Defence’s generosity the only source of complaint for Mickey Harte

Even allowing for the fact that his side dominated for long spells, Mickey Harte wasn't overly annoyed at having to take another swing at this.

You can’t expect to give up three goals in an afternoon too many times and still be standing. If it was Cavan who nicked the draw, Tyrone still left Clones with much to fix for the replay.

“It’s very disappointing to concede three goals,” conceded Harte afterwards.

“We hadn’t conceded a championship goal in nine games or whatever it was [it was eight]. Two conceded by half-time is very disappointing. But you have to say Cavan did their homework, they had a good gameplan and they executed it very well, we have no complaints.

Contention “We could have won the game and we could have lost it halfway through. It had a draw written all over it right through the game and even though we had got ourselves back into contention you just thought, ‘This could go to the wire.’ And so it did.

“We could never get a total foothold in the game. We were getting little pieces of the game and getting ourselves in a position. It was very hard work to get ahead.

“We got ahead and then chipped on a little bit. We still didn’t get daylight between us and them. I suppose that three points in the end was as good as it got for us. When you are three up in the dying embers of the game, when a team needs a goal, you should really make it difficult for them to get a goal. We didn’t make it as difficult as it ought to have been.”

For Terry Hyland, the 20-minute spells in either half where they didn't manage a score stuck out like a sore thumb. If their wayward shooting surfaces again in the replay, it's hard to imagine they'll find another three goals to make up the shortfall.

“Well, that would be the most concerning part, yes. Our finishing was poor compared to what it had been. But again you have to credit Tyrone, they made it very difficult for us. They put us under a lot of pressure and perhaps the conditions played into that as well.

“It was a little bit unusual because our forward division had been working very well up until this.

“You get days like that and you have to give Tyrone credit for the pressure that they put on us when we were trying to get those shots off.”