McKenna Cup 2024

[ONeill]

Only 1-1 scored in the second half. I hear Gormley, Gourley, McCullagh and Holmes all made appearances at some stage.

Appears that the Down stat man really did a good job at HT.

[never kickt a ball]

McKenna Cup v Down
09 Jan 2008

FINAL SCORE: TYRONE 3-5 DOWN 1-7
Despite scoring just twice in the second half, Tyrone hold on to beat Down cosily by four points, thanks to a very good first half display, the result leaving the Red Hands still in contention for a semi-final place as they now prepare to meet Donegal in their final group game in Ballyshannon on Sunday.

69 minutes: Ronan Sexton leaves the visitors trailing by four points after sustained Down pressure, moments after Conor Gormley comes on for his first appearance of the year in place of injured Dromore defender Cathal McCarron (Tyrone 3-5 Down 1-7)

61 minutes: Packie Downey hits Down's third point in a row from long-range as the Mournemen suggest they have not yet thrown in the towel (Tyrone 3-5 Down 1-6)

57 minutes: Ronan Sexton punches a long ball over the bar to reduce Tyrone's advantage to six points (Tyrone 3-5 Down 1-5)

55 minutes: John Fegan converts a free for Down to leave seven points separating the sides with 15 minutes to play (Tyrone 3-5 Down 1-4)

53 minutes: Enda McGinley sticks away Tyrone's third goal of the night after the initial shot from Aidan McCarron ricochets into his path following Cathal McCarron's free kick into the danger area (Tyrone 3-5 Down 1-3)

47 minutes: Cathal McCarron grabs his second point of the night from a free kick, and Tyrone's first score of the second half, after Colm Donnelly and Philip Jordan link up to earn the chance (Tyrone 2-5 Down 1-3)

36 minutes: Dan Gordon gets the first score of the second half and Conor Gribben quickly follows up with another point as Down begin the second half in determined fashion (Tyrone 2-4 Down 1-3)

Half-time: Tyrone 2-4 Down 1-1
Tyrone head to the dressing room six points to the good after a very pleasing first half performance, with Aidan McCarron and Tommy McGuigan both standing out and hitting 2-3 between them in open play, the pair getting great support from Paul Rouse and Omagh's Cathal McCarron. Dromore's Cathal McCarron, Marty Swift and Philip Jordan have shone in defence in an all round team display, a greatly improved showing from Sunday's match against UUJ.

32 minutes: Tyrone storm into a six-point lead as Colm Donnelly and Aidan McCarron create the opportunity for Tommy McGuigan to finish brilliantly to the bottom corner of the net (Tyrone 2-4 Down 1-1)

23 minutes: Tyrone respond immediately as Tommy McGuigan and Paul Rouse carve open the Down defence for Aidan McCarron to finish emphatically to the net, bringing his tally to 1-2 (Tyrone 1-4 Down 1-1)

22 minutes: Down are amazingly level as Conor Gribben flicks the ball to the net after P J Quinn saves the initial shot from Conor Gribben on the line (Tyrone 0-4 Down 1-1)

21 minutes: Daniel Hughes finally opens Down's account from a 13 metre free after Ryan Mellon is adjudged to have touched the ball on the ground (Tyrone 0-4 Down 0-1)

14 minutes: Tyrone's impressive start continues as Cathal McCarron strikes the ball sweetly between the posts following a foul on Aidan McCarron (Tyrone 0-4 Down 0-0)

10 minutes: John Gilmore's debut comes to a premature end as he has to be carried off and replaced in defence by Ciaran Gourley

7 minutes: A penetrating run by Enda McGinley paves the way for Aidan McCarron to slot over his second point in as many minutes after Cathal McCarron's effort rebounds to him off the post (Tyrone 0-3 Down 0-0)

6 minutes: Paul Rouse again provides the lay-off as Tyrone go into a two-point lead courtesy of Aidan McCarron's long-range finish following good work in defence by Marty Swift and Dermot Carlin (Tyrone 0-2 Down 0-0)

2 minutes: Paul Rouse collects possession, lays the ball back to Tommy McGuigan and the Ardboe man strokes the ball neatly between the posts to give Tyrone an early lead (Tyrone 0-1 Down 0-0)

Tyrone - Pascal McConnell, PJ Quinn, Cathal McCarron, Marty Swift, John Gilmore, Dermot Carlin, Philip Jordan, Kelvin Hughes, Enda McGinley, Ryan Mellon, Colm Donnelly, Aidan McCarron, Cathal McCarron, Tommy McGuigan, Paul Rouse

Sub: Ciaran Gourley for J Gilmore (10 minutes), Colm McCullagh for T McGuigan (half-time), Martin Penrose for C Donnelly (56 minutes), Conor Gormley for C McCarron (Dromore, 68 minutes), Colin Holmes for K Hughes (69 minutes)

Subs - Jonathan Curran, , David Harte, , Colm McCullagh, Mickey McGee, Kevin McNally, Conal Martin, Owen Mulligan, Fabian O'Neill, Gary Reilly

Down - Declan McArdle, Colm McGovern, Gary McArdle, Martin Cole, Martin Rafferty, Peter Turley, Kevin McGuigan, Dan Gordon, Jackie Lynch, Kevin McKernan, Ronan Sexton, Daniel Hughes, Ryan Stranney, Packie Downey, Conor Gribbon

Subs: Cathal Magee for R Stranney, John Fegan for K McKernan, Colm Murray for  M Rafferty, Ronan Murtagh for P Turley

Subs - Bernard Connell, Liam Doyle, John McCarthy, John McAreavey, Damien Rafferty, Damien Turley, Peter Turley, John Clarke


http://www.tyronegaa.ie/county/football/news/story.jsp?newsid=498

[never kickt a ball]

Tyrone clinch first McKenna win
Tyrone beat Down 3-6 to 1-7 to claim their first Gaelic Life McKenna Cup win with Aidan McCarron, Tommy McGuigan and Enda McGinley scoring their goals.
Tyrone were 2-4 to 1-1 ahead at the break, Conor Gribben netting for Down.

Fermanagh beat Armagh 1-11 to 0-10 with Liam McBarron scoring the first-half goal. It was 1-7 to 0-4 at half-time.

Antrim beat Cavan 0-10 to 0-9, Michael McCann scoring five points and Derry beat St Mary's 1-15 to 2-8 with Paddy Bradley accumulating a tally of 1-5.

Substitutes John Cunningham and Paul McAleer were the St Mary's goalscorers in a scrappy match.

Tyrone raced into an early four-point lead at Healy Park but Down levelled through Gribben's 22nd minute goal.

McCarron and McGuigan scored goals in the 23rd and 32nd minutes and McGinley grabbed the Red Hands' third goal 18 minutes into the second period.

McBarron scored Fermanagh's goal after 16 minutes of the first half at Breffni Park and Patrick Cavan top-scored for the Ernemen with five points.

Substitute Paddy McKeever was Armagh's leading points scorer with 0-3.

Antrim and Cavan were locked at 0-5 apiece after the first half at Casement Park but the Saffrons proved too strong despite three points from Martin Reilly.

Derry were too good for St Mary's, leading 1-8 to 0-4 at half-time with the help of Bradley's sixth minute goal, and going on to win by four points.


Results
Section A
Fermanagh 1-11 0-10 Armagh
Derry 1-15 2-8 St Mary's
Section B
Tyrone 3-6 1-7 Down
Section C
Antrim 0-10 0-09 Cavan


Story from BBC SPORT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/northern_ireland/gaelic_games/7180244.stm

[never kickt a ball]

Gaelic Life Man is a rare looking creature, by the way. Oh and the BBC and UTV were out in force last night at Healy Park. Mr O'Callaghan for the BBC and Mr Logan with cameraman in tow for UTV. Hardly a swear word uttered despite the extreme provocation by the referee  The Down men had no sign of a tan either.

[feetofflames]

A fine first half performance from Tyrone and a less energetic second half performance understandable given the condidtions. MC Carron from Fintona is a cracker and should be given more games to make this positions his own.  The full back line of Quinn Mc Carron and Swift were superb and we need to give them more games to gel further.  The half back line fared well and midfield was very strong with tremendous workrate and their mobility ensured they won their battle against bigger more physical opponents with ease, and were involved in most of Tyrones fast flowing defence to attack moves.  On a night difficult for high catching, Hughes, Mc Ginley and Mellon caught some superb balls with Mc Ginley my overall MOM.   The half fowards fared well with Rouse, Donnelly and Mc Carron Omagh, possibly the weakest links on the team.  All in all Last year Harte changed a winning team after the Mc Kenna cup, I think he can confidently start the majority of this team the next day and give them the chance to improve and let the other guys force their way back in over the season.

[parttimeexile]

Wiley(Mc Carron from fintona) is a great player and has been for years. Dont know why he has failed to make an impact sooner but think he has the pace and accuracy to make it at intercounty level but then again it is only the Mc Kenna cup and there are many tougher tests ahead.

[Boozehell]

Gaelic Life Man is a rare looking creature, by the way. Oh and the BBC and UTV were out in force last night at Healy Park. Mr O'Callaghan for the BBC and Mr Logan with cameraman in tow for UTV. Hardly a swear word uttered despite the extreme provocation by the referee  The Down men had no sign of a tan either.

You're right there wasn't much swearing going on in the pitch.  But the language from the Tyrone supporters was nothing short from a disgrace.  I was at the match last night and if I had any children I would never bring them back to a Tyrone v Down game again.  As far as your comment about the Down players not having a tan it rained 4 out of the 5 days they were.

[feetofflames]

Boozehell.  I wore my nfl wristband for the first 15 minutes of the game and as I continued to watch the most cynical Down team  I have ever seen, throw punch after punch off the ball with the referee giving the Tyrone players no protection I ripoped off my wristband stamped on it, and called the linesman, referee, Ulster council and the mouthy Down fan with the Gaelic Life skull cap in front all the hoors of the day  I felt totally justified in doing so. I will never take my great grannys best friend to another Down match again.. ever?
NFL = No f$$$ing linesman

[tyroneman]

Points from last night..................

First half performance was reasonable, nothing exceptional. Thought McCarron (Fintona) was ok, nothing special. McCarron (Dromore) and Swift were pick of team for me. Enda did fine as did Philly and Ryan, again nothing to write home about overall and especially not in the second half.

Second half was poor. Very poor. 2 scores was not good enough. If UUJ had've played us last night we would have been beaten again.

work rate improved to be fair (couldn't get much worse than Sunday), tommy did alright - def not a MF though.

bit my tongue after Sunday but can't today...........that Ref was f**ing terrible. One of the most blatantly biased performances I have seen in a long time. I canlt understand how he got a second run at Tyrone after his attitude last Sunday but he may as well have been wearing his Derry shirt all night.

In my understanding if you strike you are off - obviously not so for the Down 22 who sat on top of McCarron and punched him repeatedly about the head. Ref saw it, Linesman saw it = yellow card.  Nonsense.

Penrose was also smacked in passing which the ref saw and again failed to give a red  (Penrose provoked this a bit to be fair and should have been booked)

Agree that this was a very cynical performance from Down, maybe they are fed up with the "gentlemanly football" tag. Certainly whan I played in Down it was a much more freely flowing and downright sporting contest than in Tyrone. No need to try and be something yr not lads.

so far only Swift, McCarron (Fintona and Dromore) and Snowy O'Neill have shown they will have any chance of playing in the NFL let alone the Championship.

It's patently obvious we have no natural scorer coming through the ranks on these showings although you just wonder if Mulgrew beefed up could he do a job as a target man. He seems to be following the SON route to success - half forward success and maybe a FF role in later years.

What was really odd is that no-one on show seemed able to use both feet for kicking. Time and time again our forwards were forced to turn back into trouble to get a shot away with thier good foot. Surely at this level an aspiring county player should be able to pop the ball over from 10-15 yards with his bad foot?

[Boozehell]

As a Down fan at the game I want to talk to you about your last point.  I agree that any footballer should at least try and kick with their weak foot any where near in front of goals.  So what if it goes wide or if their lucky it goes to one of their own players at least they did not turn back and let the opposition get back and crowd the defence.  Do you there should be more emphasis on this in training?

[ONeill]

As a Down fan at the game I want to talk to you about your last point.  I agree that any footballer should at least try and kick with their weak foot any where near in front of goals.  So what if it goes wide or if their lucky it goes to one of their own players at least they did not turn back and let the opposition get back and crowd the defence.  Do you there should be more emphasis on this in training?

I think it has more to do with percentages when in possession. Unless you feel 80% confident that you can score, retain possession until you create an opening which lends itself to such a percentage. That does allow a defence time to regather but Harte's the sort of fella who has complete belief that his charges can and should retain possession. At this time of the year when scores are usually at a premium (9 scores to 8 last night) economical play will be rewarded. Later in the year, players will be sharper and fitter and be more confident of shooting on sight. 

[tyroneman]

I think this goes way beyond training - any player who fancies his chances at county (or evn good club) stanbard should be practicing with his weak foot from a young age.

Certainly county teams have more to do than teach players the basics................................

[feetofflames]

Far too  negative Tyrone man for the 2nd week in January.  That team played with more heart in that shitty game last night than the team that Meath beat in the all Ireland quarters last year.  Im not saying last nights display hadnt severe problems - but it is the summer boys who should be upping their game to get back in (beyond the obvious - Cavanagh/ Gormley etc. 

[ONeill]

I think this goes way beyond training - any player who fancies his chances at county (or even good club) standard should be practicing with his weak foot from a young age.

Jaysus you're a hard man to please for the 9th of January. Tackling, passing etc - they're all the basics. I'm sure there were misplaced passes, mistimed tackles last night. Tired limbs and lungs at this time of the year. I'd be a little concerned if the same complaints were being made in mid-March.

[never kickt a ball]

The programme was/is worse than useless. It requires a bit of understanding by the announcer to be able to call out the relevant teams in a slow and systematic way (and indeed several times). The squad number programmes from last year worked well when they were adhered to. It helps when teams like Tyrone announce their squad in advance so that some punters can print them off say from this website and use them.
I was encouraged by last nights first half performance by Tyrone especially when compared to the UUJ game. It all fell apart in the second half but the game was effectively over and the wet cold weather conditions were not helping either team. Have Down won a game in the last two years? Watch out UUJ!