Tyrone’s reign as All-Ireland champions comes to an end

By Alan Rodgers

A SIX point defeat against their old rivals means that Tyrone’s reign as the All-Ireland champions has come to an end.

The Red Hands were defeated by 1-16 to 1-10 by Armagh in an intriguing derby encounter at the Athletic Grounds. It means that the Red Hands are out of the race for the All-Ireland in June for the first time since 2000.

But there will be few complaints Tyrone never really caught fire in this tie. A goal from Conor McKenna after just three minutes gave them the perfect start, but from then on they struggled to find their form.

Armagh came storming back from that setback and soon had a goal of their own. It came from Aidan Nugent and helped them into a 1-5 to 1-1 lead at one point midway through the first half.

Tyrone, though, battled back. Points courtesy of Darren McCurry and Peter Harte brought them right back into contention. Just a point, 1-6 to 1-5 separated the teams at the break and it was all to play for on the resumption.

But the Red Hand challenge struggled to really get off the ground in that second half. Armagh opened strongly with Rian O’Neill and Rory Grugan scoring for them and they led by 1-11 to 1-6 entering the final quarter.

The introduction of Darragh Canavan and Cathal McShane added impetus, but they were unable to stem the tide. Points on the counter-attack from Rian O’Neill, Stefan Campbell and Conor Turbett ensured that Armagh were in pole position on a score f 1-14 to 1-8 entering the closing stages.

Tyrone never really looked like getting the goal that they needed to kick-start a revival even at that late stage. Instead, it was Armagh who held out to progress in front of a capacity attendance of 16, 292.