CHRISTY RING CUP: Derry hurlers defeat Tyrone with season's best display at Owenbeg

Derry 2-26, Tyrone 0-13

Derry senior hurlers made it two Christy Ring Cup wins from two with an emphatic season's best display to which dismantled the challenge of an understrength Tyrone at Owenbeg on Saturday.

Johnny McGarvey's men were brilliant right from the throw-in with Darragh McGilligan, Ruairi O Mianain and Sean Cassidy the stand out performers on a day when everyone wearing read and white excelled at both ends of the pitch.

The win maintains Derry's push for a place in the final ahead of next week's trip to championship favourites Kildare who will be expected to join Derry and London on two victories apiece when they face Wicklow in Portlaoise on Sunday. The race for the top two spots that bring a place in the final already looks a three way battle between that trio.

But Derry can travel in confidence next week after producing a performance that had their second successive victory all but wrapped up inside the opening quarter when they took a 1-07 to no score lead Tyrone never looked like bridging.

McGarvey sprung a surprise by moving O'Mianain into the full forward line with Meehaul McGrath dropping into midfield and the ploy worked a treat. The Under 20 star was a superb attacking focal point for the home side, winning countless balls and knitting play together well.

Tyrone were missing a number of regulars including captain Oran McKee Sean Óg Grogan, Joe McToal and Seamus Sweeney while James McCann was only fit enough to start on the bench, and the absentees showed as a makeshift Red Hand defence was pulled over over the pitch by Derry's fast and concise passing game.

Central to it all was Darragh McGilligan, the Kevin Lynch's player contributing three high quality points from play and helping set up Derry's second goal which was brilliantly finished by John Mullan and handed Derry a commanding 16 point half-time advantage.

All over the field Derry looked sharper in a half in which Tyrone failed to register a shot until the 11th minute by which time Derry had already hit 1-06 and were a considerable way toward making the game safe.

Two early points from captain Cormac O'Doherty, one a free, and another from the impressive Corey O'Reilly arrived before Derry hit the net in the sixth minute. A free flowing move involving at least five Oak Leaf players ended with McGrath picking out Dara Mooney at the far post and he was able to turn and fire emphatically into the Tyrone net.

The six point lead would become 10 before Tyrone's opening score of the half arrived on 13 minutes through Bryan McGurk and despite Aidan Kelly doubling that tally only 60 seconds later, the traffic remained distinctly one way.

McGilligan hit two cracking scores, his third of the half seeing him collect the puck out from Oisin O'Doherty, hold off his man and then fire over a wonderful score from at least 70m.

Derry's scoring rate showed no signs of slowing as half-time approached and their second goal was indicative of everything good about a hugely impressive 35 minutes. Again McGilligan was central to the move, firing a great cross field pass which O'Mianain won well before feeding the supporting Mullan. The move deserved a good finish and Mullan provided that, his fierce low drive flashing past Conor McElhatton and into the bottom corner as Derry went into the break leading 2-15 to 0-05.

Any any thoughts of Derry resting on their laurels were dispelled within seconds of the restart, McGilligan scoring his fourth point of a very productive afternoon only seconds before O'Doherty sent over another huge effort to push Derry's lead out to 18 points.

To their credit Tyrone continued to battle and dropping Lorcan Devlin back as an extra defender did give the Red Hands some added security with both sides beginning to run their benches as the second half meandered toward its inevitable conclusion.

Kelly's free-taking continued to maintain a Tyrone interest, the visitors registering back to back scores for the first time in the game with 20 minutes remaining and then seeing Kelly hit four unanswered frees to bring the score to 2-23 to 0-13 but we remained in damage limitation territory for Tyrone.

With the intensity all but gone Derry maintained control and could have had a third goal when Mooney was denied late on by a good save from McElhatton but it was all academic by that stage.

Derry were a class above but they know only too well bigger challenges await. Next week's trip to Kildare will be followed by the arrival of London to Owenbeg and it's likely those two match-ups will decided the 2024 Christy Ring Cup finalists. on this showing, Derry can be quietly confident.

Derry scorers: Dara Mooney (1-0), John Mullan (1-0), Cormac O'Doherty (0-8, 6f), Corey O'Reilly (0-4), Darragh McGilligan (0-5), Ruairi O Mianain (0-3, 2f), Paul Cleary (0-2), Sean Cassidy (0-2), Richie Mullan 0-2, 1f, 1 '65')

Tyrone scorers: Aidan Kelly (0-11, 7f), Bryan McGurk (0-1), Sean Duffin (0-1),

Derry: Oisin O'Doherty, Paddy Kelly, Mark Craig, Niall Farren, Sean Cassidy, Richie Mullan, Meehaul McGrath, Cormac Doherty, Ruairi O Mianain, Corey O'Reilly, Aimon Duffy, Darragh McGilligan, John Mullan, Dara Mooney, Paul Cleary. (Subs) Callum O'Kane for C O'Doherty, 44mins; Tomas Brady for M Craig, 49mins; Sean Kelly for R O'Mianain, 54mins; Christy McNaughton for P Kelly, 60mins; Padhraig Nelis for D McGilligan, 62mins;

Tyrone: Conor McElhatton, Dean Rafferty, Fionn Devlin, Mark McClean, Ruairi Devlin, Cormac Munroe, Anthony Crossan, Mark McCann, Bryan McGurk, Lorcan Devlin, Aidan Kelly, Rory Weir, Cormac Taggart, Sean Duffin, Turlough Mullin. (Subs) Conall McKee for M McCann, 40mins; Mark Corry for T Mullin, 52mins; James McCann for C Taggart, 57mins; Ronan Maguire for C Munroe, 57mins; Cian McGuigan for S Duffin, 60mins;

Referee: James Connors (Donegal)