McKenna Cup: Walsh's late winner stuns Tyrone
January 31, 2010
Donegal's David Walsh and Tyrone's Aidan Cassidy in a race for possession during the Dr. McKenna Cup final.
Donegal 1-11
Tyrone 0-12
It capped a bad night for Tyrone, who lost star forward Stephen O'Neill to a dislocated elbow. As a result, he is expected to miss the early part of the National League.
Donegal welcomed back their Young Footballer of the Year Michael Murphy after he missed the midweek semi-final win over Down due to exam commitments, but he failed to reproduce the spectacular scoring form of Ballybofey last Wednesday week when he tallied 2-9 against Mickey Harte's side. On this occasion, he was restricted to just two points, which both came from first half frees.
The Tir Chonaill men took the lead through a Colm McFadden free in the ninth minute, but it was tit for tat after that with the sides level on six occasions before scores from Tommy McGuigan and Kyle Coney edged Tyrone into a 0-9 to 0-7 interval lead.
Stephen O'Neill and Martin Penrose accounted for 0-5 between them for Tyrone in the first half, while Adrian Hanlon, David Walsh and Leo McLoone were among the scorers for Donegal.
O'Neill had increased Tyrone's lead to four points when he dislocated an elbow and was taken to hospital by ambulance. The injury seemed to unsettle Tyrone as Donegal roared back with points from Adrian Hanlon, McFadden and David Walsh to draw level in the 72nd minute before the latter drove a loose ball to the net eight minutes later to give John Joe Doherty's side a dramatic win.
Scorers - Donegal: D Walsh 1-2, M Murphy 0-3 (2f), C McFadden (2f), A Hanlon 0-2 each, L McLoone, N Gallagher 0-1 each. Tyrone: S O'Neill 0-4 (3f), M Penrose 0-3, K Coney, J McMahon, T McGuigan, P Harte, A Cassidy 0-1 each
Donegal: P Durcan; J Keeney, N McGee, P McDaid; E Wade, F McGlynn, K Cassidy; F McNulty, N Gallagher; E Kelly, D Walsh, L McLoone; A Hanlon, C McFadden, M Murphy. Subs: M McGowan for Kelly (46), M McGuire for McNulty (71)
Tyrone: J Curran; C McGurk, Justin McMahon, M Swift; Joe McMahon, C Gormley, D Carlin; K Hughes, E McGinley; K Coney, T McGuigan, P Harte; M Penrose, S O'Neill, N McKenna. Subs: B McGuigan for McGurk (h-t), A Cassidy for Justin McMahon (h-t), Mark Donnelly for O'Neill (45), N Gormley for McKenna (69), Mattie Donnelly for T McGuigan (69)
Referee: J McKee (Armagh). Tweet
