Heroic effort from Tyrone falls narrowly short against Kerry

TYRONE 0-27 KERRY 2-25

TYRONE’S All-Ireland dreams were dashed despite putting up an heroic effort against raging hot favourites Kerry on Saturday evening at Croke Park.

The sides went tit for tat in an absorbing quarter-final duel and at one stage it appeared that second half sub Darren McCurry (who chipped in with a sensational 0-10) would drive the Red Hands onto victory.

However a goal by sub Armin Heinrich with the last action just before the hooter sealed the Kingdom’s route into the last four.

A sublime goal by their talisman David Clifford in the 20th minute helped Kerry to establish a 1-11 to 0-12 interval advantage, with Tyrone giving as good as they got in spite of a frustrating wides tally.

The highlights for the Ulster men in that half included a couple of wonder two pointers belted over by Conn Kilpatrick and Ethan Jordan but they struggled to quell the threat of the Cliffords at the other end.

In the early period of the second half Kerry looked as if they would ease clear as a David Clifford two point free opened the gap to half a dozen but with McCurry introduced off the bench Tyrone launched a barnstorming comeback.

Eoin McElholm and Mattie Donnelly were also looking sharp as they slotted over some quality points, while Kerry keeper Shane Murphy was off his line sharply to prevent Ronan Cassidy finding the net.

However the frustrating pattern of the match was that Tyrone were never able to get back on level pegging, allied to the fact that match referee Paddy Neilan also did them few favours with a couple of questionable calls, one of which almost led to a goal for Dylan Geaney.

A 69th minute McCurry free drew Tyrone to within one but Kerry crucially won the subsequent kick-out and the final play resulted in Heinrich squeezing the ball home to the net from a narrow angle.

Teams & Scorers

Tyrone: Niall Morgan, Cormac Quinn, Peter Teague, Joey Clarke, Michael McKernan (0-1), Niall Devlin, Kieran McGeary (0-2,tp), Brian Kennedy, Conn Kilpatrick (0-2,tp), Seanie O’Donnell (0-1), Ronan Cassidy (0-1), Ciaran Daly, Eoin McElholm (0-3), Mattie Donnelly (0-3), Ethan Jordan (0-4,1tp,1f). Subs used Darren McCurry for C Daly (0-10, 2tpf,1f), Ciaran Bogue for E Jordan (56), Frank Burns for K McGeary (59), Conor O’Neill for R Cassidy (65)

Kerry: Shane Murphy, Paul Murphy, Jason Foley, Dylan Casey, Brian O Bealaoich, Mike Breen, Graham O’Sullivan, Mark O’Shea, Sean O’Brien, Joe O’Connor, Paudie Clifford (0-5,1tpf,1,45, 1f), Diarmuid O’Connor (0-1), David Clifford (1-8,1tpf,1f), Paul Geaney (0-3,2f), Dylan Geaney (0-8,2tp). Subs used: Sean O’Shea for P Geaney (47), Keith Evans for S O’Brien (56), Evan Looney for P Murphy, Armin Heinrich (1-0) for G O’Sullivan (60)

Referee: Paddy Neilan (Roscommon)