February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Jack Flynn
Leitrim 3-13, Tyrone 0-11
If there were any doubts that Leitrim would be in contention for a playoff berth in the Senior Football Division I circuit this season, they were put to rest at Gaelic Park on Sunday.
A smashing first half gave Leitrim a big lead to sit on until the hour was up, and they eventually came away with a badly needed 3-14 to 0-11 victory over Tyrone.
“We came out today, and it was a game we had to win,” said Leitrim’s Mike Brosnan, who contributed two points to his team’s cause. “The way we came out in the first half kind of put them away a bit.”
Tyrone sandwiched a single Brian Dooher point between two 8-point runs for Leitrim, leaving them hopelessly out of contention by the time the second half began.
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Brosnan, Liam Quinn and Sean Jones all put early balls over the bar before Kieran Traynor scored his first of two goals, giving Leitrim a 1-3 to 0-0 advantage.
A lovely pass from midfielder Cookie Meehan sent Traynor in alone on Tyrone keeper Martin Conway. Conway came way out from between the pipes to challenge, so Traynor punched a ball over his head that lazily arched into the goal.
Dooher’s point put Tyrone on the scoreboard for the first time in the match, but it was the last point they would score in the first half. Leitrim, so dominant on the offensive end, also blocked down most of the few scoring opportunities Tyrone were able to muster.
Points from Quinn and John McGinnis preceded Traynor’s second goal of the afternoon, giving Leitrim a 2-7 to 0-1 advantage and putting them way out of the sights of Tyrone. Points from Brosnan and Jones before the half only served to make the gap between the two sides hopelessly wider.
Tyrone’s scoring attack improved in the second half, thanks in big part to the efforts of Damien Gormley. The Tyrone star notched six second-half points after being shut out in the first 30 minutes.
A 5-point Gormley scoring jag that began when the score was 2-10 to 0-1 in favor of Leitrim was broken only by a Traynor point, pulling Tyrone to within 11 points of their opponents. Any far-fetched hopes of a comeback were doused by a goal off the foot of Leitrim’s midfielder John Lynch.
A sideline ball from Al Travers found Lynch alone in front of the net, and his goal made the score 3-11 to 0-6 in favor of Leitrim. Tyrone would continue to pick away using five straight points to pull within 3-11 to 0-11, but three consecutive Leitrim points from Jones, Lynch and Quinn sealed the deal.
Sunday’s win puts Leitrim right back into the thick of the playoff hunt, and Brosnan is hoping that this match will spur his side into the second season.
“We were playing bad up to this, but today is a big step to righting everything,” he said.
Leitrim scorers: Traynor 2-1, Lynch 1-1, Jones 0-6, Quinn 0-3, Brosnan 0-2, McGinnis 0-1.
Tyrone: Gormley 0-6, P. Devlin, S. Devlin, Dooher and Barr 0-1.