Derry finish impressive league campaign with win over battling Tyrone

LEAGUE WINNERS: Sean Kelly scores Derry's first goal. Pic: Ben McShane/Sportsfile

ALLIANZ HL DIVISION 2B FINAL

DERRY 1-14 

TYRONE 1-8

Derry’s 2-20 to 0-16 win over Tyrone in the first round of this year’s league at Celtic Park was an accurate indicator of the impressive Spring campaign that the Oak Leaf County had in store, and that campaign finished with silverware this afternoon at Owenbeg – but not before Tyrone showed marked improvement to push their neighbours to the wire.

The expected script was followed in the early exchanges when a wind-assisted home side shot the first three points of the game inside four minutes, a free from Cormac O’Doherty and one each for Darragh McGilligan and Christy McNaughton.

Tyrone took over from there however, spoiling a lot of ball in the middle third and chipping over the only two scores in the next 14 minutes, both from Aidy Kelly frees.

When Kelly set up Rory Weir for a goal after 18 minutes the underdogs were now in the driving seat, and still would have felt like the happier team at half-time, with the scores level.

Derry’s inaccuracy was a huge factor in the game with Cormac O’Doherty struggling in the freetaking role, and in a tight second half, more frees from Aidy Kelly and a point from James McCann nudged the visitors into the lead going into the final quarter, despite Derry’s continued dominance in the battle for possession.

On a day when no starting Derry forward scored more than a single point, it fell to substitute Seán Kelly to prove the hero, drilling a low shot past Conor McElhatton on the hour mark and then adding a late point, in between three frees from O’Doherty, to give Derry the cushion needed to hold out against a late Tyrone push for goals.

Scorers for Derry: Cormac O’Doherty 0-7f, Seán Kelly 1-1, Rúairí Ó Mianáin 0-2, Corey O’Reilly 0-1, Cahal Murray 0-1, Christy McNaughton 0-1, Darragh McGilligan 0-1.

Scorers for Tyrone: Aidy Kelly 0-6f, Rory Weir 1-0, James McCann 0-1, Lorcan Devlin 0-1.

DERRY: O O’Doherty; P Kelly, M Craig, S Cassidy; A Duffin, R Mullan, M McGrath; C O’Doherty, R O Mianáin; J Mullan, C O’Reilly, D McGilligan; C Murray, C McNaughton, P Cleary.

Subs: C O’Kane for Mullan (46), S Kelly for Cleary (50), P Neilis for McNaughton (57), J Friel for C O’Doherty (68).

TYRONE: C McElhatton; D Rafferty, R Devlin, O McKee; B Gormley, F Devlin, B McGurk; J McCann, C Munroe; R Weir, A Kelly, L Devlin; T Morgan, S Óg Grogan, J McToal.

Subs: T Mullin for Grogan (28), M Little for Weir (60), A Crossan for Morgan (66), E Winters for R Devlin (70), C Taggart for Munroe (70+2).

Referee: J Connors (Donegal).