USFC: Down through to Semi Final

Ulster Football Championship Q-Final Replay:
Down 1-19 Tyrone 0-21 (AET)

Down beat Tyrone 1-19 to 0-21 in extra-time at Páirc Esler in Newry in their Ulster Football Championship quarter-final replay.

The Mourne men led by 0-16 to 0-12 with ten minutes to go, Liam Doyle having scored five points, but Tommy McGuigan came off the substitutes’ bench and helped Tyrone to level in stoppage time.

Tyrone kicked on to build a four-point lead early in extra-time, but Down’s Benny Coulter scored a goal that condemned the Ulster Champions to the qualifiers.

Down will face either Cavan or Armagh in the semi-finals, after their first win over Tyrone since 1999.

The attendance of 18,272 certainly got full value for their money, and a 15 minute delay due to traffic congestion just added to the drama and when referee Pat McEnaney eventually got the game underway at 7:15pm, it was sizzling football from the off.

The hosts began this game with vigour and Ambrose Rodgers set the tone with a fisted point after just 28 seconds.

But Tyrone weren’t lying down and responded with three points on the trot, as brothers Colm and Sean Cavanagh shared a trio of scores, and helped Tyrone led by 0-3 to 0-1 after six minutes.

Aidan Carr then kicked a Down score, but this was a firm purple patch by Mickey Harte’s charges with the Cavanaghs, Ryan Mellon and Colm McCullough on song.

The sides were level on two occasions during that opening half, but it was Sean Cavanagh’s second point which gave his side an 0-8 to 0-7 cushion at the interval.

Both sides had missed opportunities in the opening stages of the second-half before Martin Penrose took his only score of the contest, to give Tyrone a two point lead in as many minutes, after the restart.

The sides were level on three occasions inside the middle third but a Liam Doyle effort saw Down break clear as the game entered the fourth quarter.

Down certainly had the momentum at this stage and when Coulter sent over his second point, with a fisted effort with ten minutes remaining, it sent the large home support into raptures as they broke into a 0-14 to 0-11 lead.

But this game was far from over and the man who orchestrated the comeback was 57th minute substitute Tommy McGuigan, who miraculously scored five points in the closing 13 minutes, including four unanswered points, with the all important extra-time clinching one in the third minute of injury-time.

Down had been reduced to 14-men at this stage, following the dismissal of half-back Damien Rafferty, who added a second yellow card to his 24th minute one on the stroke of the 70th minute, as the hosts were down a man.

But they were back to a full complement of players for extra-time with Kevin McGuigan replacing the dismissed Rafferty.

However it was Tyrone who burst out of the blocks in extra-time with four points on the trot inside six minutes, with McGuigan, Sean Cavanagh, Philip Jordan and McCullagh all on target.

Down: B McVeigh; L Howard, D McCartan, P Murphy (0-1); A Carr (0-4, 3f, 1 45), L Doyle (0-5, 5f), D Rafferty; D Gordon (0-1), J Lynch; A Rodgers (0-1), R Murtagh, D Hughes; J Clarke (0-1), R Sexton, B Coulter (1-3). Subs: P McCumiskey for Lynch (46); K McKernan (0-1) for Clarke (52); S Kearney for Murtagh (69); K McGuigan starts in place of sent off Rafferty for ET; J Colgan for McCartan (HTET); J Clarke for Murphy (90)

Tyrone: J Devine; R McMenamin, Justin McMahon, PJ Quinn; D Harte, C Gourley, P Jordan (0-1); C Gormley, Joe McMahon; B Dooher, R Mellon (0-1), C Cavanagh (0-4, 4f); M Penrose (0-1), S Cavanagh (0-4, 1f), C McCullagh (0-4, 1f). Subs: K Hughes for C Cavanagh (inj) (31); P Donnelly for Hughes (46); T McGuigan (0-6, 5f)for Mellon (57); M McGee for Quinn (81); C Holmes for Gourley (82).

Referee: Pat McEnaney (Monaghan).