Mickey Harte's Tyrone side defeated Kerry by two points

Kerry 0-14 1-13 Tyrone

Tyrone showed tremendous character to claim a two-point victory in Sunday's Allianz National Football League Division 1A game at Killarney.

Mickey Harte's side seemed set to claim a comfortable victory when they led 1-7 to 0-4 at the interval, having played against the wind.

However inspired by midfielder Dara O Se and contributions from substitutes Dara O Cinneide and Aodhan MacGearailt, Kerry fought back strongly after the break.

But some excellent midfield play from Cormac McAnallen and Sean Cavanagh helped Tyrone hold on in the closing stages.

Goalkeeper Declan O'Keeffe came to Kerry's rescue on two occasions in the first quarter when he made great saves to deny Brian McGuigan and Owen Mulligan.

Excellent O'Neill

The sides were level at 0-3 each after 20 minutes but a somewhat fortunate goal by Peter Canavan then helped Tyrone gain a six-point cushion at the break.

Canavan grabbed possession after a long ball by Sean Cavanagh and the Allstar's shot deflected off Tom O'Sullivan and into the net.

With Dara O Se coming strongly in the game, Kerry fought back in the second half.

Substitute Dara O Cinneide notched three points from play and Tyrone were suddenly on the backfoot.

However, points from Canavan and the excellent Stephen O'Neill in the closing 10 minutes proved enough to earn Tyrone a two-point success.

The westerners hit the opening four scores of the match to make their intentions clear early on.

Steven McDonnell was the only Armagh forward making an impression in the initial stages.

In contrast, Derek Savage, Matthew Clancy and Michael Meehan were all causing problems for the Armagh defence.

A couple of good scores from John McEntee and Paddy McKeever then appeared to rally the Armagh team and Joe Kernan's side went in level at the interval (0-8 to 0-8).

However, Galway stepped up the pace again after the interval with the previously ineffective Padraic Joyce coming into the game in a big way.

Joyce notched two points in the third quarter while Derek Savage continued to cause trouble for the Armagh defence.

Galway were leading by three points when the crucial goal from a penalty came seven minutes from time.

Ger Reid has quit intercounty football

Matthew Clancy seemed certain to score a goal when he was hauled down by Francie Bellew.

Savage stepped up and superbly sent Hearty the wrong way in stroking home the spot-kick.

Paul McGrane hammered home a goal for Armagh in injury-time but the score was too little, too late for the All-Ireland champions.

Meanwhile, Armagh officials have confirmed that full-back Ger Reid has been forced to retire from intercounty football because of a back injury.

Reid was a regular during the regime of Brian McAlinden and Brian Canavan but he had to be content with a place on the bench during last year's All-Ireland winning season.

Meanwhile, Monaghan produced a fine performance to beat Clare 1-19 to 2-10 in Sunday's Division 2B tie in Ennis.

In Division 2A, Antrim claimed a morale-boosting 1-14 to 2-10 win over Wicklow in Aughrim.

Allianz NFL results
Division 1A
Crossmaglen: Armagh 1-14 1-17 Galway (full-time)
Hyde Park: Roscommon 0-14 0-17 Dublin (full-time)
Killarney: Kerry 0-14 1-13 Tyrone (full-time)

Division 1B
Navan: Meath 1-16 0-12 Mayo (full-time)
Markievicz Park: Sligo 0-11 1-10 Fermanagh (full-time)
Newbridge: Kildare 1-16 1-11 Down (full-time)
Breffni Park: Cavan 4-11 2-17 Laois (full-time)

Division 2A
Ruislip: London 1-7 3-12 Leitrim (full-time)
Aughrim: Wicklow 2-10 1-14 Antrim (full-time)
Tullamore: Offaly 1-13 1-10 Westmeath (full-time)

Division 2B
Nenagh: Tipperary 2-11 4-18 Longford (full-time)
Dungarvan: Waterford 1-5 0-19 Carlow (full-time)
Ennis: Clare 2-10 1-19 Monaghan (full-time)