Tyrone 1-13
Cavan 0-10

Tyrone made it four McKenna Cup wins in-a-row when holding Cavan scoreless during the second-half of tonight's final at the Athletic Grounds.

In what was a repeat of last year's decider, Cavan were the better team during the opening 35 minutes and would have fancied their chances of gaining revenge for the 0-11 to 1-15 defeat they suffered 12 months ago when leading by four points at the break.

But they fell asunder after the resumption and failed to add to their tally as the Sean Cavanagh-captained outfit took control of proceedings with Niall McKenna's 57th minute goal a defining moment in the game.

The signs looked good for the the Breffni County early on as they raced into a 0-4 to 0-2 after 10 minutes but two points without reply had Tyrone level by the 15th minute.

With midfielder Killian Clarke prominent, Terry Hyland's charges regained the initiative thanks to four unanswered points from Martin Dunne (2), Niall McDermott and Clarke before Kyle Coney's 28th minute free left the scoreboard reading Cavan 0-8, Tyrone 0-5.

Michael Lyng and Sean Cavanagh (free) traded points in the run-up to half-time but Niall Murray rounded off the first-half scoring to send his team into the break with a 0-10 to 0-6 advantage.

A disputed Kyle Coney free, which was waved wide, was one of the main talking points of the first-half.

Tyrone's Plunkett Kane with Paul Smith of Cavan. ©INPHO/Presseye/Russell Pritchard.

Mickey Harte sent for the calvary during the half-time interval with Colm Cavanagh, Mattie Donnelly and Darren McCurry entering the fray and Tyrone upped the tempo considerably on the restart.

Midfielder Padraig McNulty clipped over the first score of the second-half in the 42nd minute and added a second four minutes later as the Red Hands began to pile on the pressure.

McCurry made it three on the trot via a free-kick to leave the holders trailing by the bare minimum, 0-9 to 0-10, with 20 minutes left on the clock.

Martin Dunne spurned a good goal scoring opportunity for Cavan shortly after and McCurry punished that miss when squaring matters with a point on the turn in the 56th minute.

A minute later McKenna latched on to a break from a high delivery to dispatch the ball past Conor Gilsenan from close range and it was 1-10 to 0-10 in Tyrone's favour.

Two further points from McCurry, one from a free, left Mickey Harte's side 1-12 to 0-10 to the good by the 65th minute and the Breffni County's challenge fizzled out.

Tyrone - N Morgan (0-1f); A McCrory, Justin McMahon, C McCarron; R McNabb, Joe McMahon, B Tierney; P McNulty (0-2), C McCann (0-1); Mark Donnelly, R O'Neill, P Kane (0-1); K Coney (0-1f), S Cavanagh (0-3f), N McKenna (1-0). Subs: Mattie Donnelly for Joe McMahon, D McCurry (0-4, 2f) for K Coney, C Cavanagh for P Kane, P Harte for Mark Donnelly, R McNamee for C McCarron, S McGuigan for P Harte.

Cavan - C Gilsenan; K Brady, R Dunne, J Hayes; N Murray (0-1), P Smith, M McKeever (0-1); D O'Reilly, K Clarke (0-1); M Reilly, M Lyng (0-1), D McVeety; R Flanagan, N McDermott (0-2), M Dunne (0-4, 1f). Subs: C Moynagh for J Hayes, J Brady for M Lyng, E Hessin for C Moynagh, T Corr for M McKeever, J Morris for K Brady, P Tinnelly for D O'Reilly.

Referee - R Barry.

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