Senior footballers recover from slow start to defeat Tyrone

DUBLIN 2-13 TYRONE 1-11

It's two wins from two starts for the Dublin senior footballers as they overcame Tyrone by five points in Healy Park, Omagh on Saturday night in front of a crowd of 9,465.

The Dubs played almost the last half hour, including added time, with 14 men after Niall Scully had been dismissed for a second yellow card in the 48th minute.

Like in the previous round against Kildare Jim Gavin's men responded well to the early concession of a goal as Cathal McShane's 1-1 in the opening minutes had Tyrone four points clear inside five minutes.

However, as the half progressed Dublin began to find the feet when playing into a strong wind and by the break were 1-7 to 1-5 in arrears with Ciarán Kilkenny grabbing Dublin's goal in the 23rd minute.

“I think just how this Dublin team responds to that – they just roll up theirsleeves and get on with it,” said manager Jim Gavin.

“That’s to their credit and no matter what has happened in the game they are just playing the next passage of play.

“They are very adaptable, very present in the game and not looking too beyond the next actual phase of play,” added Jim.

With Tyrone packing their defence it was a route one ball from a Brian Fenton free that saw Kilkenny break the ball from defender Aidan McCrory and then react quickest to poke the ball to the net past Niall Morgan with his left foot.

He almost grabbed a second before the break but his thunderbolt cannoned off the crossbar and away to safety and the powerful Castleknock man impressed when moved into the inside line.

But Tyrone had plenty of scoring opportunities themselves and the early long, accurate back, with the wind behind them, caused problems for the last line of Dublin's defence.

“I thought we did really well to bring the scores back after about 25 minutes, obviously Tyrone finished well in the first half, but it was a difficult goal to score into," said JIm.

“For the most part they had 13 of their 14 out-field players behind the ball and yet we got a goal and a couple of scores, so we could be very pleased with that.

“I just thought in the second half we played very controlled football, thought our hand-passes, for the conditions like they were, were on the money.”

On the restart Dublin were not long in getting on top.

Points from Dean Rock (free), an excellent James McCarthy point and another from Brian Fenton had the Dubs in front of the first time in the game.

It was Dublin who were playing the more controlled football with Tyrone on several occasions shooting from too far out into the strong wind - they accumulated seven second half wides.

Not for the first time Dublin's winning push came from the bench with Colm Basquel injecting pace into the forward line. And despite being reduced to 14 men the likes of Brian Howard, McCarthy and Fenton covered a mountain of ground.

At the back Dublin had tightened up with Jonny Cooper making several important second half interceptions.

On the one occasion that Tyrone did escape Dublin's clutches Stephen Cluxton made a great save to deny Conor McAliskey.

Basquel, a member of last year's U21 All-Ireland winning team, was introduced as a sub from Paul Mannion in the 61st minute and went on to score two points from play as well as converting a free and playing a leading role in Dublin's second goal.

Basquel intercepted an intended return pass from Pádraig Hampsey to Tyrone keeper Niall Morgan from a kick-out before cutting through on goal and placing Eoghan O'Gara who fired to the net from close range.

Tyrone, who had gone scoreless for 28 minutes of the second half, tagged on a few frees late on as Dublin ensured they couldn't find any route to goal.

Next up for Dublin is their clash with Donegal in Croke Park next Saturday night (7.0) with the Dublin ladies footballer facing Cork in the curtain-raiser (5.0).

SCORERS – Dublin: C Kilkenny 1-2, D Rock 0-4 (0-3f), C Basquel 0-3 (0-1f), E O’Gara 1-0, K McManamon 0-2, J McCarthy, B Fenton 0-1 each. Tyrone: L Brennan 0-6 (0-3f), C McAliskey 0-2, C McShane 1-1, N Sludden, P Harte 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: S Cluxton; P McMahon, M Fitzsimons, D Daly; J McCarthy, J Cooper, J Small; B Fenton, MD Macauley; N Scully, C Kilkenny, B Howard; K McManamon, P Mannion, D Rock. Subs: D Byrne for Small (46), P Andrews for McManamon (50), C Basquel for Mannion (61), E O’Gara for Rock (65), S Carthy for McCarthy (68), E Lowndes for Fenton (69).

TYRONE: N Morgan; P Hampsey, C McCarron, HP MGeary; T McCann, A McCrory, C McLaughlin; D McClure, C McShane; M Donnelly, N Sludden, R Donnelly; C McAliskey, L Brennan, P Harte. Subs: M McKernan for HP McGeary (22), R McNamee for McCrory (ht), C McCann for McClure (49), R McNabb for McLaughlin (55), F Burns for R Donnelly (55), M Bradley for T McCann (63).

REF: M Deegan (Laois).

Allianz Football League Div 1

                   P W D L For AG Diff Pts

 1. Dublin 2 2 0 0 4-30 3-21 12 4

2. Galway 2 2 0 0 2-21 0-22 5 4

3. Kerry 2 2 0 0 3-33 5-23 4 4

4. Monaghan 2 1 0 1 1-22 0-25 0 2

5. Mayo 2 1 0 1 2-22 1-27 -2 2

6. Donegal 2 0 0 2 3-28 3-30 -2 0

7. Kildare 2 0 0 2 2-22 3-27 -8 0

8. Tyrone 2 0 0 2 1-19 3-22 -9 0