Electric Ireland Ulster MFC quarter-final: Tyrone 6-21 Fermanagh 2-4
Goal-hungry Tyrone charged into the Ulster MFC semi-finals with a runaway win over Fermanagh at O’Neills Healy Park.
The Red Hands dominated from start to finish as they racked up a big 29-point winning margin to set up a meeting with Monaghan next weekend.
Two Darragh Donaghy goals, along with strikes from Conor O’Neill, Sheehan Fay, Aidan Hegarty and Mattie Howe underlined the superiority of the defending provincial champions in a one-sided quarter-final clash.
“We got off to a good start and got out in front, there's definitely things to work on,” said Tyrone manager Gerard Donnelly.
“We conceded 2-4 which wasn't what we wanted to concede, we wanted to keep it tight at the back and we know Monaghan's forward line are brilliant so it's something we'll have to improve on next week or we could be in bother big time.”
Two goals in the opening five minutes left Fermanagh chasing the game from an early stage, as Aidan Hegarty and Darragh Donaghy both found the net, helping the home side race into a 2-3 to 0-0 lead.
Michael Burns exposed gaps in the Tyrone defence to get in for a ninth minute goal, but the visitors were unable to sustain their challenge.
James Corry, Nathan Farry and Sheehan Fay bossed the middle third, and it was centre back and captain Conor O’Neill who charge forward to hit Tyrone’s third goal, followed soon afterwards by Donaghy’s second.
Ruairi McCullagh, returning after injury, sent over five points to help the holders to a 4-11 to 1-2 interval lead, and in the second half Fermanagh reverted to damage limitation mode.
Mattie McDermott sent over a couple of Erne scores, and they broke away for skipper Oisin Swift to grab a 43rd minute goal, but they were slipping further behind, with Tyrone’s Hegarty, McCullagh, Conor Devlin, Nathan Farry, Sean Corry, Leo Hughes and substitute Mattie Howe all hitting points.
Howe scrambled home his side’s fifth goal ten minutes from the end, and Sheehan Fay made it six less soon afterwards to complete a dominant performance from the provincial title-holders.
Tyrone: R Bradley; B Lynch, J Rafferty, J Concannon; C Devlin (0-1), C O’Neill (1-0), B Gallagher; J Corry, N Farry (0-3, 0-1 free); D Donaghy (2-3, 0-1 mark), R McCullagh (0-6, 0-4 frees), L Hughes (0-2); S Fay (1-1), A Hegarty (1-1), S Corry (0-2).
Subs: L Lawn for Concannon (h-t), C Morgan for O’Neill, L Corry for S Corry (39), M Howe (1-2) for McCullagh (39), T Taggart for Farry (39)
Fermanagh: C Brown; B Beattie, C Mulligan, C Jones; L McAnespy, O Swift (1-0), L King; D Cathcart (0-1), B Warnock; B Goodwin, D Flanagan, M Burns (1-0); K Prior, M McDermott (0-3, 0-2 frees), O Donohue.
Subs: N Beattie for King (46), R Hannigan for Donohue (46), M Maguire for Beattie (55), K Caldwell for Goodwin (55)
Referee: C Curran (Down).
