Tyrone 2-19
Monaghan 1-10
By JOHN GRAHAM
In the end Tyrone experienced little difficulty in booking their place in the semi-final of the Nicky Rackard Cup as they increasingly dominated the second half of this contest in Killyclogher on Saturday afternoon last and they coasted to victory as the Monaghan challenge faded.
Conditions were difficult with a strong wind and intermittent heavy showers which did affect the standard of play but overall Tyrone were thoroughly deserving winners. The game was originally fixed for Carrickmore but was switched to Killyclogher as the Carmen venue was deemed unplayable.
Monaghan were only ahead once in the entire contest and that after three minutes when Martin Murphy opened the scoring although they were still reasonably well in the contest at half-time when they trailed the home team by five points. They got that margin down to two points in the opening minutes of the second half but that was as good as it got as Tyrone raised the tempo and pulled away to win comfortably with Monaghan only able to register one further point in the entire second half. The twin strike force of Damien Casey on the ‘40 and Conor Grogan at full forward did most of the damage as they registered 2-12 between them, Casey with nine points and Grogan with 2-3.
A minute after Martin Murphy’s opener, Damien Casey struck the first of his nine points when he converted a free for a foul on the Matthew Mulgrew. Tiernan Morgan put Tyrone in the lead in the fourth minute and two minutes later Conor Grogan scored the first of his two goals when he took possession from a side line cut by Mark Winters and finished with style. Damien Casey added another point in the seventh minute to put the home side five in front.
Michael McHugh pulled back a point for Monaghan from a free for a foul on Brian McGuigan with Damian Casey then converting a free for Tyrone a minute later to keep them five points to the good. Tyrone had a couple of …