|
 |
 | | You are in: Northern Ireland |
 | | Sunday, 28 April, 2002, 16:51 GMT 17:51 UK Tyrone give Cavan the blues  Victorious Tyrone celebrate after defeating Cavan Cavan 0-7 0-16 Tyrone Tyrone made history at Clones on Sunday when they lifted their first National League title in demolishing Cavan at St Tiearnach's Park. The Ulster champions dispatched their opponents with distain thanks to a spectacular opening half which saw them lead 0-10 to 0-3. Hard as they tried, Cavan were not allowed to get into their normal rhythm as Tyrone smothered the life out of them. Joint managers Art McRory and Eugene McKenna must have enjoyed the way their side swamped Cavan as their game plan fell into shape. Embarrassment Cavan, in fact, could only manage two points from open play with their feared forward line failing to get onto the scoresheet. It was left to Pascal O'Reilly to keep them from complete embarrassment with five points from frees. In fact it took them all of 28 minutes to record their first point from open play when Peter Reilly finally find a bit of space. That was the key to Tyrone's success. Every time a Cavan player gained possession he could feel the breath of Tyrone man at his neck. The Red Hand defence was simply superb. Their catching, tackling, and blocking right out of the top drawer. Even goalkeeper Peter Ward, who was virtually redundant all day, brought off one magnificent save from Anthony Forde to further frustrate the Breffni Blues. The Tyrone midfield ran the with Ryan McMenamin producing a powerful first-half performance and collected a couple of points for good measure.
Brian Dooher was another to produce a non-stop performance. Whenever Tyrone were in trouble, which was not very often, Dooher was on hand to help out to turn defence into attack. It was the swiftness in the movement from deep that caused Cavan all sorts of problems. Of course, who should take advantage of the work of the men behind him but skipper Peter Canavan. Everything he did was just class. He picked up six points top the scorers and collect the ''Man of the Match'' award. Tyrone were in control by the 15th minute by which time they five points on the board without reply. Shivers In fact it took Cavan 20 minutes to open their account with the first of O'Reilly's frees with Tyrone having already missed six of their 14 wides during the game. Stephen O'Neill was initially being kept quite by Forde, but once he got free dom he also started to pop over the points. The first of his four points saw Tyrone go in with that seven-point interval lead. Although Cavan had the elements on the restart and managed to get the opening point of the half, once Canavan started his antics, there was no way Cavan were to stage a remarkable comeback. In the end, Tyrone began to do a bit of showboating near the end and turned down the boilers. It allowed Cavan to have the final say when Paul Gilligan fired over the final point of a game that will send shivers around the counties as they prepare for bigger things in the months ahead. Cavan: A Donohue, E Reilly, T Prior, C Hannon, M Brides, A Forde, J Doonan, C Collins, P McKenna, F O'Reilly (0-5), P Reilly, P Galligan (0-1), L Reilly (0-1), J Reilly, M Graham. Tyrone: P Ward, C Gormley, C Lawn, B Robinson, R McMenamin (0-2), C Gourley, P Jordan, C McAnallen (0-1), C Holmes, B Dooher, S O'Neill (0-4), G Cavlan (0-1), B McGuigan (0-1), K Hughes (0-1), Peter Canavan (0-6)(capt). Referee: M Collins (Cork). Results Allianz NFL Division One final: Allianz NFL Division Two final: Ulster Minor Football League final: All-Ireland College final: | |
See also:  Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Other top Northern Ireland stories: Links to more Northern Ireland stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | | | | | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Links to more Northern Ireland stories |
| ||
 | ^^ Back to top | |
| Front Page | Football | Cricket | Rugby Union | Rugby League | Tennis | Golf | Motorsport | Boxing | Athletics | Other Sports | Sports Talk | In Depth | Photo Galleries | TV & Radio | BBC Pundits | Question of Sport | Funny Old Game ------------------------------------------------------------ BBC News >> | BBC Weather >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMII|News Sources|Privacy | ||
E-mail this story to a friend