Tyrone crush Cavan to make All-Ireland quarter-finals

Tyrone 0-31 Cavan 0-18

TYRONE flexed their attacking muscles in no uncertain fashion as they topped Group A to advance directly into the All-Ireland quarter-finals courtesy of this thirteen point demolition of Cavan at Brewster Park on Sunday afternoon.

Darren McCurry finished top scorer on nine points on a day when eleven different players got on the board for the Red Hands, though the one black spot was the shoulder injury which brought about Michael McKernan’s early exit from the contest.

However in the main it was a day of positives for Malachy O’Rourke and the sight of Conor Meyler returning to county colours as a second half sub (his first Tyrone appearance in two years) also added to the feel good factor.

It has been 42 years since Cavan’s last Senior Championship triumph over Tyrone and in truth there was no indication across the seventy minutes that their long losing drought was going to come to an end.

By the midway stage of the first half Tyrone had surged into a 0-9 to 0-2 lead, Matthew Donnelly, Darragh Canavan and sub Peter Harte (two pointer) among those to register.

Cormac O’Reilly did look lively for Cavan (he slotted over four scores from play) but the Red Hands superiority across all sectors was clearly evident, with captain Brian Kennedy back to spearhead their challenge.

With Kieran McGeary also pulling the strings, the Red Hands eased away and a sweetly struck Rory Brennan two pointer and a brace from McCurry helped them establish a 0-17 to 0-8 interval cushion.

McCurry really asserted his class on the restart, with a sequence of scores, and before long the gap had widened to thirteen points.

Cavan’s second half subs did pitch in with a few scores but Tyrone were able to ease off the gears as they cruised across the winning line.

Teams & Scorers

Tyrone: Niall Morgan (0-2,tp), Cormac Quinn, Paudie Hampsey, Niall Devlin (0-1), Michael McKernan, Rory Brennan (0-3, 1tp), Kieran McGeary (0-2), Brian Kennedy, Conn Kilpatrick, Seanie O’Donnell (0-1), Mattie Donnelly (0-4), Ciaran Daly (0-1), Darren McCurry (0-9,1tpf,3f), Darragh Canavan (0-5,2f). Subs used: Peter Harte (0-2,tp) for M McKernan (3mins), Aidan Clarke for N Devlin (30), Eoin McElholm (0-1) for M Donnelly (48), Conor Meyler for K McGeary (55), Ben McDonnell for C Kilpatrick (65)

Cavan: Liam Brady, Niall Carolan, Killian Brady, Cian Reilly, Brian O’Connell, Ciaran Brady, Padraig Faulkner, Oisin Kiernan, Evan Crowe, Gerard Smith, Dara McVeety, Oisin Brady (0-1), Cormac O’Reilly (0-4), Paddy Lynch (0-9,2tpf,3f, 145), Cian Madden. Subs used: Sean McEvoy (0-1) for K Brady (32mins), Ryan O’Neill (0-2,tp) for G Smith (50), Ruairi Curran (0-1) for O Kiernan (53), Luke Fortune for C Reilly (65)

Referee: Paddy Neilan (Roscommon)