Tyrone overcame a game challenge from Longford to win Saturday evening’s All-Ireland SFC second round qualifier.
Mickey Harte’s men moved clear after Mark Donnelly’s goal early in the second half, and, though the Pearse Park hosts never relented, the Red Hand went on to advance to Sunday’s draw on a score of 1-17 to 0-15.
Damien Sheridan denied Donnelly a goal very early, allowing his side to go in front as - after a Tyrone score from precocious debutant Kyle Coney - points from Brian Kavanagh and Paul Barden made it 0-2 to 0-1.
And a lead of one point was something that Longford continued to find themselves having as the half wore on. Play swung from end to end, but a succession of Tyrone efforts from Peter Harte were continually cancelled out as Donal McElligott and Sean McCormack found their range, the latter amassing a decent personal tally as his fourth made it 0-8 to 0-7 to Glenn Ryan’s men at half-time.
But Longford switched off in the first few minutes of the second period, a fact that ultimately was their undoing.
Philip Jordan, Martin Penrose and Coney all played their part in creating Donnelly’s goal right at the start of the half, and Penrose, Sean Cavanagh and Donnelly himself then all pointed for a lead of four points.
After that barrage of Red Hand scores the pattern of the first half returned somewhat as the Midlanders gave as good as they got in what was still an open encounter. Kavanagh and McCormack kept them ticking over and, though Tyrone did at one stage lead by seven, there was no fear of them running away with it.
The commanding presence of Aidan Cassidy in the Tyrone midfield was telling though, as he ensured that Longford could not get enough time on the ball to create the scores necessary to get close enough to their more illustrious opponents.
Harte struck his seventh point late on to outscore McCormack by one and Tommy McGuigan’s subsequent score meant the final difference between the teams was five points.