Sport

In The Irish News - Mar 30 1998: Tyrone stage late comeback to draw with Down

POWER PLAY...Down’s James McCartan strives to evade the clutches of Tyrone’s Terry McKenna during yesterday’s McKenna Cup semi-final in Newry.
POWER PLAY...Down’s James McCartan strives to evade the clutches of Tyrone’s Terry McKenna during yesterday’s McKenna Cup semi-final in Newry. POWER PLAY...Down’s James McCartan strives to evade the clutches of Tyrone’s Terry McKenna during yesterday’s McKenna Cup semi-final in Newry.

DESPITE being a player short for 40 minutes of this game at Pairc an Uir Newry yesterday, Tyrone staged a brilliant final five minutes to come from behind to draw with Down.

With an Ulster Championship meeting seven weeks away neither manager was prepared to show his hand.

Down were never able to utilize their one-man advantage but a big worry for manager Peter McGrath was the inaccuracy of the attack which over the hour was off target on 12 occasions while Tyrone were only wide on four.

The Down defence played soundly throughout with Finbar Caulfield, Simon Poland and Cathal Murray being most prominent.

But at midfield Sean Ward and Shane McMahon had a great battle with the Tyrone pairing of Sean Corr and Colin Holmes.

In attack James McCartan, who got a lot of possession, was off target.

The best work came from Shane Mulholland and Peter Withnell while Ciaran McCabe took his goal in style.

Tyrone can feel pleased with this performance and they had solid defenders in Chris Lawn, Paul Devlin and Seamus McCallan. The star of the attack was full forward Eoin Gormley ably assisted by Ciaran Loughran and Fergal Coyle in a very dangerous full forward line.

There was slight confusion at the end with some officials saying that extra time should be played but both referees confirmed that their notifications contained no reference to extra time if the game finished in a draw.

Down: M McVeigh, F Caulfield, B Burns, P McGoldrick, S Poland, M Magill, C Murray, Sean Ward, S McMahon, J McCartan (0- 1), P Withnell, G Murphy (0-2), S Mulholland (0-4), C McCabe (1-2), C P McCartan

Subs: C Deegan for S McMahon, G Deegan for C P McCartan, A Quinn for G Murphy, Shane Ward for C McCabe

Tyrone: F McConnell, P Devlin, C Lawn, F Devlin, B Meenan, S McCallan, T McKenna, S Corr, C Holmes (0-1), S McLoughlin, B Dooher (0-1), S Lawn, F Coyle (0-2), E Gormley (0-3), C Loughran (1-2)

Sub: M McGleenan for T McKenna

Refs: G Lynch (Fermanagh) and R Doone (Antrim)

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DOWN cemented their place at the top of the National Hurling League Division Two B with this comfortable 2-14 to 0-8 victory over London at Ruislip yesterday.

Nine points from corner forward Johnny McGrattan laid the foundations for the Mournemen’s victory as superior fitness and better finishing separated two of the sides expected to be in the frame for promotion to Division One.

The prolific finishing of McGrattan was the story of the second half.

His accuracy with the sliothar from frees at distance was the ideal punishment for some bad tackles.

Despite the heavy defeat London had the final word when Timmy Maloney easily the most impressive man in a green shirt, bisected the Down posts with a massive free from 70 yards.

London: B O’Malley; L Barron, T Lohan, J J Shiel, B Ryan (0-1), M Waldron, D Browne, (B Dolan 40 mins), T Maloney (0-5, 4F), P Jordan, E Monaghan (0-1), D Murphy, J Kennedy, A Heney (0-1), D Spellman, E Quaine

Down: G Clarke, B Smith, S Murray, M Mallon, M Coulter Sr, M Braniff, P Coulter, D Hughes, J McCarthy, J McCarthy, M Coulter Jr (0-1), B Coulter (1-0), G Savage (0-3), J McGrattan (0-9, 6F), G McGrattan (1-0), A Tinnelly (N Sands, 53 mins 0-1)

Ref: W Horgan (Cork)

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NORTHERN Ireland captured the British Universities Snooker Association Home Nations Championship with a decisive victory over England at the Queen’s Students’ Union yesterday.

Both sides had gone into the game with wins over the Republic of Ireland and Scotland under their belt and the game was expected to be a close affair.

However, the hosts, made up of players from Queen’s and UUJ romped home 10-4 with Queen’s player Paul Lavery the star of the show, beating the English number two 3-0.

Jordanstown’s John Leonard recorded the highest break of the weekend’s play with a run of 81 while Aaron Cahoon (UUJ) completed a great week for the northern outfit by beating Lavery 3-1 in the final of the individual event.