Ulster MFC: Coney helps Tyrone retain provincial crown
July 20, 2008
Tyrone 0-13
Monaghan 0-10
Tyrone retained their Ulster MFC title after by seeing off a jaded Monaghan side with three points to spare last Sunday at Clones.
The outstanding Kyle Coney proved to be the Farney County's tormentor on the afternoon as he pulled the strings for Tyrone around the centre of the park while adding three points of his own from play.
Indeed it was Coney who opened the scoring for the afternoon with a superb effort that flew over the bar, but was met by points from Mark Connolly and Kieran Hughes on Monaghan's behalf to put the young Farney men ahead for the only time in the match on ten minutes.
The Red Hands came back strong though and began to dominate their opponents with Coney to the forefront, and took in a lead of 0-6 to 0-4 at the interval.
Five minutes into the restart Monaghan had levelled the game through Kieran Hughes and Kieran Duffy, but Tyrone stepped it up a notch and hit four points without a single reply from what began to look like a deflated Monaghan side.
White flags from Ronan Tierney, Paddy McNiece (free) and Conor O'Neill were all backed up by an individual effort from Coney that gave the O'Neill County a four-point cushion.
Even with the advantage of playing in their home grounds, Monaghan could not get close enough to their opponents despite pulling back points.
Two minutes from time Tyrone could even afford for their talisman Coney to fail from the spot as his penalty was well blocked by Monaghan shot-stopper Emmet McArdle, but the Champions would prevail by three points nonetheless.
Tyrone - T Harney; F McQuaid, G Teague, M Slane; S McRory, P Harte, R Tierney (0-1); K Coney (0-3), N McKenna (0-1); G Girvan, D McNulty, M Donnelly; S Warnock (0-1), P McNiece (0-2) (2f), C O'Neill (0-4) (3f). Subs: K Mossey for S McRory, R Pickering (0-1) for M Slane, M Rodgers (0-1) for S Warnock.
Monaghan - E McArdle; M Reilly, C Farrell, S Dooney; D Farrell (0-1), P Boyle, C Walsh; M Connolly (0-2) , K Duffy (0-2); D Malone (0-1), K Hughes (0-3) , P Dooney; C McGuinness, A McCarey, C Deery. Subs: J Farrell (0-1) for C Deery, P O'Hara for C McGuinness.
Referee: JJ Cleary - (Derry)
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