Kerry win fractious encounter against Tyrone

Tyrone 0-13 Kerry 2-10

Scuffles broke out at the conclusion of a tense NFL tie between Tyrone and Kerry at Healy Park.

The Kingdom’s devastating first-half display set them up for a morale-boosting three-point win, and possibly provided returning boss Jack O’Connor with some vital clues as to the secret of beating his nemesis in the height of a championship summer.

Kerry may have taken the league points, but arguably, Tyrone emerged from this tense, fractious Healy Park tie with more satisfaction than the Kingdom.

Skirmishes which followed the final whistle merely served to emphasise the fierce rivalry which continues to grow between these counties.

“It is a highly charged situation which we wouldn’t want to see developing at all, but sometimes people are in that place and things can escalate if they are not sorted out quickly,” said Tyrone manager Harte.

“It is unnecessary and doesn’t look good and I wouldn’t want to be involved in it, but things like that happen. You can’t condone them, you hope it doesn’t happen and that that is the end of it. I have seen much more serious, similar events, maybe even in this place here. I hope we don’t get back to that.”

And O’Connor also played down the seriousness of the incident.

“It was a very keenly contested game, especially in the last quarter of an hour. The adrenalin was up,” he said.

“There was a bit of handbags stuff going on there. We won’t worry too much about that.”

Kerry’s utter dominance right from the outset was quite remarkable.

Their workrate, movement and quality of finishing had the All-Ireland champions in turmoil.

David Moran’s presence in midfield, Paul Galvin’s workrate, the tricky running lines of Darren O’Sullivan and the dynamic attacking impact of wing back Aidan O’Mahony gave the Kingdom something extra in vital areas.

And up front, Colm Cooper and Tommy Walsh were supreme target men who caused all sorts of problems, the Gooch feeding off the big Kerins O’Rahilly’s man and bagging a 2-3 tally in the first half alone.

The first goal, on nine minutes, came from a route one delivery from Seamus Scanlon, with Cooper turning his marker to plant the ball in the bottom corner of Johnny Curran’s net.

Four minutes later, another lofted ball into the danger area set up a second, Walsh getting in a flick for Cooper to punch home at the far post.

Tyrone attempted to reassemble their All-Ireland final back two with Joe McMahon dropping back to join younger brother Justin, but almost immediately, the former was off on a yellow card, with Conor Gormley coming in for his first appearance of the season.

And so the punishment continued, and by the halfway stage, Kerry were in cruise control, ahead by 11 points at 2-8 to 0-3

Tyrone displayed greater urgency on the restart, but still needed two brilliant point-blank saves from Johnny Curran to deny Walsh.

Kerry were no longer allowed to build from deep and deliver from distance to the front line as Tyrone finally reverted to their famous pressure game.

And it worked. The scores flowed from Cavanagh, supremely accurate from frees, Mulligan, Justin McMahon and Enda McGinley.

Bryan Sheehan’s free ended a scoreless spell of more than half an hour for Kerry, but they had done enough before the break to win the game.

Tyrone: J Curran, M Swift, Justin McMahon (0-1), M McGee, D Harte, R McMenamin, P Jordan (0-1), E McGinley (0-1), A Cassidy, T McGuigan (0-2, 1f), C McCullagh (0-2, 1f), Joe McMahon, C Cavanagh, S Cavanagh (0-5, 5f), O Mulligan (0-1).

Subs: C Gormley for Joe McMahon (yellow card, 15), K Hughes for McGee (h-t), M Penrose for Cassidy (50), R Mellon for C Cavanagh (65)

Kerry: D Murphy, P Reidy, A O’Shea, K Young, A O’Mahony (0-1), M O Se (0-1), D Bohan, S Scanlon, D Moran (0-1, 1f), P Galvin (0-1), Declan O’Sullivan, S O’Sullivan, C Cooper (2-3, 3f), T Walsh, Darren O’Sullivan (0-2).

Subs: B Sheehan (0-1, 1f) for S O’Sullivan (28) M Corridan for O’Mahony (yellow card, 38), A Maher for Young (yellow card, 50), B Moran for A O’Shea (yellow card, 59), P O’Connor for D O’Sullivan (66)

Referee: J White (Donegal).