Allianz Football League Division One

TYRONE 3-14 MAYO 1-19

Mickey Harte’s Tyrone held off a Mayo fight back in the closing quarter with vital scores from Darren McCurry and Conor McKenna proving critical to their win. 

Tyrone’s direct style of play caused Mayo plenty of problems early on as they worked the ball quickly into dangerous positions and their press on the Mayo kick-out with Niall Morgan pushing up to create and extra man caused Mayo a number of problems. 

Both sides showed a number of changes from the teams named in the programme with Mayo missing Cillian O’Connor due to a knock he picked up against Galway and Tyrone bringing in Darragh Canavan, Hugh Pat McGeary and Michael O’Neill for Padraig Hampsey, Frank Burns and Conal McCann. 

McKenna netted two goals in the game, his second one eight minutes into the second half after mix up on the Mayo kick-put proved vital with that score putting his side 3-10 to 0-10 in front. 

Mayo did pull the close the gap back to six points at the second half water break leaving it all to play for down the home straight. 

Tommy Conroy’s got a goal for Mayo not long after the resumption of the third quarter and they pushed hard with James Durcan and Ryan O’Donoghue kicking five points between them down the home stretch - but Tyrone were able to see it out and send Mayo down to division two. 

Two first half goals had Tyrone leading by eight at the break, with both Conor McKenna and Darragh Canavan finding the net in the period after the water break. 

McKenna hit the net just after the resumption of the game following the first stoppage, a long Niall Morgan kick out was missed by a number of players before Canavan and Mattie Donnelly were able to combine to play in McKenna.

That score put Tyrone six up and they kept the foot down during the rest of the half with Canavan’s goal one is father would have been proud of after he was found by a beautiful pass from McKenna which took the Mayo defence out of the equation and he drove it with power past David Clarke and they went in leading by eight at the break. 

Scorers for Tyrone: Conor McKenna 2-2 (1f), Darren McCurry 0-4 (3fs), Darragh Canavan 1-1, Peter Harte 0-3, Mattie Donnelly 0-2, Kieran McGeary and Michael McKernan (m) 0-1 each.

Scorers for Mayo: Tommy Conroy 1-3, Darren Coen 0-5 (3fs), James Durcan 0-3 (3fs), Diarmuid O'Connor (1m) and Ryan O'Donoghue (1f) 0-2 each, Eoghan McLaughlin and Conor Loftus 0-1 each.

TYRONE: Niall Morgan; Liam Rafferty, Ronan McNamee, Hugh Pat McGeary; Tiernan McCann, Kieran McGeary, Michael McKernan; Brian Kennedy, Michael O’Neill ; Matthew Donnelly, Conor McKenna, Darren McCurry; Peter Harte (0-3), Darragh Canavan, Conor Meyler.

Subs: Frank Burns for Michael O’Neill, Kyle Coney for Brian Kennedy, Niall Sludden for Darragh Canavan, Niall Kelly for Hugh Pat McGeary, Ronan O’Neill for Darren McCurry. 

MAYO: David Clarke; Oisín Mullin, Stephen Coen, Lee Keegan; Patrick Durcan, Kevin McLoughlin, Eoghan McLaughlin; Matthew Ruane, Conor Loftus; Diarmuid O’Connor, Mark Moran, Bryan Walsh; Tommy Conroy, Aidan O’Shea, Daren Coen.

Subs: Fionn McDonagh for Bryan Walsh, Ryan O’Donoghue for Mark Moran, James Durcan for Darren Coen, Padraig O’Hora for Kevin McLoughlin, Paul Towey for Eoghan McLaughlin.

REFEREE: Niall Cullen (Fermanagh).