It’s all over.
And Kevin Hughes applies the icing with another point to close it out ten in front.
Tyrone might not be ultra-pleasing on the eye but no-one can suggest that they weren’t hugely impressive today. All three half backs scored, midfielders Colm Cavanagh and Kevin Hughes scored, Owen Mulligan was the only one of their forwards not to find the target.
Substitute Dessie Mone strikes a late point. Monaghan were trying to work a consolation goal but the Tyrone backs were having none of it. Twelve or 13 of them inside 25 yards of their own goal to close up the space before Mone eventually elects to take a point.
At the other end, Penrose taps over a 14-yard free.
A bad, bad day at the office for Monaghan. Davy Harte puts nine between the sides with a long range point.
Brian McGuigan is on for Tyrone and Brian Dooher goes off. Hard to decide which player received the bigger cheer. We’ll be seeing Dooher again before long when he collects the Anglo-Celt Cup once again.
Goal Tyrone!
It’s two against one and Colm Cavanagh, instead of passing to Colm McCullagh, buries it low to Shane Duffy’s right. Fine finish from the younger Cavanagh. If it wasn’t all over long ago, it is now.
Dick Clerkin fists a score to bring the margin down to five again. The big man left Kevin Hughes for dead. Still, too little too late by the looks of it.
With Monaghan, it’s a case of when Plan A isn’t working, revert to Plan A. Surely there should be some long kicking into the full forward line? No, just carry and carry and carry again. Like waves lapping against a shore.
And just to underline their supremacy, Sean Cavanagh takes on and beats Darren Hughes and cracks his third point of the game. Six in it again.
Conor McManus, with a free, brings an end to Monaghan’s scoring drought. It had been 39 minutes since their last score.
And the roar goes up. The Monaghan supporters still believe, but it’s doubtful whether their team does.
This is a form of catenaccio. There have been just three points in the second half, all to Tyrone. It’s not pretty, but it’s pretty effective.
This Tyrone team is an exercise in physics.
Q: How do you close space?
A: I dunno. But Tyrone do it in virtually every game they play.
Tommy Freeman got on the ball just now for the first time since about 2007. But faced with a not-so-thin red line, what could he do with it but go backwards. He did so, and the attack petered out.
“You get the feeling that it’s not going to be Monaghan’s day.”
No baloney, Maloney.
Monaghan’s wait for their fifth score of the game stretches to half an hour. Ciaran Hanratty with their latest wide, jinking and stepping and slinging it to the right of the posts.
Tyrone force a 45 off Darren Hughes but the respite for Monaghan is brief. Joe McMahon strokes over the 45 and there’s six between the sides. Monaghan looking clueless. Which, given they’ve averaged 21 points in their two championship games before this one, is a real tribute to Tyrone.
Hugh McIlroy and Ciaran Hanratty are coming in. I initially wrote High McIlroy but I think I was wrong. McIlroy looks to have full control of his senses.
The lead grows to five and it’s difficult to see any way back for Monaghan here. Cathal McCarron and Philip Jordan carry the ball out of defence, Jordan finds Sean Cavanagh in space and the former Footballer of the Year curls it over expertly.
Things not looking good for the underdogs, with full back JP Mone down receiving treatment. Seamus McEnaney is ready to introduce three substitutes in a desperate attempt to shake things up.
“They’re fluffing their lines big time,” says Darragh Maloney about Monaghan after Rory Woods spurns another great chance. They haven’t scored in 21 minutes now.
A lot of touches, a lot of passes, a lot of running for Monaghan. Rory Woods finds Damien Freeman in space but he can’t find the target.
Martin Penrose has a free to make it double scores and he strokes it over. Five on the trot now for Tyrone. It’s now or never for Monaghan.
We’re away again. Can Monaghan bounce back and end their 22-year wait for Ulster glory? Or will Tyrone grind it out, like they’ve done so many times over the past decade?
Pascal McConnell has arguably been the key player. Having saved brilliantly from Tommy Freeman earlier, he repeats the trick to deny Damien Freeman this time. Conor McManus played the defence-splitting pass to release his skipper, but McConnell comes to the rescue to preserve his side’s lead.
It’s half-time, with Tyrone leading by three.
Half-time: Tyrone 0-7 Monaghan 0-4
Tommy Bowe is a Monaghan man. Maybe he’s been having a few words with Eoin Lennon to try to persuade him to switch codes. He certainly wouldn’t be a bad flanker, to judge from that perfectly executed tackle on Colm Cavanagh. Lennon goes in the book.
Sean Cavanagh’s first point of the game puts two between the sides for the first time. Three in a row for Tyrone now, and they seem to have taken the wind out of Monaghan’s sails.
And just as I’m about to press “Add Update”, Davy Harte kicks another one from the narrowest of angles. Four in a row, and a three-point gap suddenly yawns.
This is going from bad to worse. Dick Clerkin has scored a few fine points this year but that won’t make his highlights reel. From 45 metres, his effort bounces on the 14 yard line on its way wide.
Padraig McBennett, the substitute goalkeeper, is warming up, we’re told. Maybe he’ll go centre back and allow Darren Hughes into goal. Or Paul Finlay. I’m sure he’d be a good keeper. He would certainly have a monster kick-out.
Back at the ranch, a couple of terrible wides at either side. Poor stuff.
Monaghan look like they’re going to have to make a change in goal. Shane Duffy, back in the side today as a result of Vincent Corey’s injury and Darren Hughes’s switch to centre back, is showing real signs of distress from his thigh muscle injury, particularly on kick-outs.
Kevin Hughes may not be a traditionally powerful midfielder in the sense of competing in the air but he can certainly finish. He scores his first of the day to give Tyrone the lead once more.
Goal chance for Tyrone.
Martin Penrose leaves two would-be tacklers for dead and suddenly finds himself in the clear. He shows no composure, however, flashing his left-foot kick high and wide.
Straight from the kick-out, however, Philip Jordan picks up possession and he chips it over to level matters again.
Damien Freeman shudders Philip Jordan with a big hit and referee David Coldrick shows the stand-in Monaghan captain the yellow.
“He’s lucky it’s only yellow,” says Kevin McStay in the RTE commentary box.
Rory Woods may be quite slow and quite fat but he’s deadly accurate. Good work from Eoin Lennon, who’s been excellent at midfield, Dick Clerkin and Damien Freeman teed up Woods and he arcs it over off his left. One between them again.
The ever-dependable Brian Dooher taps one over easily. Conor Gormley got forward to win possession 20 metres out and when he’s tackled by three players he feeds it back to Dooher in the pocket and he does the needful.
Some errant shooting from Tyrone. Sean Cavanagh dropped one badly short a few moments ago and this time Owen Mulligan is well wide. Monaghan marginally on top at midfield where Dick Clerkin and Eoin Lennon have started well. They have a chance to go two in front but Conor McManus fails to find the target off his left.
Conor McManus takes the free and he’s on target to put Monaghan in front again.
This one’s as physical as you might imagine. Every possession is a battleground. Some nice head-to-head action between Ryan “Ricey” McMenamin and Rory “Rory” Woods after the chunky Monaghan man is felled near the sideline.
And Finlay makes amends moments later with a booming point from play. No Tyrone player near him there, legal or otherwise.
Tyrone, the masters of walking the line. Paul Finlay misses a free but Joe McMahon was standing about three yards away from him and well within his line of vision by the time the kick left his boot.
Brian Dooher to Conor Gormley to Tommy McGuigan. He finds Gormley again and the centre half has no problem in putting Tyrone in front for the first time.
Tommy McGuigan with a chance to level and he makes no mistake from distance. Two fine scores in the first five minutes but the key moment was Tommy Freeman’s missed goal chance for Monaghan.
So close to an early goal for Monaghan. A long ball into the Tyrone full back line produces the mistake, Tommy Freeman was loitering with intent but his goalbound drive is brilliantly saved by Pascal McConnell.
Great score that, by the go-to guy Tommy Freeman. He took a sideline ball short, claimed the return pass and slammed a fine point, high and handsome.
A minute or so gone and both sides have hit a wide. Colm Cavanagh off target for Tyrone while Monaghan corner back Colin Walshe tried to find Tommy Freeman but overhit his pass.
No breeze, no wind, a freshly laid Prunty pitch. No excuses here.
We’re away.
Two of the three lads in the studio, Pat Spillane and Colm O’Rourke, are going for Monaghan. Spillane reckons Monaghan is a different, much more attack-minded, proposition this year, while O’Rourke believes Tyrone have been around so long that they must be almost overdone.
Joe Brolly, in contrast, never backs against Tyrone in a big game. “And I’m not going to start now,” he says.
It’s a bright and breezy day in Clones. A bit of rain earlier but it’s past now, RTE commentator Darragh Maloney tells us. We’ve had the parade and we’re almost ready to go.
Some late injury news for both sides.
Monaghan captain Vincent Corey has been ruled out with an injury picked up in training nine days ago, so defender-cum-goalkeeper Darren Hughes switches from nets to centre back. Shane Duffy comes into the side in goal, with Damien Freeman taking over the captaincy.
Tyrone manager Mickey Harte, meanwhile, has confirmed that Stephen O’Neill is not fit enough even for a place on the bench.
Monaghan: S Duffy; D McArdle, JP Mone, C Walshe; D Freeman, D Hughes, G McQuaid; D Clerkin, E Lennon; S Gollogly, P Finlay, K Hughes; R Woods, C McManus, T Freeman.
Tyrone: P McConnell; C McCarron, Justin McMahon, R McMenamin; D Harte, C Gormley, P Jordan; C Cavanagh, K Hughes; B Dooher, S Cavanagh, Joe McMahon; M Penrose, T McGuigan, O Mulligan.
