Tyrone 1-10

Dublin 1-7

Rory Brennan’s late goal saw Tyrone hand Dublin their first defeat in this year’s Allianz Football League at a rain-soaked Healy Park tonight.

Played in truly dreadful conditions before a crowd of 3,850, Mickey Harte’s men recovered from the concession of an early Colm Basquel goal to grind out two precious points here.

There had been no separating the sides at the halfway stage and it was the visitors that looked the more likely for victory after the break but some sublime free-taking from Niall Morgan breathed fresh life into the Red Hands.

The Tyrone keeper’s fourth and final free had the scoreboard reading 0-10 to 1-7 with the game in the melting pot and with two minutes remaining the victors’ got a crucial turnover and made their fancied opponents pay the full price, with Brennan providing the devastating finish.

Coming into this one unbeaten with two wins and two draws, Dublin had made the perfect after just two minutes when Basquel got threaded through and unleashed a rocket to the top corner of Morgan’s net for max profit on the visitors' first tour on goal.

Conor Meyler and Brennan pulled back quick points for the Red Hands in the difficult elements before Brian Fenton broke away at the other end to send over what would be the capital men’s only point from play during the opening 35 minutes.

Darren McCurry set-up Liam Rafferty to make it a one-point game again with 20 minutes on the clock and it would be all square soon afterwards once Morgan sailed over a 50-metre free with aid of a stiff breeze.

A 20-metre free from Dean Rock was the response from the All-Ireland champions and it was met by Peter Harte clipping over a superb score two minutes from the break following some slick approach play by Frank Burns.

Tyrone came close to finishing the half out in style when Rafferty hammered a shot off the crossbar, leaving the Dubs to breathe a sigh of relief as teams headed for the dressing rooms, with some fists flying along the way, all square on 0-5 to 1-2.

Padraig Hampsey received a black card after the unsavoury scenes at the break, leaving Tyrone down to 14 for the first 10 minutes of the restart, but the home side would still draw first blood early in the resumption after Harte shot over his second.

Tyrone's Niall Morgan with Dublin's Brian Howard

Cillian O’Shea and Niall Scully steered the Dubs back in front prior to Rock (free) doubling the lead as the rainfall began to ease in Omagh.

McCurry’s only accurate placed ball of the night was backed up by Morgan swinging over a classy free from 45 metres out along the left flank, levelling the sides at 1-5 to 0-8.

From the resultant kick-out Scully would be sent to the sin bin by referee Cormac Reilly after tangling with his marker and the ensuing 50-metre free would see the in-form Morgan raising his third white flag and handing Tyrone their first lead on 58 minutes.

Sub Jack McCaffrey got himself impeded in front of the Tyrone posts to see Rock squaring the sides once more.

Morgan’s fourth free came from a much closer range to put the hosts’ noses back in front and was met by Rock in the 66th minute, leaving the scoreboard reading 0-10 to 1-7 and an intriguing finish in store at Healy Park.

With two minutes remaining, the Leinster champions looked on the verge of setting up another score until Paul Mannion got turned over by sub Kyle Coney on ‘the 40’ and from there Harte’s men would conjure up the crucial score of the night.

Some patient build-up play from the Red Hands’ attack afforded Brennan the time and space and, once slipped through, he made no mistake with the finish for all three points.

Dessie Farrell’s men hunted for a goal afterwards but it never came their way as Tyrone saw out four minutes of injury-time to claim two crucial points and bounce back from their 19-point hammering to Galway just six days ago in the process.

Tyrone - N Morgan (0-4f); M Cassidy, R McNamee, L Rafferty (0-1); M McKernan, R Brennan (1-1), M O’Neill; C Cavanagh, P Hampsey; F Burns, N Sludden, D McCurry (0-1f); P Harte (0-2, 1f), B Kennedy, C Meyler (0-1). Subs: B McDonnell for B Kennedy, T McCann for M O’Neill, K Coney for N Sludden, R O’Neill for M McKernan, N Kelly for P Hampsey.

Dublin - E Comerford; D Byrne, E O’Brien, M Fitzsimons; J McCarthy, E Murchan, C O’Shea (0-1); B Fenton (0-1), B Howard; C Kilkenny, P Mannion, N Scully (0-1); D Rock (0-4f), C Basquel (1-0), S Bugler. Subs: J McCaffrey for E O'Brien, K McManamon for S Bugler, J Small for M Fitzsimons, C Costello for C Basquel, A Byrne for J McCaffrey.

Referee - C Reilly.

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