Suddenly, all is well in the Red Hand county with this hard-earned win on a night when it seemed the old Mayo emotion might just propel them over the line to an improbable win.
It’s been an odd few weeks in Tyrone but just prior to half-time, a team move franked the kind of silky stuff they have when their steely foundations are functioning.
Darragh Canavan weaved and jinked his way down the right wing before delivering a teasing ball to Kieran McGeary. When McGeary could not gather, Canavan got a toe on the ball to cut out a Mayo interception and it rolled fortuitously to his brother in law Peter Harte. He executed a deft chip pick-up into his hands and drilled it over off the outside of his boot for his third sumptuous point of the first half.
Looking smart in their retro rigs for the night, it was sometimes freakish to see a Canavan in that classic kit. For their part, Mayo were a throwback to the same period of the early 1990s as they ran down blind alleys and couldn’t knit anything together in attack.
The clock yawned on as it took them until the 27th minute to register their first point from play through Jordan Flynn, and two Ryan O’Donoghue frees were all they had to show at the break.
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There was ample balm to the worries over Tyrone’s ability to get back to 2021 levels. Brian Kennedy in particular was sensational in forcing four turnovers in that opening half and while none of the front six scored from play in that time, the second wave of attackers in Rory Brennan, Frank Burns, Harte and Conor Meyler with two were in regal form.
All over the pitch they managed to create two-on-one and three-on-one swarm tackles, relishing the chance to push back on a passive Mayo.
The visitors’ preparations may have been thrown into bother when goalkeeper Rob Hennelly did not make the starting line up and they stationed Aidan O’Shea in an unusual point-guard role, a deep lying centre-back.
But then, as they have done, do now and always will, Mayo roused their fans into fervour with five unanswered points in ten minutes, a neat sign of just how influential the gusts blowing toward the Gortin Road can be in this ground.
Ryan O’Donoghue was to the fore, nipping a point from play before stealing a Niall Morgan kickout, drawing the free and converting it.
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Behind him, Jordan Flynn and Matthew Ruane found their range with the breeze at their backs from distance.
A threaded ball by Richie Donnelly after a spin that took him past a tackle, followed by a neat finish thumped into the wind by Canavan was enough to settle Tyrone and produce the same outcome as last September’s All-Ireland final.
Mayo flung another few kitchen sinks at their hosts, but by that stage they had punched themselves out. An O’Donoghue sideline dropped to the feet of Jack Carney but the effort squirted wide deep in injury time.
Tyrone edge towards form and safety in the top flight. Odd game. Odd league.
Star man Peter Harte [Tyrone].
Tyrone Morgan; McKernan, McNamee, Burns 0-1; Meyler 0-2, Brennan 0-1 [Rafferty, 62m], Harte 0-3; Kilpatrick, Hampsey; Kennedy [R Donnelly, HT], Sludden [N Donnelly, 56m], McGeary; McCurry 0-1, McShane [M Donnelly, HT 0-1], Canavan 0-2, 0-1 ‘mark’ [McDonnell, 72m]
Mayo Byrne; Keegan, McBrien, McHugh [Hession, HT]; Mullin, O’Shea, S Coen; Flynn 0-2, Ruane 0-1; McDonagh [Carney, 35m, 0-1], Towey [McLoughlin, HT], Boland [Loftus, 67m]; Orme, Doherty D Coen, 57m], O’Donoghue 0-5, 4f
Referee Maurice Deegan (Laois).