Tyrone end Longford winning run

Longford 0-9 Tyrone 3-15

Tyrone earned their second consecutive win of the Allianz NFL and leapt to the top of Division 1A, as three second half goals spurred them on to a 3-15 to 0-9 defeat of Longford at Pearse Park.

Substitute Enda McGinley and midfield duo Kevin Hughes and Sean Cavanagh were all on target as the All-Ireland champions brought Longford's winning run to an end in a crushing 15-point defeat.

Trevor Smullen started his first league game for Longford at wing forward, and it was a smart opening from the men in blue as Pauric Davis pointed them into a second minute lead.

Tyrone dominated the first half with Colm McCullagh drawing them level on four minutes, rounding off a superb move involving Eoin Mulligan and Brian McGuigan to volley over his fourth point of the league.

Man-of-the-match Stephen O’Neill pointed on 23 and 27 minutes to draw Tyrone into a 0-5 to 0-3 lead with a 13-metre free from Mark Harte five minutes from time.

Eight wides from Longford in the opening period were to prove costly as 20 seconds after the restart McGinley netted, with Tyrone scoring 1-7 inside the first seven minutes of the second half.

Scores from Harte (2f), Eoin Mulligan and a fifth O’Neill point on 39 minutes saw them edge 1-13 to 0-6 in front, with Longford replying on 42 and 45 minutes through two Paul Barden frees and a David Blessington effort.

O’Neill was dismissed for the second time in two weeks, with his second yellow card on 49 minutes before Davis brought off a fine save from Tyrone goalkeeper Finbar McConnell.

Incredibly there were no second half wides.

Tyrone wrapped up the win when Brian McGuigan sent Hughes through on Sheridan and his shot was unfortunately handled over the line by the Longford stopper.

Cavanagh half-volleyed past Sheridan four minutes from the end and Eoin Mulligan launched over Tyrone’s last point in injury time to complete the scoring.