Tyrone losing killer instinct

One of those “but the winners won’t worry about that” kind of days. But Tyrone should worry about it.

All day long these two teams passed the parcel over and back until eventually, when the music stopped, Tyrone found themselves on the winner’s chair. Somebody had to. Mayo had no discernible game-plan and were unable to capitalise on the window of opportunity thrown their way by a Tyrone side but a pale shadow of the two All-Ireland teams.

Only 27,834 went through the turnstiles for this Round Three Qualifier clash at Croke Park on Saturday, and the entire affair was devoid of atmosphere. Tyrone and Mayo have suffered difficult championship exits in recent seasons, and the wounds inflicted by those defeats were all too visible in a game where both sides lacked conviction.