Tyrone win Meagher Cup Thriller

Lory Meagher Cup Final:
Fermanagh 3-20 Tyrone 2-24

Tyrone won the Lory Meagher Cup at Croke Park on Saturday after a thrilling one point extra-time victory over Fermanagh.

At the end of a contest with almost too many dramatic moments and twists to recount, Fermanagh were leading by a point going into the last two minutes of extra-time.

However, scores from Justin Kelly and Conor Grogan gave Tyrone the win, but not before a dramatic finale which saw three players sent off in a minute, Declan McGarry and Shea Curran of Fermanagh and Paudie McHugh of Tyrone.

Fermanagh were 2-3 to 0-3 up after 10 minutes with their goals coming from Curran and McGarry. Tyrone recovered with points from Gerard Gilmore, Damien Casey and Justin Kelly but a third Fermanagh goal, through Seán Corrigan, put them four ahead again.

Tyrone rallied again though, and Seán Grogan’s goal before the break left the score at 3-4 to 1-12 at the interval.

The second half ebbed and flowed, with both sides in the lead at several stages. Aidan Kelly put Tyrone two ahead with little more than five minutes left but scores from McGarry and Ryan Bogue levelled it up again.

Incredibly, both sides traded six points between them in the dying minutes to force extra-time, although Curran will regret shooting for goal at the very end of normal time when a point would have surely given Fermanagh the win.

When Fermanagh took a quick lead in extra-time and Tyrone’s Aidan Kelly was dismissed, it looked like it would be their day anyway.

However, Tyrone showed great spirit to stay with them, and Justin Kelly’s goal late on in the extra period brought them level yet again. They held their nerve when Fermanagh regained the lead, and struck the late points to snatch the win.