Tyrone fend off Armagh at sizzling Healy Park

A RED hot display on a gloriously sunny evening at Healy Park saw Mattie Donnelly lead Tyrone to a valuable All-Ireland round-robin success over Armagh.

He spearheaded all that was good about the Red Hands as they edged to victory by 0-13 to 0-11.

It was another roller-coaster tie for Tyrone. First there was Armagh’s two guilt-edged goal chances, before Donnelly orchestrated matters to good effect. Darren McCurry, Darragh Canavan, Mattie Donnelly and Conn Kilpatrick all fired over as Tyrone led by 0-5 to 0-2 at the end of the first quarter.

They continued to dominate, with Peter Harte coming close to hitting the net as Padraig Hampsey put them 0-8 to 0-4 ahead at half-time.

That lead was stretched out to 0-11 to 0-5 early on the resumption, as Tyrone looked capable of scoring an emphatic win. But they were hauled back, as Armagh’s Oisin Conaty, Rory Grugan and Conor Turbitt all hit points to leave the issue back in the balance for the closing stages.

It was 0-13 to 0-10 when, as Tyrone attempted to play out time, Niall Morgan slipped and only Michael McKernan stopped an equalising goal by intercepting from Oisin Conaty.

Moments later the final whistle sounded on a victory that leaves Tyrone in pole position to clinch one of the top two places in the group, ahead of a clash against Westmeath in a fortnight.

“We’ve lost our four most recent championship games, so we had to make sure to win today,” Mattie Donnelly said afterwards.

“There wasn’t even a focus on the two points. It was really just about winning a championship game. You probably noticed that we were a little tentative about getting over the line but we got there.

“It’s not bad to have got the win, and there’s a lot to work on.”