Allianz Football League Division One: Derry 1-12 Tyrone 0-9
Mickey Harte stood outside the Derry dressingroom, the sound of contented voices sporadically emanating from within courtesy of the gale rattling at an unlocked window, and declared events of the day in Celtic Park as no big deal.
The attendance of 11,629 at Celtic Park would suggest otherwise. Harte’s first time managing against his native Tyrone attracted an almost capacity crowd to the Derry venue but the billing didn’t match the hype.
Derry led from start to finish, and despite only edging ahead 0-8 to 0-5 at half-time having played with a strong wind at their back, the home side dominated this Division One contest after the interval with Tyrone managing to add only four points with the gale – and two of those were scored in injury-time.
The visitors had 10 wides in the second half and went 32 minutes between their fifth and sixth points, by which stage the sting had long since drifted out of the affair. It was a six-point hammering.
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Conor Glass was superb for Derry and the Glen clubman netted their goal in the last minute of normal time, somewhat fortuitously as it appeared he was attempting to clip the ball over the bar. But his effort was caught by the wind, dropped short and deceived Niall Morgan.
It was no more than Derry deserved though – Glass actually had the ball in the net midway through the second half but his palmed goal was disallowed as Cormac Murphy, who had centred the ball to his captain, was deemed to have crossed the endline before squaring it across the face of the goal.
There was no rancour on the sideline throughout the contest with Harte and Brian Dooher shaking hands and chatting afterwards – Feargal Logan was not in attendance because of illness.
There was a lack of intensity and bite. Only occasionally did the sizeable crowd have reason to clear their throats. It just never got going.
The conditions determined so much about how the game was played, with the wind driving down the field from the Brandywell end, to the extent that the goalposts for the juvenile exhibition games at half-time required adults to stand guard and prevent them from taking flight.
Ultimately, Derry won pulling up. Harte’s record as Derry manager reads, played six, won six. And now Harte has put one over his native county.
“I don’t really live that way,” replied Harte when asked if this was more than just another league game for him.
“I just came along here today to manage Derry as I have done for the last four or five games, so it happens to be Tyrone who were the opposition.
“They have their own set-up, they are on their own journey, I am on this journey now. A lot of people make more of it than is necessary. I don’t see any big deal in it.
“It is not a unique phenomenon, I have seen plenty of managers go from their own county to other counties for years, and I have seen plenty of our own county men going to other counties and there was no particular fuss about it. So, I really don’t see the point of a fuss now.
“As Brian Dooher always said, it never was about the line, it was about the people on the field.”
Glass won the toss and chose to play with the benefit of the wind in the first half. Shane McGuigan gave Derry the lead in the fourth minute and Tyrone never even restored parity at any stage over the next 70 odd minutes.
Derry were 0-7 to 0-1 ahead by the 17th minute and at that stage it seemed they would stretch the gap out further before the turnaround. But Tyrone showed good game management to score three consecutive points – from Niall Morgan, Aodhán Donaghy and Darren McCurry.
Derry led by three at the break but Tyrone raced off the field with all the energy and momentum, because the wind looked good for more than such a slender lead. Tyrone sensed an opportunity.
“We had a strong wind at our back and we did not make good value of it,” admitted Harte.
“We were concerned to some degree but we felt that we had managed playing against the wind in the last few games and we managed it well tonight too.”
That they did, but Tyrone also played their part in how the second half transpired. The visitors registered five wides in the opening 15 minutes of the second half, and dropped another short, while the impressive Murphy popped over two points at the other end for Derry.
Tyrone’s first score of the second half was Seánie O’Donnell’s 59th-minute point. The contest had fizzled out by that stage. The wind whipped in from the Foyle throughout and with 15 minutes remaining many in the crowd probably just wanted to get home.
“We got a bit nervous and snapped at a few shots, and our shot selection and decision-making could have been better,” said Dooher. “I think we were a bit of an author of our own downfall with the shots that we had.”
Tyrone were without a host of players for the game and captain Peter Harte, Mickey’s nephew, was named to start here but did not play either.
“I knew nothing about it anyway,” smiled Mickey, afterwards. “It was kept a pretty tight secret.”
And while it was a good day out for Derry, injuries to centre back Gareth McKinless and goalkeeper Odhrán Lynch might have taken some of the sheen away.
“Gareth might be a bit of a hamstring injury, we don’t know how severe it is,” added Harte.
“Odhrán had a bit of a niggle coming into this game and he was passed fit to play and maybe he reaggravated it.”
There is a break in the National Football League next weekend, before Derry host Monaghan in round three and Tyrone welcome Galway to Omagh.
Derry enter the short break joint top of the Division One table. Their last league title was mined in 2008.
“I don’t really enter competitions to lose them,” said Harte. “If we can get more points I’ll be very fond of them.”
Same as it ever was.
DERRY: Odhrán Lynch; Chrissy McKaigue, Conor McCluskey, Diarmuid Baker; Conor Doherty (0-1), Gareth McKinless, Padraig McGrogan (0-1); Conor Glass (1-0), Brendan Rogers; Ethan Doherty (0-3), Ciarán McFaul, Paul Cassidy; Niall Loughlin (0-1), Shane McGuigan (0-3, one free), Cormac Murphy (0-3).
Subs: Niall Toner for McKinless (35 mins); Ryan Scullion for Lynch (47); Michael McGleenan for Cullen (52); Declan Cassidy for Loughlin (58); Nathan McCarron for McKernan (66); Donncha Gilmore for Glass, Emmet Bradley for P Cassidy (both 71).
TYRONE: Niall Morgan (0-1, one free); Conall Devlin, Pádraig Hampsey, Aidan Clarke; Tarlach Quinn, Michael McKernan, Ben Cullen; Brian Kennedy (0-1), Aodhan Donaghy (0-1); Seánie O’Donnell (0-2), Niall Devlin, Ciarán Daly (0-2); Darren McCurry (0-1, one free), Darragh Canavan (0-1, one free), Ruairí Canavan.
Subs: Joe Oguz for R Canavan (58 mins); Conor Cush for McCurry (62).
REFEREE: Noel Mooney (Cavan).
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