Tyrone 0-20
Derry 0-11

Tyrone came up with the second-half goods to start their new season off in winning fashion against Derry tonight at Celtic Park.

Mickey Harte’s side outscored the hosts by 0-11 to 0-4 in the second period to pick up their first win in the 2019 Dr McKenna Cup off the back of a ‘Man of the Match’ display by Kyle Coney, who made his first senior start in four years for the Red Hands.

Darragh Canavan, son of Tyrone legend Peter, also came off the bench to score in his senior debut during a second-half where everything seemed to go to script for the visitors.

The points of Enda Lynn and Ryan Bell had Derry into an early lead in this one before their neighbours took control and opened up a two-point lead through Niall Morgan’s long range free on 17 minutes.

David Mulgrew made it a three-point game two minutes later and Darren McCurry did likewise after cancelling out Lynn, but the Oak Leaf men ensured the margin stayed at two for the half (0-9 to 0-7) as Bell and Ciaran McFaul sailed over in the late minutes of the half.

A superb score from distance by Cathal McShane saw some daylight reappear early in the restart and more white flags from Conor Grugan and Niall Sludden soon had the scoreboard reading 0-15 to 0-8 in favour of last season’s beaten All-Ireland finalists.

Bell tapped over a sorely needed point for Derry and they’d have to chase the game for the closing quarter of an hour, having failed to match their opponents’ intensity after the restart.

Emmett Bradley and sub Ben McCarron left the hosts a pair of goals short headed for the final five minutes and it was Harte’s men that dominated the time remaining with sub Ronan O’Neill and Coney making it an eight-point game prior to 18-year-old Canavan becoming his team’s 11th different score on the night following a neat finish.

McShane’s second point of the night bumped the winners’ tally up to 0-20 to ensure the perfect start to a new campaign.

Tyrone - N Morgan (0-2f); L Rafferty, R Brennan, C Meyler; T McCann, A McCrory, B McDonnell (0-2); C Grugan (0-1), B Kennedy; N Sludden (0-2), K Coney (0-1), C McShane (0-2); D McCurry (0-5, 1f), D Mulgrew (0-2), R Sludden (0-1). Subs: D Canavan (0-1) for T McCann, M Murnaghan for D Mulgrew, R McNamee for B Kennedy, R O'Neill (0-1) for D McCurry, D McClure for C Grugan.

Derry - O Hartin; S F Quinn, C Mulholland, E Concannon; G McKinless (0-1), E McGill (0-1), R Dougan; E Bradley (0-2), P Cassidy; C McFaul (0-1), C Bradley, P Coney; J Rocks, R Bell (0-3), E Lynn (0-2). Subs: P McNeill for C Mulholland, P McGrogan for G McKinless, B McCarron (0-1) for S F Quinn.

Referee - P Faloon.

Kyle Coney is awarded his man of the match presentation pic.twitter.com/FfJBNeCaxi

— Tyrone GAA (@TyroneGAALive) December 20, 2018

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