NHL Division 3A
Tyrone 1-11 Monaghan 3-15
Tyrone paid the price for some very erratic first half shooting, at Healy Park on Sunday as Monaghan headed home with the points following a comfortable ten point winning margin in a competitive NHL Division 3A opener.
The Red Hands registered seven wides during the first half, at a time, when the game was in the balance and, when Brian McGuigan struck for an opportunist goal Mattie Lennon’s men were left chasing the result.
McGuigan’s goal enabled the visiting Oriel men to establish a 1-6 to 0-1 advantage and that after Fergal Rafter and Damian Casey had shared the opening two points, but they failed to trouble the scoreboard for the duration of the half, as Tyrone spearheaded by the mercurial Casey staged a fight back.
Justin Kelly supplied Tyrone’s first point from play on 29 minutes and, with Casey and Ryan McKernan weighing in with further scores, they trimmed the deficit to four, 0-5 to 1-6, at the break.
There was a feeling that the halftime whistle arrived too soon for Tyrone and came at the right time for Trevor Hilliard’s men. That theory was borne out when Donal Meegan split the uprights twice within a minute of the restart to restore Monaghan’s belief that they could secure a winning result.
Mark Treanor punished a sloppy clearance for a 1-10 to 0-6 lead and when McGuigan scrambled home his second major on 50 minutes it appeared all over bar the shouting. That goal saw Tyrone trailing by ten with Casey having a 21 yard free cleared off the line.
Once again The O’Neill County rallied with four successive Casey points in a seven minute period. Meegan and Éanna MacSuibhne retaliated for Monaghan before Casey collected a Justin Kelly delivery and, blasted ruthlessly to the net as the match ticked into injury time.
That left the score board reading 1-11 to 2-13 but in a lengthy period of stoppage time Monaghan stormed home. McGuigan benefitted from the industry of Sean Leonard to complete his hat trick less than sixty seconds after Tyrone’s goal with Meegan and Tadgh Campbell adding points to secure an impressive opening round win for the visitors.
Tyrone – Paddy McKillion, Ruairi Devlin, Brendan Begley, Mike O’Gorman, Aidan Kelly, Stephen Donnelly, Tiernan Morgan, Justin Kelly, Dermot Begley, Chris Cross, Damian Casey, Conor Grogan, Ryan McKernan, Sean Og Grogan, Peadar Daly. Subs used – Pierse O’Kelly for Daly (46 mins), Dean Rafferty for Devlin (51), John Devlin for McKillion (57 injured), Duibhir Marshall for McKernan (60)