Tyrone 3-14

Derry 0-12

Three first-half goals secured Tyrone their first Ulster senior football championship victory at Celtic Park as they demolished 13-man Derry in the soaking rain.

Goals from Ronan O'Neill (2) and Peter Harte knocked the life out of the hosts and secured Mickey Harte's men a place in the last four of the province, where they will meet either Cavan or Armagh on June 19th, presumably in Clones.

The Red Hands proved far too slick for their neighbours in this contest, which fizzed out in the second-half, exposing the frailties of the hosts' full-back line during the opening 35 minutes.

O'Neill was in fine poaching form for the winners and when Harte raised their third green flag on the interval's eve, Damien Barton's charges were left with too much to do for the second period as the O'Neill County maintained their unbeaten record thus far in 2016.

James Kielt's superbly struck free, won by Kevin Johnston, opened Derry's account after three minutes before the visitors gained maximum profit from their first score of the afternoon.

Mark Bradley and Richie Donnelly conducted a dangerous break out of defence for the Division Two champions and the latter sent a perfect pass inside to O'Neill, who stayed composed to round 'keeper Thomas Mallon and finish to the empty net. A trade mark shuffle and point from Sean Cavanagh soon followed, which looked to have the underdogs dwindling, but they got a decent reply from Danny Heavron at the other end.

Cathal McShane and O'Neill upped Tyrone's lead to four in the space of a minute but in Kielt their neighbours had an outlet for distance scores. The Kilrea man caught fire with two (one a free) long range efforts back-to-back after Mark Lynch's gem from along the flank, leaving the difference at the minimum heading into the second quarter.

An injury to Bradley soon after saw him replaced by Darren McCurry on 17 minutes, escaping a downpour of rain in the meantime, as O'Neill put the leaders' advantage back to two before making it five off the back of his side's next real meaningful attack.

After Sean Cavanagh had made a nuisance of himself in Derry's square, the big Moy man saw his effort well-blocked by Mallon but O'Neill was quick to the rebound and stuffed it between the Loup shot-stopper's legs for the umpire's green flag.

The next four scores went the way of favourites, as McCurry and Connor McAliskey (one free) sent over a brace each to leave Barton's charges with a mountain to climb.

Niall Toner looked for a way through in the last stages of first-half regulation, but ran into a wall of white jerseys on the edge of the Tyrone square and it was Sean Cavanagh, who started at full-forward, clearing the danger from the full-back position for the would-be winners.

Corner-back Karl McKaigue ended the 21-minute scoring drought for the Oak Leafers, but their chances were all but ended immediately after as Peter Harte cut through from the left and one-twoed with the aforementioned Cavanagh to bury a devastating third goal past Mallon, leaving it at 3-8 to 0-6 when the teams went in.

The early stages of the resumption saw the home side go for broke, as Barton stationed Cailean O'Boyle and Ryan Bell in the front line with orders to his players to pump the ball in high. That saw an early goal chance go a begging, as McCurry raised a white flag at the other end to up his side's advantage to 12.

Kielt, Bell (2, 1 free) and sub Eoghan Browne fired over scores to outweigh an effort from Richie Donnelly at the far end, but there would be another hammer blow for the hosts when they reduced to 14 following the dismissal of wing forward Ciaran McFaul.

Danny Heavron, one of his side's better performers on a forgettable afternoon, reduced the deficit to eight with a quarter of a hour to go as Derry seemed to abandon their long ball tactic with Colm Cavanagh flourishing in the sweeper's role for their counterparts, as he did throughout their successful league campaign.

Sub Padraig McNulty battled through for Tyrone's next score and McCurry tacked on another free to settle the issue, as things went from bad to worse for the backdoor-bound Oak Leafers when Chrissy McKaigue was issued a straight red card by referee David Coldrick for lashing out at Colm Cavanagh with his elbow.

Kielt pointed Derry's last score from a free, as Tyrone finished the job with Jonathan Munroe and McCurry sending over the last two points in injury-time to secure the 11-point win and a semi-final date with Cavan or Armagh next month.

Tyrone - M O'Neill; A McCrory, R McNamee, C McCarron; T McCann, N Sludden, P Harte (1-0); C Cavanagh, M Donnelly (0-1); C McShane (0-1), M Bradley, R Donnelly (0-1); C McAliskey (0-2, 1f), S Cavanagh (0-1), R O'Neill (2-2, 0-1f). Subs: D McCurry (0-4, 1f) for M Bradley, P McNulty (0-1) for R Donnelly, J Munroe (0-1) for C McShane, P Hampsey for C McCarron, K McGeary for N Sludden, B Tierney for C McAliskey.

Derry - T Mallon; O Duffy, B Rogers, K McKaigue (0-1); K Johnston, C McKaigue, G McKinless; N Holly, D Heavron (0-2); S Heavron, J Kielt (0-5, 4f), C McFaul; N Toner, E McGuckin, M Lynch (0-1). Subs: D McBride for O Duffy, R Bell (0-2, 1f) for E McGuckin, C O'Boyle for S Heavron, E Brown (0-1) for M Lynch, G O'Kane for K Johnston, C McAtamney for N Holly.

Referee - D Coldrick.

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