Tyrone recorded a facile win over Offaly to advance to the second round of the All-Ireland Qualifiers, while Louth and Fermanagh also advanced over Antrim and Westmeath respectively.
In this day’s later qualifiers, Galway and Longford made sure of a place in Monday’s draw with wins over Tipperary and Limerick respectively.
The Tribesmen won by four points (1-12 - 0-11) in Salthill, while Longford were far too strong for the Treaty County, when winning on a scoreline of 2-14 - 0-08 at Pearse Park.
It was Longford’s first competitive win of the year.
An injury time point from John Woods gave Fermanagh a 3-10 to 1-15 victory over Westmeath at Cusack Park. It should never have come down to that as the winners kicked 20 wides, in comparison to Westmeath’s eight.
Denis Glennon had a point on the board from the opening attack for the home team but Seán Quigley equalised from a free and followed up with two excellent scores from play.
Conor Quigley hit the net in the 13th minute and though Westmeath kicked three of the next four points, a Damian Kelly goal gave Fermanagh a four-point lead.
It looked like the momentum had switched Westmeath’s way when Chris Snow tripped Glennon 10 minutes into the second half and Heslin slotted the penalty to bring the sides level.
Dessie Dolan’s introduction excited the home supporters further and Ger Egan, who was much more prominent after the restart, put them ahead. But it was Fermanagh that found another level, Ryan Jones locating oceans of space to run into before blasting an outstanding 48th minute goal.
Fermanagh soon went five points clear but Callum McCormack, Denis Corroon and John Heslin dragged Westmeath back into it, despite the 63rd minute dismissal of Kieran Martin for a second yellow card.
McCormack ballooned over when it looked easier to goal, but made up for it with an equalising point after a strong shoulder by Corroon forced a turnover.
There was still time for Fermanagh, though, and John Woods stormed forward in the second minute of injury time to snatch the victory.
Louth also finished strongly with points from Conor Rafferty, Shane Lennon and Paddy Keenan to record a 1-17 to 1-11 win over Antrim.
Aidan O’Rourke’s men held the upper hand from the very start and Ciarán Byrne’s 14th minute goal, allied with Brian White’s free-taking always kept them in control.
Antrim kept plugging away though and Michael Pollock’s goal gave them hope but Louth had the better know-how, and could even survive the late sending off of Neil Gallagher.
With Tyrone short a number of key players through injury and having to travel to O’Connor Park in Tullamore, there were plenty who thought that they might come a cropper against an Offaly team that has made steady progress this year.
The home team never raised a gallop, however, as Tyrone had 22 points in hand at the end and you couldn’t say they were flattered by the 1-27 to 0-8 scoreline.
Mickey Harte’s men tore into their opponents early on and had the game in the bag after 15 minutes.
They had 14 points on the board when Peter Cunningham finally got a dreadful Offaly unit off the mark in the 31st minute.
The second half was a complete non-event, which allowed Offaly to make more of an impact on the scoreboard, but Ronan O’Neill’s 61st minute goal served as a reminder of what
Tyrone were capable of if they needed to up the tempo.
Seán Cavanagh, Matthew Donnelly, Conor McAliskey and Darren McCurry began the rout for Tyrone and they never looked back. Cavanagh and McCurry were outstanding with the latter kicking eight points. Seven of those came in the first half, at the end of which Tyrone led by 0-15 to 0-1.
Joe McMahon entered the fray for Tyrone at half time but Offaly were much more competitive in the second half.
Ciarán Hurley hit the Tyrone crossbar, while Brian Darby, Padraig Bracken and Ken Casey raised white flags. But Tyrone were in cruise control and O’Neill’s goal, after good work by Kyle Coney and Conor McAliskey, confirmed their utter dominance.
