Ulster SFC semi-final: Tyrone 1-21 Donegal 1-12
“YOU don’t always tell people what’s going to happen!” quipped Tyrone manager Mickey Harte – but in truth no one saw this result coming.
Well, the man himself insisted he did, but he did acknowledge that “I am the eternal optimist anyway”.
“I have been seeing that coming for this last year-and-a-half,” claimed the Red Hands boss.
“I knew that some day we would deliver the kind of performance that we are capable of. And of course conditions were fine for us today. We do like the dry sod and hot days in Clones.”
There wasn’t much not to like for Tyrone supporters about this performance, which brought their biggest win over Donegal in a decade.
For the second Ulster game in-a-row the Red Hands registered 22 scores, 20 of those from play, and even a rare goal, which brought a smile to Harte’s face, but not for the obvious reason:
“I’m smiling because I thought you might have been going down that other road of ‘We didn’t score enough goals’,” said Harte, in reply to a question about his side’s disciplined defensive display.
That major from Tiernan McCann early in the second half effectively ended this game as a contest, although arguably it was over by half-time, by which stage seven consecutive scores had given Tyrone a 0-12 to 0-5 advantage.
Many outlets – although not this one – had tipped a Donegal victory, but apart from a strong opening quarter, including a spurned goal chance by Eoin McHugh, and a brief spell in the second half, they were second best for much of this game.
Manager Rory Gallagher was stern in his criticism of Donegal’s display, declaring: “We are very disappointed to be beaten in the manner that we were. We were well and truly beaten.”
Tyrone reeled off scores from distance, often appearing unchallenged, which upset Gallagher.
His back was to a wall as he spoke to the media, but he was annoyed that his players didn’t respond well when they were in the same position:
“Overall we can’t afford to defend like that. We sat off Tyrone players coming through and we just allowed them to dictate... again our defending was very poor for Tiernan McCann’s goal.
“The game petered out after that. We showed a lack of fight as well which was disappointing.”
In fact Gallagher listed the lack of a few qualities which led to this chastening defeat:
“We just showed a lack of cohesion, a lack of energy, a lack of discipline on the field, not following through on what we asked to do, but we have to learn from that.
“We know what we are about. We felt we would be better today. That doesn’t disguise that today was a very disappointing display. We’ll not hide away from that, we have to face up to the truth of it.
“We have no choice not but to face up to it; you have to got to look yourself in the mirror and know where you are at.”
Donegal’s place is now in round 2A of the Qualifiers, against one of Derry, Laois, Longford, and Sligo.
Tyrone march triumphantly on to the Ulster final. It’s not a great surprise that they’re there – but the manner of this victory was stunning.
