Harte: We must be critical

Tyrone boss Mickey Harte cast a cold and critical eye on what he deemed a less than adequate performance, despite his team’s comfortable nine-point winning margin at Healy Park.

The Red Hands were in cruise control throughout, but not sufficiently ruthless, according to their boss. 12 points ahead after Peter Harte and Martin Penrose goaled, Tyrone had their opponents on the floor, but were unable to complete the rout.

“For the number of chances we created, we weren’t converting enough of them. We’d need to be more efficient around the goals,” said Harte.

But Harte is encouraged by the quality of the football his team has produced and feels a solid foundation has been laid down.

“There’s a nice pattern developing to their play, and there’s lots of good pace about the team, and pace is very important in the modern game.

Kyle Coney’s class shone brightly in the first-half — the Ardboe man steering over three superb points. With Damian McCaul probing from the half-back line and Peter Harte once again emerging as an intuitive playmaker, the Red Hands dominated, and a 0-5 to 0-0 lead after 21 minutes barely did them justice.

Pat Flanagan sprang Denis Glennon from the bench after just 23 minutes, and the Tyrellspass star was easily his side’s best attacker, hitting their opening point and a 0-3 tally.

But Tyrone took a firm grip on the contest, when Paddy McNeice won the penalty which Harte blasted home. They led by 1-6 to 0-2 at half-time, and a Martin Penrose goal 20 seconds after the restart, followed by points from Owen Mulligan and Penrose, opened up a 12-point lead.

Scorers for Tyrone : M Penrose 1-2 (2fs), P Harte 1-0 (pen), K Coney 0-4, O Mulligan 0-2 (1f), S Cavanagh, J Lafferty, D McCaul 0-1 each.

Scorers for Westmeath: Denis Glennon 0-3, David Glennon, G Egan, J Heslin (f), R Foley, K Martin 0-1 each.

TYRONE: P McConnell, A McCrory, Justin McMahon, PJ Quinn, C McCarron, P Harte, D McCaul, N McKenna, Joe McMahon, R McNabb, Mark Donnelly, P McNeice, K Coney, M Penrose, O Mulligan.

Subs: C Cavanagh for Joe McMahon, C Gormley for McCaul, S Cavanagh for Penrose, J Lafferty for Mulligan, S McNulty for Quinn.

WESTMEATH: G Connaughton, M Curley, K Gavin, K Maguire, D McDermott, M Ennis, A Finnan, J Heslin, P Bannon, K Martin, G Egan, P Sheridan, A Giles, David Glennon, P Sharry.

Subs: Denis Glennon for Giles, R Foley for Sheridan, M Gorman for Maguire, B Moran for Egan, J Egan for Ennis.

Referee: J Curley (Meath).