A final quarter battle saw Tyrone take both points in a 1-25 (28) to 2-13 (19) over Monaghan in Allianz league division 3A at Healy Park.
The one name on everyone’s lips at the end was the Red Hand full forward Damien Casey who finished with a tally of 1-16, his accuracy from placed ball the most telling factor.
The first-half was very much 35 minutes of both sides getting back to competitive action, Tyrone opened the scoring with a pointed free from Damien Casey, referee Shane Guinan noticing some holding going on in the Monaghan defence.
However upon the concession of that score, Monaghan then took charge, putting up 1-3 without reply with Stephen Lambe accounting for 1-2 in a purple eight minutes for the visitors. Hugh Byrne also finding the range as the Farney side took a 1-3 to 0-1 point lead.
As the half wore on Tyrone did gain more control particularly around the middle with Liam Armstrong getting a point followed by another pointed free by Damien Casey with Shane Slevin firing over a score at the opposite end to leave it 1-4 to 0-3 at the water break.
Both sides exchanged points after the short break with Fergal Rafter getting his first scores of the league either side of a point from Tiernan Morgan.
The home side again were controlling the middle part of the field, in particular the Monaghan re-starts and fired over points from Bryan Mc Guirk, Tiernan Morgan and a trademark free from Damien Casey to leave two between them on 30 minutes.
Monaghan’s second goal of the half came after Hugh Byrne broke through the middle and fired a powerful shot from just outside the 13 metre line with the goalkeeper Conor Mc Elhatton pulling of a great reaction save, but he only managed to break the ball back out with Stephen Lambe reacting the quickest and flashing it to the back of the net.
Tyrone did reply having conceded that goal, with points from Damien Casey and Liam Armstrong with Fergal Rafter firing over a 65 with the last piece of action of the first half to leave it 2-07 to 0-11 at the break.
Indeed it was Rafter who opened up the scoring at the start of the second-half with C.J Mc Gourty and Casey replying straight away. Rafter and Niall Garland pushed Monaghan to a 3 point lead by the eighth minute of the second half with Casey continuing to fire over his trade mark frees.
Mark Treanor got his opening point of the league after a strong run through the middle before Tyrone came back once more with points from Damien Casey and Bryan McGuirk to level matters and a further exchange of points kept the sides level, before the Red Hand county went on a 1-7 scoring spree to take control of this game.
The goal came by virtue of the new cynical challenge rule with Mark Treanor guilty of dragging down a Tyrone forward as he moved towards the goal from inside the 20 metre line.
Referee Shane Guinan had no hesitation in directing the Monaghan man to the sin bin before signalling that it would be a penalty for the home side that was dispatched by Damien Casey.
Having been reduced to 14 men for the reminder of the game, the Monaghan side physically tired and Tyrone picked off the points to comfortably take control of the score board and run out 1-25 to 2-13 winners at the end.
Monaghan:- Patrick Briminghan, Colin Merrick, Kevin Crawley, Emmet Walsh, Ciaran Guinan, Declan Hughes, Cormac McNally, Brian Flanagan, Hugh Byrne, Shane Slevin, Stephen Lambe, Mark Treanor, Niall Garland, Fergal Rafter, Aidan Burns.
Scorers: Hugh Byrne 0-01, Shane Slevin 0-01, Stephen Lambe 2-02, Mark Treanor 0-01, Niall Garland 0-01, Fergal Rafter 0-06 3F 1x65, Padraig McGahon 0-01
Subs used: Jamie Mc Guinan for Ciaran Guinan, Brian Mc Guigan for Cormac Mc Nally, Sean Tierney for Shane Slevin, Conall Mc Hugh for Niall Garland, Padraig Mc Gahon for Aidan Burns.
Tyrone: Conor Mc Elhatton, Conor Mc Nally, Chris Kearns, Sean Donaghy, Anthony Crossan, Lorcan Devlin, Padraig McHugh, Conor Grogan, Bryan Mc Guirk, Tiernan Morgan, C.J. Mc Gourty, Darragh Grogan, Liam Armstrong, Damien Casey, Rory Weir.
Scorers: Damien Casey 1-16 12F, Bryan Mc Guirk 0-02, C.J. Mc Gourty 0-02, Tiernan Morgan 0-02, Liam Armstrong 0-02, S.P Mc Kernan 0-01.
Subs used: S.P Mc Kiernan for Anthony Crossan, Cain Ferguson for Padraig Mc Hugh, Dean Rafferty for Darragh Grogan.
