Tyrone 1-13 Queen's University 1-5:A TYRONE team, stepping into a new era following a number of high-profile retirements, made a winning start to 2012 at Healy Park yesterday.

They had to come from behind to get the better of Queen’s, with two debutants making a big impact. Full forward Johnny Lafferty hit three points, and teenager Ronan O’Neill grabbed a goal just seconds after coming into the game midway through the second half.

Queen’s trailed by three points at the break, but it could have been so different had they taken just one of the three golden goal chances they created.

Donal O’Hare twice got in for a shot on goal, but was denied by a John Devine save and a superb goal-line stop by Justin McMahon. Goalkeeper Devine also saved from Gregory Jordan as the students piled on the pressure in the second quarter.

Tyrone had gone 0-4 to 0-2 clear, with the impressive Lafferty hitting a couple of neat scores. The lively O’Hare hit the target twice for Queen’s, and Mark Sweeney’s point narrowed the gap to one.

But Tommy McGuigan and Martin Penrose gave Tyrone a 0-6 to 0-3 interval lead, with Aidan Cassidy also landing a wonderful long-range point.

Queen’s did get in for a goal early in the second half when O’Hare spotted Caolan Rafferty’s diagonal run, timed the pass perfectly, and the Armagh man stepped around Devine and planted the ball in the net.

Queen’s sensed they could carve out a shock victory, and went ahead through Seán Warnock but the home side stepped up the tempo in the final quarter.

O’Neill’s latched onto a loose ball as it spun around the danger area from Peter Harte’s free kick, and finished with accuracy to the net in the 51st minute.

That goal was followed by points from Harte, Cassidy, Niall McKenna and Colm Cavanagh as Tyrone won comfortably.

TYRONE: J Devine; PJ Quinn, J McMahon, D McCaul; S O’Neill, P Harte (0-2, 0-1 45), S McNally; A Cassidy (0-2), C Cavanagh (0-1); M Donnelly, M Penrose (0-1), M Murphy; P McNeice, J Lafferty (0-3), T McGuigan (0-3, frees). Subs: R O’Neill (1-0) for McNeice, D Carlin for McNally, N McKenna (0-1) for Donnelly.

QUEEN’S: M Jackson; N McGovern, S Warnock (0-1), O Costello; T Hanna (0-1), B Cox, P McGuigan; M Sweeney (0-1), E Clarke; A Murnin, R Jones, G Jordan; J O’Reilly, D O’Hare (0-2), C Rafferty (1-0). Subs: C Morgan for Jordan, C Fleming for McGuigan, C Sheerin for Warnock.

Referee: N Mooney (Cavan).