, 9 S Cavanagh (0-3); 10 B Dooher (0-1), 11 B McGuigan (0-2), 12 G Cavlan; 13 M Harte (2-3, three frees), 14 E Mulligan (1-3, one free), 15 S O'Neill (0-3). Subs: 23 C Gourley for McMahon (15 mins), 20 B Collins for Mulligan (39 mins), 16 J Devine for McConnell (57 mins, inj), 24 C Lawn for Sweeney (67 mins)
LAOIS: 1 F Byron; 2 A Fennelly, 3 C Ryan, 4 P McDonald; 5 D Rooney, 6 T Kelly, 7 P McMahon; 8 P Clancy, 9 N Garvan; 10 R Munnelly, 11 K Fitzpatrick (1-0), 12 C Parkinson; 13 P Lawlor, 14 S Cooke (0-2, one free), 15 B McDonald (1-1, one free). Subs: 20 G Kavanagh for Munnelly, D Miller (0-1) for Lawlor (both half time), 27 C Bergin for McDonald (62 mins, inj), 19 P Conway for Ryan (69 mins)
Referee: M Collins (Cork).
