Tyrone 1-10 Meath 0-11
Tyrone made it through to Round 3B of the All-Ireland qualifiers following a hard fought two-point win over Meath at Healy Park on Saturday. However this was far from a routine win as they were made fight all the way by a determined Royals outfit.
Although it took Meath until the 29th minute to score they turned around an early deficit to lead at the break 0-04 to 0-03 with Michael Newman (2), Donncha Tobin and Graham Reilly responding to scores from Sean Cavanagh (2) and Mark Bradley. At that stage things looked pretty ominous for Tyrone who in spite of playing wind assisted in the first half were second best all over the field.
Manager Mickey Harte made two changes at the break introducing Tiernan Mc Cann and Darren Mc Curry. Mc Cann’s direct running style and Mc Curry’s pace and movement caused the Meath defence all sorts of problems in the second half and the sides were level on sixteen minutes following points from Conor Mc Aliskey and Peter Harte.
With the game entering the final twenty minutes centre back Joe Mc Mahon put in a huge challenge on Menton and the resulting turnover visibly lifted the team. Another strong, forceful run from Mc Cann took him straight through the heart of the Meath defence before he was pulled to the ground. The resultant penalty was superbly struck by Peter Harte to put Tyrone two clear 1-5 to 0-6.
Suddenly the game caught fire and the closing fifteen minutes were the best of the match as both sides pushed for the win.
Graham Reilly, Kevin Reilly and Bryan Menton drove Meath forward only to be met with a wall of white as Tyrone defended stoutly before hitting on the counter attack.
Both teams swapped scores as points from Ronan Mc Nabb, Mark Bradley and Tiernan Mc Cann kept Tyrone in front. Graham Reilly, Menton and Kevin Reilly landed superb scores for Meath to reduce the gap to two before referee Ciaran Brannigan sounded the final whistle with Tyrone winning on a final score of 1-10 to 0-11.
Tyrone: N Morgan, A McCrory, R McNamee, C McCarron, R McNabb (0-01), Joe McMahon, R Brennan, P Harte (1-01, 1-0 pen), C Cavanagh, R Donnelly, M Donnelly, B Tierney, M Bradley (0-03, 1f), S Cavanagh (0-02), C McAliskey (0-01, f).
Subs: D McCurry (0-01) for R Donnelly (h-t), T McCann (0-01) for Tierney (h-t), C McKenna for Brennan (42), C Mc Shane for Bradley (70)
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