An inspirational Peter Harte point in the 75th minute helped Tyrone beat Donegal by 0-13 to 0-11 in a tense Ulster final at Clones.

With the game hanging in the balance, 33,433 stunned spectators looked on in disbelief as wing back Harte smacked over a quite incredible score from distance off the outside of his left foot to edge the winners in front for the first time in over an hour.

Substitute Kieran McGeary followed up with the insurance point immediately as Tyrone won their first Ulster title in six years and 14^th in all. Defeat sends Donegal, who led by four points ten seconds into the second half and went back in front through substitute Christy Toye in the 69th minute, into a tricky Round Four Qualifier against either Cork or Mayo.

Captain Sean Cavanagh was immense for the victors, kicking over two majestic second-half points and fisting another, inspiring his team to the silverware as well as an All-Ireland quarter-final date at Croke Park in three weeks' time.

Three points from the marauding Ryan McHugh propelled the Tir Chonail men to a 0-7 to 0-4 interval lead, with the out-of-sorts Red Hands registering nine of the 15 first-half wides. Mickey Harte's team were also dealt a double blow before the break as both Mattie Donnelly and Cathal McShane were black-carded in the closing exchanges.

Michael Murphy won the ball from the throw-in at the start of the second half and fed Patrick McBrearty, who made it a four-point game and double scores within seconds of the restart.

Goalkeeper Niall Morgan (free) and McShane had lofted over the first two points inside ten minutes but Rory Gallagher's men then took control with points from McBrearty, Murphy ('45') and McHugh (2). When Niall Sludden countered with the O'Neill County's first score in twelve minutes and Cathal McCarron got forward to cancel out McHugh's third, the Donegal riposte was further scores from Odhran MacNiallais and McBrearty to leave three between the teams at the short whistle.

Rory Brennan and Peter Harte had the Red Hand County back within two by the 40^th minute. Harte then bounced off a couple of tackles and fed the supporting  Cavanagh, who had a glimpse of goal but was content to fist over his first score of the game; the former Footballer of the Year's opening point was his side's third on the bounce and there was now just one between them…

Anthony Thompson was very lucky to stay on the field firstly for kicking out at Cavanagh and then for dragging down an opponent seconds after being shown a yellow card, where either a second yellow or a black would have been followed swiftly by the red he should have received initially. Morgan came forward and nonchalantly spooned over the resultant free to tie the scores up with a quarter of the game left; Donegal swiftly replaced Thompson with Eoin McHugh.

The perennial finalists had gone 21 minutes without a score, during which time their opponents had hit four in a row, but MacNiallais drilled a smashing shot over the packed Tyrone defence into the breeze and high over the bar at the town end to restore their lead 14 minutes from the end. Moments later, McCarron found himself clean through on goal but panicked and screwed his left-footed shot high, wide and not-so-handsome.

After a hard hit on Frank McGlynn, Tyrone countered quickly and Cavanagh lofted over a brilliant 61^st-minute equalising point on the run from the right wing. Referee David Coldrick wasn't falling for Donegal's tactic of carrying the ball into contact and then going to ground but he did award them a free four minutes from the end and Murphy thumped it straight over the back spot from outside the '45' 90 seconds later.

Any notion of that being the winner was dismissed instantly when substitute Darren McCurry equalised with an excellent finish. Almost immediately, another replacement, Toye, edged the Tir Chonail men back in front with little more than a minute left. Brennan had a chance to fist the equaliser but instead carried the ball into traffic and went down easily - no penalty.

But that man Cavanagh rode four tackles and dropped over a stunning leveller in the second of six added minutes as the match exploded to life!

Ryan McHugh won another free outside the 45-metre line and up stepped Murphy in the 74^th minute only to drag his kick to the left of the uprights and wide. At the other end, Harte arrowed over a really magnificent point and the Red Hands led for the first time since the 14^th minute. Substitute McGeary followed up immediately with another peach as the Red Hands brilliantly regained the Anglo-Celt Cup with the last three scores of a nervy encounter.

Tyrone - N Morgan (0-2f); A McCrory, R McNamee, C McCarron (0-1); T McCann, J McMahon, P Harte (0-2); C Cavanagh, M Donnelly; C McShane (0-1), N Sludden (0-1), R McNabb; C McAliskey, S Cavanagh (0-3), R O'Neill. Subs: R Brennan (0-1) for M Donnelly (BC), M Bradley for C McShane (BC), J Munroe for R O'Neill, D McCurry (0-1) for C McAliskey, K McGeary (0-1) for J McMahon.

Donegal - M A McGinley; P McGrath, N McGee, C Gillespie; R McHugh (0-3), K Lacey, F McGlynn; R Kavanagh, O MacNiallais (0-2); A Thompson, E McGee, E McHugh; P McBrearty (0-3, 2f), M Murphy (0-2, 1f, 1'45), M O'Reilly. Subs: M McElhinney for R Kavanagh, M McHugh for A Thompson, C Toye (0-1) for F McGlynn, E Ban Gallagher for C Gillespie, A Thompson for E McHugh, C McFadden for P McBrearty.

Referee - D Coldrick.

Tweet

Most Read Stories