Tyrone;s resurgence under Mickey Harte continued this year as they won the Ulster Championship for the 14th time and their first championship title since 2010.
Fermanagh carried on from the progress that they had made during last year’s Championship. They beat Antrim 1-12 to -09 in Enniskillen.
Derry and Tyrone faced off in the opening fixture in the quarter-finals. Tyrone didn’t hold back on the oak leafs as Derry were well beaten in their own backyard as Tyrone won 3-14 to 0-12. Elsewhere in the quarter- finals Cavan beat Armagh 2-16 to 0-14. While Monaghan last years Ulster Champions easily beat Down 2-22 to 0-9. Last year’s runners up Donegal started their Ulster Championship 2-12 to 0-11 as they proved they were just too good for Fermanagh despite Sean Quigley and co’s best efforts.
The semi-final fixtures both resulted in two replays between the four remaining sides. Tyrone and Cavan faced off in Clones despite Cavan putting three goals in the Tyrone net as it ended 3-07 to 0-16. The replay wasn’t as close as the first game as Tyrone dominated Cavan from the very start and ran out winners to the tune of 5-18 to 2-17. The second fixture was a replay of the 2015 final Monaghan and Donegal played out a 0-14 to 1-11 draw. The replay was a close affair as Donegal edged out the defending champions 2-10 to 0-17.
Tyrone and Donegal met in the final in Clones which was a typical game of Ulster football at it’s best which after a slow start to the game became an excellent game for neutral viewers but not for fans of Tyrone or Donegal. Donegal had a better first half compared to Tyrone who lost Mattie Donnelly and Cathal McShane who both received black cards.Tyrone did find themselves level at last in injury time, this was the signal for the real drama to start as Michael Murphy missed a 50 metre free for Donegal before Peter Harte scored from distance. Kieran McGeary then doubled Tyrone’s lead and ultimately claimed Tyrone’s 14th Ulster Championship title as it finished 0-13-0-11.
And it`s over the bar 