Red Hand escape from Roscommon with a vital point REF CALL RESCUES TYRONE
‘It was a good response to the lacklustre Mayo game’
IN the knee-jerk times we live in, a full-blown Tyrone crisis was averted by the judicious refereeing of Noel Mooney.
In what was the game’s final play, the Cavan referee called a foul on Roscommon substitute Gary Patterson, 20 metres out in front of the posts.
Even allowing for the storm which blew inside Dr Hyde Park, it was a blindfold conversion to win the game for the home team but in the immediate aftermath Tyrone goalkeeper Niall Morgan went to ground holding his head.
A consultation with his umpires led to Mooney overturning his decision and, in the process, chiselling out a foothold for Tyrone to begin what they hope will be an assent to safety.
Had Mooney not made that call, then Mickey Harte would have been heading home to a reception as dark as the sky which roofed Hyde Park.
In the aftermath of last weekend’s nine-point trimming by Mayo, the distress found a tabloid tone.
Harte’s former three-time All-Ireland-winner Owen Mulligan claimed that he had been left ‘seething and embarrassed’ by his county’s performance.
Only the first week in February, but tea leaves that foretell a season of football misery are never more than a cup away after a couple of bad results.
‘I never doubted what these players are capable of doing or the energy,’ bit back Harte afterwards.
‘Others maybe don’t hold that respect. They are very reactive to what they see so you don’t judge people on one performance.
‘I think today they provide they can do much better than that. It was a good response to a very lack lustre performance against Mayo,’ added the Tyrone manager.
It was certainly an improvement, but it was no more than modest in nature and one which will not end speculation that his team is capable of building on what they achieved last summer.
In one sense, the losing All-Ireland finalists starting off the new season by chugging out dirty diesel to turn the air toxic is to be half-expected.
Except that this is not Harte’s way; even when he is hibernating in the off-season, he sleeps with his game-face on.
And the suspicion is that his team were flattered as much as they were honoured in reaching last September’s final, which means they have no laurels to rest on.
And, on top of that, it is a hard sell to suggest that a draw against opponents they have not only made a habit out of beating Roscommon — you have to go back 16 years and Harte’s rookie season as Tyrone manager since they last lost to the Connacht men — but who they razed off the face of the earth last summer in a four-goal 18-point blitzing in the Super 8s is a good result.
In the interim, and no doubt in part influenced by that mauling, Roscommon have changed their manager and their ways.
Self-expression has been sacrificed by Anthony Cunningham on the altar of self-preservation and the dividend has been spectacular.
A team deemed to be out of their depth playing in the Super 8s last year have, inside the space of seven days, taken points off two teams who made it to the semi-finals last August.
To be fair to Roscommon yesterday, for all the talk of their newfound massed defence, they played what football there was to be played here.
With the wind at their back in the first half, they played purposeful direct football to exploit the sniping instincts of their Kerry singing Conor Cox, who kicked three sublime points, while the outstanding Shane Killoran, Donie Smith, Niall Kilroy and Conor Daly all drained scores from distance.
Any doubt who won the football side of things can be laid to rest with a simple stat — Roscommon outscored Tyrone by 1-10 to 1-3 in open play.
That underlines one of Tyrone’s core weaknesses. They bring attitude and organisation to the party, but there is a deficit of high-skilled ball players in their squad.
That quality issue has dogged them for the bones of a decade now and it is one that will continue to restrict them in terms of how far they can go.
True, the have the likes of Colm Cavanagh, Conor McAliskey and Cathal McCarron to return from long-term injury, but there is not enough to turn heads or, for that matter, their fortunes.
They have enough to sustain themselves in the top eight, in both the League and Championship, and their courage should not be doubted.
Having trailed by six points (010 to 0-4) at the interval, they were in the deepest of holes here when eight minutes into the second half, Cox flighted the perfect
centre for Ultan Harney to fist to the net.
It put Roscommon seven up but it would be their only score of the second half and Tyrone, through a punched goal of their own from Cathal McShane found a way back.
But it was a grind — Roscommon took protection behind a full 15-man blanket — and nothing quite illustrated Tyrone’s impotency than their equaliser, as goalkeeper Morgan swept it over from open play in the 66th minute.
It meant that he has scored in back-to-back games from open play but when the novelty of that stat wears off, the depression that their most effective finisher is their goalkeeper will hardly lighten the mood.
Still, home games against Monaghan, Cavan and Galway should ensure a pathway to safety but what they really need to find is evidence of improvement.
In contrast, Roscommon might pay the ultimate price for that last call but there is a sense that they are a team that no where they are going.
When they get Diarmuid Murtagh back in the coming weeks, they will have added menace to their attack to go with that defensive structure.
But for Tyrone, where expectations are far higher, there is the overwhelming sense that they are a team running to standstill.
No crisis but no promise either.