Derry footballers fall to defeat against neighbours Tyrone in league opener

Tyrone 2-13

Derry 1-09

Steven Doherty at Healy Park

Derry slumped to a disappointing defeat to neighbours Tyrone in their opening National League fixture of the year at Healy Park.

The home side trailed by a point after the third quarter only to hit the last five scores of the contest and run out worthy winners.

Tyrone, despite playing into a forceful breeze, ran in four points up at the break and were well worth their half-time advantage. Malachy O’Rourke’s slick side appeared to adapt to this exciting new enterprise more readily than their opponents who committed the only three 50m fouls of the first half.

Michael McKernan scored the only goal of the first half, but in truth his side could have accounted for a couple more as the home side sliced open Derry a number of times only to fire wide or be denied by netminder Odhran Lynch.

The visitors began brightly, however, sneaking to an early 0-3 to no score lead courtesy of Ethan Doherty’s opening point and a cracker two pointer for Brendan Rogers. But after that initial early brief burst, the Oakleafers were cursed with sloppiness. Five unanswered points wiped away Derry’s lead as the home side took a firm grip of kick outs, and weaved training ground patterns along the ’45 before raiding for scores.

Paul Cassidy nailed Derry’s fourth point before that McKernan goal established a four point cushion for the home side. Derry found a little cohesion around the half hour mark with Shane McGuigan hitting his first of the night before Ciaran McFaul tapped over Derry’s 6th point to leave his side 1-5 to 0-6 behind.

However, Tyrone’s dominance was rewarded with two more scores before the break to see the hosts run in 1-7 to 0-6 ahead.

Whatever Paddy Tally said at half-time, his side were much improved after the break, outscoring their opponents four points to one to lead 1-9 to 1-8 after 53 minutes.

A rocket of a goal from the raiding Conor Glass proved the catalyst for Derry’s revival, with Shane McGuigan also finding his range and weighing in with a quickfire three points.

But after that Tyrone quickly found top gear. A scrappy second led to four more points to see the home side take both the win and the local bragging rights.

Scorers- Tyrone: M McKernan 1-2, P Teague 1-0, D McCurry 0-3, E McElholm 0-2, M Donnelly 0-2, N Devlin 90-1, S O’Hare 0-1, B Kennedy 0-1, R Cassidy 0-1

Derry: S McGuigan 0-4 (2f), C Glass 1-0, B Rogers 0-2, E Doherty 0-1, P Cassidy 0-1, C McFaul 0-1

Tyrone: Niall Morgan, Aidan Clarke, Peter Teague, Niall Devlin, Frank Burns, Michael McKernan, Shea O’Hare, Brian Kennedy, Liam Gray, Seanie O’Donnell, Kieran McGeary, Ciaran Daly, Darren McCurry, Matthew Donnelly, Ronan Cassidy

Subs: Eoin McElholm for L Gray (45), for Conn Kilpatrick for R Cassidy (45), Rory Brennan for F Burns (56), Mark Bradley for M Donnelly (67)

Derry: Odhran Lynch, Diarmuid Baker, Eoin McEvoy, Donnacha Gilmore, Conor Doherty, Brendan Rogers, Declan Cassidy, Conor Glass, Anton Tohil, Ethan Doherty, Ciaran McFaul, Paul Cassidy, Niall Toner, Shane McGuigan, Lachlan Murray:

Subs: Ben McCarron for C McFaul (43), Cormac Murphy for N Toner (51), Mark Doherty for Declan Cassidy (64), Callum McGrogan for P Cassidy (64)

Referee: David Coldrick (Meath)