Wednesday’s Dr McKenna Cup

Barrett Sports Lighting Dr McKenna Cup Section A
Fermanagh 0-11 Tyrone 2-11

Tyrone secured a second McKenna Cup win in four days when they beat Fermanagh by 2-11 to 0-11 at Brewster Park on Wednesday night.

However, Mickey Harte’s men were made to battle all the way by the Erne men, who contrubuted handsomely to a fine game but ultimately ran out of steam after a brilliant start.

Fermanagh raced into a 0-5 to 0-1 lead, but Tyrone hit back to level the game on 28 minutes, when Martin Penrose hit the back of the net from the penalty spot after Brian McGuigan had been taken down Barry Owens.

Having gone into the break on level terms, the Red Hands grabbed a second goal on the resumption of play thanks to a side-footed effort by Ciaran Garvin.

Again, the home side hit back with three sucessive points to level, but Tyrone’s class told in the end, with Seán Cavanagh (0-4) and Penrose (1-4) stepping up to the mark in an impressive late surge.

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Barrett Sports Lighting Dr McKenna Cup Section C
Armagh 2-7 St Mary’s 1-16

Armagh failed to secure the win they needed to progress to the semi-finals of the McKenna Cup following an unexpected defeat at the Athletic Grounds.

St Mary’s star man was goalkeeper Niall Morgan, who pulled off a string of fine saves to repel the Orchard County and also chipped in with two pointed ‘45s.

Armagh’s Gareth Swift scored the opening goal after 14 minutes, but the students were 1-7 to 1-4 ahead at the break, their goal coming from a Peter Hartes penalty.

Paddy Tally’s men stepped up a gear in the second half and moved into a substantial lead before Swift struck for what was little more than consolation with a second goal five minutes before the end.

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Barrett Sports Lighting Dr McKenna Cup Section B
Cavan 1-13 Monaghan 1-12

Cavan held their nerve in an exciting finale to their local derby clash with Monaghan to claim an impressive win and take a step closer to claiming a McKenna Cup semi-finals spot.

At half time, a Cavan win looked like they would coast to an easy win as they led by 1-9 to 0-4, with Michael Brennan scoring their goal on the half hour mark having seen an earlier penalty saved by Mark Keogh, the Monaghan goalkeeper.

However, Monaghan were a different team in the second half and they hit 1-5 without reply to level the game by the 54th minute, with Gavin Flanagan scoring their goal.

Cavan, though, grabbed the momentum back and held out for the win.