Bank of Ireland Ulster Senior Football Championship preliminary round: May 10 2004: Tyrone 1-17 Derry 1-6
Derry turned over by Tyrone tyrants
THIS was televised torture, tormentors toying with defenceless victims who seemed sadly resigned to their fate.
Tyrone turned over Derry without needing to turn on the style too much because their opponents barely turned up.
A turn-up was never on the cards.
Derry can only pray that the biblical message is true, to everything there is a season, yet it looks like a long time before it will be their turn, turn, turn again.
Tyrone, though, seem set for several more seasons in the sun.
The Red Hands aren’t quite up and running again, this was up and strolling.
The champs were under-strength but still carried far too much punch. Not exactly a no contest, but referee Brian White could have blown this one up midway through the second half. That’s the only way Derry would have got a replay this year.
The knockout combination came either side of half-time.
First, Derry were reduced to 14 men when half-back Padraig O’Kane was dismissed for two yellow cards following fouls on Philip Jordan in quick succession and went in trailing by seven points to do, having not scored at all until the half-hour mark.
Then Kevin Hughes, chosen at full-forward in preference to Owen Mulligan or Stephen O’Neill, fully justified his selection with a 38th minute goal, the highpoint of a terrific performance from the Killeeshil man.
Man-of-the-match, however, was Sean Cavanagh, giving a masterclass of midfield play, crowned with four points.
The entire opposition managed only three scores from play.
Long before the end, Derry were out on their feet, while many of their supporters voted with their feet, drifting disconsolately away with a quarter of the game remaining.
Credit to the outplayed Oak Leafers in one respect, they kept going to the end and grabbed a 68th minute goal through Padraig Kelly, but the damage had been done long before then.
Tyrone: J Devine; R McMenamin, C Gormley, C Gourley; B Donnelly, G Devlin, P Jordan (0-1); C Holmes, S Cavanagh (0-4); B Dooher (capt.) (0-2), B McGuigan, K Hughes (1-2); M Harte (0-4, one free), E McGinley (0-1), C McCullagh (0-2).
Substitutes: J McMahon for Donnelly (h-t); S O’Neill (0-1) for Dooher (68).
Yellow cards: Gourley (11); Holmes (40).
Derry: B Gillis; S M Lockhart (capt.), N McCusker, P Kelly (1-0); P O’Kane, K McGuckin, Francis McEldowney (0-1); F Doherty, E Muldoon (0-1, free); Patsy Bradley, C Gilligan, J McBride; J Kelly, Paddy Bradley (0-4, three frees), P McFlynn.
Substitutes: R Lynch for McFlynn (31); J Donaghy for Kelly (51); J Bradley for Patsy Bradley (68). Yellow cards: O’Kane (33, 35); Gillis (35); Lynch (42); Kelly (43).
Red card: O’Kane (35).
Referee: Brian White (Wexford).
MATCH STATS
TOP SCORE
PLENTY to choose from, with Tyrone only scoring once from a free, but many of the Red Hands’ efforts were simple scores. The pick of the bunch came in the 50th minute when Joe McMahon won the ball in midfield and released Colm McCullagh on the left. The Dromore man exchanged passes with Mark Harte before clipping over a great point from the left from a very tight angle.
STAR MAN
Sean Cavanagh (Tyrone)
A GREAT day for the men of Moy, with Jordan and Holmes impressing, but the talented Cavanagh was tremendous.
Laid down his marker by making the break that set up Colm McCullagh’s opening score and continued in the same vein throughout.
Fergal Doherty tried valiantly to keep him under control, or even keep up with him, but tracking the tireless Cavanagh is a thankless task
Scored four points from play, two in each half, two of them fisted over when he could have gone for goal had it been a tighter tussle.
His energy and endeavour continually stretched the Derry defence, his seemingly perpetual motion driving this Tyrone team on even in the absence of some key players.
Kevin Hughes was the ‘Hub’ of the Tyrone attack, but this was another Allstar performance from the reigning Young Footballer of the Year.
KEY MOMENT
57th minute: Brian McGuigan sends Brian Dooher clean through to take a fourth unanswered Tyrone point in a row and stretch the lead to 11 points, 1-12 to 0-4. The game is effectively over.
