Dooher hails impact of double threat Canavan and McCurry as Tyrone edge Mayo

Canavan smashed home a delicious 47th-minute goal and substitute McCurry hit eight second-half points as the Red Hands came from behind to deny the westerners at O’Neills Healy Park.

Cillian O’Connor’s 23rd-minute penalty had helped Kevin McStay’s side to a three-point interval lead, but it was a transformed home side that came out for the resumption of play.

“Darren and Darragh, whenever they’re on song they are worth the entrance fee alone,” said joint manager Brian Dooher. “Darren had the ‘flu last week so did well to recover. We didn’t think he’d have the energy in the legs after the week he had but he came on in the second half and you wouldn’t have known there was anything wrong with him.” 

Dooher was expecting a reaction in the second half following a subdued and error-ridden showing in the opening period.

“The boys knew what they did and didn’t do in the first half. We’d set out things to do and we didn’t do them, didn’t do them as well as could. Obviously, things don’t always go right for you, but in the second half, I thought our application was great and our intensity was where it needs to be.” 

With next weekend’s trip to Kerry now in their sights, the Red Hand boss is hoping he has witnessed a turning point in the league series.

“You can look at the table a wee bit easier tonight but there is nothing easy coming with Kerry and Dublin and Monaghan coming up.” 

An opening-quarter stalemate saw the sides share six points, with neither succeeding in finding an effective pattern of play, two O’Connor frees cancelled out in like fashion by Peter Harte.

But once Mayo got their familiar running game going, with Stephen Coen, Enda Hession, Mattie Ruane and Jordan Flynn particularly effective, they had the home side on the back foot.

The loss of Diarmuid O’Connor to injury after just five minutes failed to impact their focus, and 12 minutes before the interval they struck for a goal.

Cormac Quinn’s foul on Hession was outside the area, but as it was a black card offence, referee Brendan Cawley awarded a penalty, which Cillian O’Connor drilled to the top corner of Niall Morgan’s net.

But they failed to drive home the advantage with the extra man, managing just a Conor McStay point before the break, while Darragh Canavan’s second score narrowed the gap to three, 1-4 to 0-4 at the turnaround.

McCurry’s arrival as a half-time substitute was the game-changer, along with a dramatic shift in levels of intensity and a hard press on the Mayo kick-out, as the Red Hands, stung by successive defeats to Derry and Galway, came out fighting.

McCurry brought the sides level before Canavan drilled home a magnificent goal, and Mayo were unable to find a response.

The strike pair were in the mood, and soon they had their side six points clear.

Top scorer Ryan O’Donoghue, left on the bench by McStay as he opted to test the panel, came in after 48 minutes and slotted over a couple of points, with Fergal Boland also hitting two, but McCurry couldn’t miss, sending a succession of frees sailing between the uprights.

Mayo manager Kevin McStay was disappointed his side failed to build on a positive opening half.

“It was a tough, tough second half for us. Certainly, the third quarter was the big one, the first 15, 20 minutes after half-time,” he said.

“We were in a fairly good position, even though we hadn’t played particularly well in the first half, but we got ourselves into a three-points lead in the first half in Omagh in the National League, which is a decent position.

“And we were sure, we were convinced we would be able to build on it.

“But the first five or six minutes of the second half, we got a few very hard calls, we got the wrong side of them.

“We still need two points, I think six will get us there, and the next two are on offer.

“We need to see a reaction now next Saturday night against our fierce rivals in the province who cut us fairly short last year in the championship.

“We all need to get this right and put up a big show against Roscommon up in McHale Park next Saturday night, because tonight simply wasn’t where players or management or supporters wanted to be, it just wasn’t where we needed to be.” 

Scorers for Tyrone: D Canavan 1-4 (0-1f), D McCurry 0-8 (6f), Peter Harte 0-2 (2f), S O’Donnell 0-1 

Scorers for Mayo: C O’Connor 1-2 (1-0 pen, 0-2f), R O’Donoghue, F Boland 0-2 each, C McStay, R Brickennden, R Hennelly (f), S Coen, B Tuohy 0-1 each 

Tyrone: N Morgan; C Devlin, P Hampsey, A Clarke; M McKernan, C Quinn, N Devlin; B Kennedy, C Donnelly; C Daly, C Kilpatrick, P Harte: J Oguz, D Canavan, S O’Donnell.

Subs: D McCurry Donnelly (h-t), B Cullen for McKernan (h-t), K McGeary for O’Donnell (67), R Canavan for D Canavan (76) 

Mayo: R Hennelly; J Coyne, R Brickenden, S Callinan; M Plunkett, S Coen, E Hession; D O’Connor, M Ruane; D Duffy, F Boland, J Flynn; C O’Connor, T Conroy, C McStay.

Subs: J Carney for D O’Connor (5), R O’Donoghue for McStay (48), E McLoughlin for Plunkett (48), B Tuohy for Ruane (57) D McHale for Duffy (62) 

Referee: B Cawley (Kildare).