Experimental Tyrone fall short in entertaining McKenna Cup tussle with Armagh

Armagh 2-15

Tyrone 1-15

A SLICK looking Armagh side qualified for the semi-finals of the McKenna Cup with a 2-15 to 1-15 victory over Tyrone at Healy Park this afternoon — but the important thing from a Tyrone perspective is that they produced a much-improved performance on Tuesday’s non-event against Cavan.

For the first time since 2009, the Red Hands won’t take part in the final of the pre-season competition, but one imagines that Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher will be reasonably happy with a solid if unspectacular performance from the reigning All-Ireland Champions.

While a number of experienced members of last year’s team made the starting 15 (Mattie Donnelly was particularly impressive with a three-point haul), there was still a heavy emphasis on youth with newcomers like Ryan McCusker, Peter Herron and Mark McKearney doing their chances of making the national league panel no harm whatsoever with some impressive displays

At the same time, Armagh were deserving victors and it looked for a period in the first-half that an embarassing afternoon could be on the cards as their long-ball tactic left Tyrone exposed time and time again at the back, with Jason Duffy’s early goal leaving the scoreboard reading 1-3 to 0-1 in Armagh’s favour.

The Orchard County compounded their advantage with scores from the superb Rian O’Neill, but a goal on the stroke of half-time from Conn Kilpatrick left Tyrone with a manageable 1-9 to 1-5 gap to overhaul after the break.

Tyrone improved up front with sub Paul Donaghy making an immediate impact, scoring two points and setting up another for James Garrity in the first seven minutes of the second-half.

However, Armagh continued to pick off scores on the counter and got their second goal of the day when Rory Grugan showed considerable composure in front of goals to open up a 2-13 to 1-2 lead.

That put daylight between the teams and although there were some fine late points from Conor Meyler (two) and Nathan Donnelly, it was Armagh’s day. Tyrone now have two weeks to get ready for their national league opener against Monaghan, and it’s fair to say that their two McKenna Cup games will have left the management team with plenty of food for thought.

See the Tyrone Herald on Monday for a full match report and reaction from today’s game