Tyrone hurlers lose narrowly in pulsating contest with Longford

 

Nicky Rackard Cup, Round 2B: Longford 4-18 (30) v 3-17 (29) Tyrone
Tyrone travelled to Pearse Park in Longford on Saturday and narrowly lost in Round 2B of the Nicky Rackard Cup.
Tyrone lost their opening match, going down last weekend to Mayo on a score of 4-19 (31) to 0-17 (17).
But in their second match, they were unlucky to go down by a single point.
Tyrone’s Damian Casey opened the scoring with a free and then another before Longford’s Joe O’Brien got the midlanders off the mark to make 0-01 v 0-02.
Tyrone’s Matthew Mulgrew kept the Red Hands in front with a goal from 25 metres quickly afterwards.
The scores were ratcheted up with Padraig Farrington hitting the net for Longford to give them a narrow lead on 1-05 v 1-02.
Longford’s Gerard Gilmore scored another goal to extend their lead to 2-05 v 1-05.
Casey got a goal back for Tyrone to make it 2-08 v 2-07.
But Longford lashed in two goals to establish a commanding lead of 4-08 v 2-07.
Tyrone’s Ryan McKernan then found the net after a good ball from Conor Grogan to narrow the gap and make it Longford 4-10 v 3-09 at half-time.
It was a ding-dong battle in the second half, with both sides rattling in the scores, but it was Longford to finished runners 4-18 (30) to 3-17 (29).
Meanwhile, Derry lost away 1-18 (21) to 1-15 (18) against Down in their Christy Ring Cup match today.