O’Neill the guiding star as Tyrone flatter to deceive

Monaghan 1-07 Tyrone 2-14

Mickey Harte reckoned double scores flattered his team. Most certainly. Monaghan were brave and spirited and had they possessed a little more experience as the match hung in the balance mid-way through the second half, they could have made Tyrone sweat even more.

They only scored one point in that second period and hit five straight wides from scoreable positions when they trailed by just one point, but still Seamus McEnaney can be satisfied by his first year’s work.

“We’d be disappointed by the margin of the result,” he sighed afterwards. That margin was enhanced by Monaghan’s inspirational skipper Damien Freeman receiving a second yellow card in the 54th minute.

“I don’t think Damien’s sending-off affected the result, but it did affect the margin,” he added.

“Tyrone took complete control with 20 minutes to go, but they are one of the top three teams in the country while we were one of the bottom three at the start of the year.

“I am very proud of my batch of players. We played 17 games this year and three teams beat us, Derry, Fermanagh and Tyrone - three serious teams.”

Only briefly in the first half did it look like the earth was about to quake. In the 13th minute, Tommy Freeman left Shane Sweeney in his slipstream as he poked the most delicate of finishes past John Devine. That saw Tyrone trail by 0-2 to 1-4.

Two minutes later, Rory Woods was fed by a magnificent Paul Finlay pass into his chest, but his goal-bound drive was thwarted by Devine. Had that goal gone in, there is no telling what would have happened.

Tyrone got their act together eventually, but it took a while and Harte spent the first half looking visibly nervous on the side-line.

Watching on telly, Dubs must have been slapping their hands together in delight. Tyrone were so poor at times, it seemed as if the psychological damage inflicted by their most bitter rivals was simply too much.

Still, there is no argument with class, which Tyrone displayed in abundance as this match hung in the balance.

It was another afternoon for Stephen O’Neill’s bulging scrap-book. Saying he was outstanding has become a superfluous statement this summer. He scored both of his side’s goals, at critical times in either half, and was the only player alert during their first half listlessness.

Of course, he toed the Tyrone line after the match. “I don’t think any of us can be happy with that performance,” he said after scoring 2-6.

“There is an awful lot of areas to improve on before we meet Dublin, because we are not going to beat them on that performance.”

O’Neill is a team-man, so would not single out his own ingenuity. After scoring a wondrous left-footed point in the 29th minute, he dragged Tyrone to parity a moment later with his first goal. Expertly peeling off his man, he latched onto Owen Mulligan’s pass and cushioned the ball into the net.

Hugh McElroy did nail a free to give Monaghan an interval lead of 1-6 to 1-5, but O’Neill had delivered his intentions for the afternoon.

Peter Canavan was brought on after the break. His greatest asset these days seems to be his mere presence and it unnerved the Monaghan defence.

But this was another of O’Neill’s days. His second goal, that finished a sweeping move involving Canavan and Brian McGuigan, killed the game.

He has now scored 3-32 in the championship, an astounding total when you consider 0-15 came against football’s most notorious defence.

“Well, I just get on the end of the chances that are created,” he said. “The lads out the field have to be creating the chances for me to score them.”

O’Neill said a hang-over from the recent neighbourly war was no excuse for their first-half performance, but there were remnants. The Ricey affair didn’t help either as Harte didn’t know what team would play until 3pm.

“Of course we would have played Ryan, had we been let,” Harte said.

“You can put all sorts of theories forward as to why we didn’t play well in the first half, but the simple reason is Monaghan came out of the blocks the quickest.”

It was hard not to feel for Monaghan. Even when they were six points in the ascendant, beating Tyrone looked beyond them but the likes of Dick Clerkin, Finlay, the Freemans and James McElroy played some really good football.

Harte was correct. They didn’t deserve double-scores. We might be seeing more of this young team.

Scorers: Tyrone: S O’Neill (2-6, 5 frees), P Canavan(0-2,1 free), M Penrose, R Mellon, D Harte, C Gormley, S Cavanagh(0-1 each), O Mulligan(0-1, free) Monaghan: T Freeman(1-1), H McElroy (0-3, frees), P Finlay (0-2, frees), R Woods (0-1).

TYRONE: P McConnell; J McMahon, C Lawn, S Sweeney, D Harte, G Devlin, P Jordan; C Gormley, S Cavanagh; B Dooher, B McGuigan, S O’Neill, R Mellon, O Mulligan, E McGinley. Subs: M McGee for Lawn (25 mins), P Canavan for Sweeney (h-t), M Penrose for Mulligan (54), B Meenan for Mellon (68).

MONAGHAN: S Duffy; D McArdle, J Coyle, C Flanagan, D Freeman, V Corey, G McQuaid; D Clerkin, E Lennon; J McElroy, P Finlay, R Woods, T Freeman, H McElroy, S Gollogly. Subs: F Duffy for Gollogly (45), N Corrigan for J McElroy (52), J Conlon for Clerkin (69).

Referee: M Monahan (Kildare).