GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round IB: Tyrone 2-21 Louth 0-10

GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round IB: Tyrone 2-21 Louth 0-10
As expected Tyrone are safely through to the next round of the All-Ireland qualifiers after easing to a 17-point win against Louth at Healy Park on Saturday afternoon.
Only two points separated the two sides at the break but the second half proved to be one-way traffic with goals from Emmett McKenna and Stephen O’Neill in the early moments ending the game as a contest.
Tyrone looked the part early on with Darren McCurry kicking three points and team captain Seán Cavanagh also splitting the posts as they established a 0-4 to 0-0 lead inside ten minutes.
Louth went close to a goal with Adrian Reid firing narrowly wide while at the other end of the field Emmett McKenna and Ciaran McGinley missed gilt-edged chances as well.
Andy McDonnell and Ryan Burns halved the deficit for Louth but when Tyrone went 0-7 to 0-2 in front thanks to efforts from McCurry and Connor McAliskey they looked comfortable.
That’s when the visitors enjoyed their best spell of the game with Brian White, Conor Grimes and McDonnell helping to close the gap to the minimum and while Cavanagh knocked over a couple of frees the hosts only led 0-9 to 0-7 at the interval.
The game totally changed within 15 seconds of the restart when Emmett McKenna took a pass from Peter Harte before blasting home a brilliant goal. It was just the start that Tyrone were looking for and by the time Burns had opened Louth’s second half account from a long range free the game was over as a contest.
Cavanagh landed a spectacular point from distance and in the fifth minute Mattie Donnelly charged through from centre half back before offloading for Stephen O’Neill to palm the ball to the net from close range past keeper Neil Gallagher.
The flood gates now opened with Tyrone keeper Niall Morgan coming forward on three occasions to land two long range frees as well as a ’45’. McCurry, McKenna and McAliskey all split the posts and while Louth had the final say of the game through Colm Judge and Conor Grimes it was well over by that stage.
***
TYRONE: N Morgan (0-4, 3f, 1 “45), A McCrory, R McNamee, PJ Quinn, R McNabb, Mattie Donnelly, P Harte, C Cavanagh, S Cavanagh (0-5, 4f), E McKenna (1-1), S McGuigan, C McGinley (0-1), D McCurry [0-6, 3f], S O’Neill (1-0), C McAliskey (0-4). Subs: P Kane for O’Neill, Joe McMahon for C Cavanagh, N McKenna for S Cavanagh, R McKenna for Quinn, Justin McMahon for Donnelly, M Penrose for McCurry.
LOUTH: N Gallagher, P Rath, D Finnegan, J Bingham, J O’Brien, D Crilly, A Reid, P Keenan, M Fanning, A McDonnell (0-2), B White (0-2, 2f), D Maguire, C Judge (0-1), S Lennon, R Burns (0-3, 1f). Subs: C Grimes (0-2) for Lennon, D O’Hanlon for Rath (black card), E Lafferty for Crilly, C Rafferty for White, K McLaughlin for McDonnell, J Stewart for O’Brien (black card).
Referee: M Duffy (Sligo)