TYRONE are still on course for their third consecutive Ulster title following a fretful victory over Down in the replay of their Ulster preliminary round match at Clones yesterday.

The conditions for football were perfect with a light breeze, glorious sunshine and a superbly prepared pitch giving the players every enticement to provide a classic an enticement they steadfastly refused. As a consequence, another dour match was played out.

Without going into the gory details of what is wrong with the game, it may be sufficient to say that the referee, Mick McGrath from Donegal, was probably the busiest man on the pitch. By the end of the match he had 10 names in his notebook. Tyrone were, nevertheless, worthy of their win, if only for the fact that they scored three goals by taking advantage of a rather slack Down defence.

The goals, in fact, tell the tale of Down's weaknesses rather than Tyrone's strength. For the first, which arrived in the 22nd minute, Stephen Lawn was allowed to run straight through the middle of the Down attack before driving the ball past Michael McVeigh. The fact that he must have taken as many as eight or nine steps without playing the ball is academic.

The second, in the 18th minute of the second half, saw the Down defence in a slack, mood when Mattie McGleenan floated the ball into the goal mouth where Ciaran McBride hustled McVeigh and when the ball broke between the two of them, Peter Canavan dived in to push the ball to the net. The third arrived after Canavan drove the ball into the goal mouth from a free kick and McGleenan dashed in to flick it into the goal with his fist.

Down kept in the match mainly through the efforts of John Treanor from frees and the efforts of their captain Ross Carr and the midfield pairing of Conor Deegan and Greg McCartan.

Mickey Linden, as always, was a problem for the Tyrone defence, but he was successfully limited in his contribution by the Tyrone full back line and his influence on the match was not as powerful as one would have expected following his performance in the drawn match.

James McCartan also had a very quiet match by his standards and the loss of Greg Blaney before the match started was, in hindsight, a significant factor in Down's poor performance.

Their team manager, Peter McGrath, was philosophical afterwards about the problems which appeared within his ranks. "We always knew Tyrone were not going to be an easy touch. They never are. Their defence was excellent and they never allowed our lads to settle on the ball," McGrath said.

"Tyrone have a very well balanced side and it will take a very good team to beat them. They play some tremendous football and they took their goal chances well and that was the main difference in the end. They are well organised and I believe that they will benefit from having two really hard matches.

"We are disappointed, dejected you could say. We did a lot of hard work and we felt we were getting things right, but with Greg Blaney and Peter Withnell missing we knew we would have to pull out something special. Tyrone have the potential to go all the way and we wish them well," he said.

Adrian Cush, who scored five points, four from frees, was in much the same mood. "We expected Down to come at us early on and I think we coped pretty well. Clones is like a home venue to us. When things weren't going well we didn't panic and the goals came at a time when they were badly needed.

"The Ulster championship is a long hard trip, but we are looking only at Armagh at present. They have done very well at club level in recent years. Crossmaglen Rangers are All Ireland (club) champions and that has to mean something to them. We are by no means complacent about it," he said.

Down drew first blood with an early Treanor free and the rather scrappy match gave the attendance of 24,622 double that of the drawn match - little to cheer about until Tyrone took the initiative just after 20 minutes when Kilpatrick and Canavan sent Stephen Lawn dashing through for a goal which left the score at 1-2 to 0-2.

Half time arrived with Tyrone ahead by 1-5 to 0-4, by which time a bewildering series of switches in the Tyrone team left them showing little resemblance to the programme line out.

Fay Devlin started the match at centre half back and was flanked by Noel Donnelly on the right and Sean McLaughlin on the left with Fergal Logan at midfield.

After Ger Deegan had given them a point from play, Down drew level in the second half when Treanor, Conor Deegan and Ciaran McCabe combined for a goal six minutes after the break.

Linden put Down briefly ahead 15 minutes into the second half and Fergus Caulfield, who had come in as a substitute, put them two points clear. Down's defence then proved vulnerable to a McGleenan lob and when the hall broke clear, Canavan dived in to push the ball into an empty net.

McGleenan's goal after 28 minutes of the second hall, followed by a successful free kick by Cush, stretched Tyrone's lead to five points. They never looked like losing the initiative subsequently.

. A wonderfully executed 50th minute goal by Charlie Carter put Kilkenny firmly in control of a sparkling senior hurling challenge at Kilmanagh yesterday evening.

Carter netted with his first touch of the hall and put Kilkenny 3-12 to 1-14 ahead. Afterwards Cork faded badly and were well beaten in the end.

The losers started very well, and were 0-5 to 0-1 ahead after 11 minutes. Five times subsequently the scores were level, including at half time when the score was 2-7 to 1-10.

The exchanges were even again until Carter struck to give Kilkenny the upper hand and by the end they coasted to a 3-21 to 1-20 victory.

. A player poaching row between two West Wicklow GAA clubs has split a community and divided families in part of the parish. An attempt by Wicklow GAA County Board to resolve the dispute between the feuding Baltinglass and Stratford clubs, by drawing a line in the sand between the clubs, has angered people in Grange Con as much as in Baltinglass.

Under the ruling, Grange Con players must now play for Stratford. But they want the freedom to choose to play for either Baltinglass or Stratford.

Leinster Council has now been asked to adjudicate. Tonight in Portlaoise, Leinster Council will hear a 10 point appeal from Baltinglass against the decision of the county board. It is understood that another appeal from the parents of the Grangecon players has been ruled out of order by Leinster Council.

. Cork staged a powerful second half comeback to win a senior football challenge game 0-16 to 0-13 at Kildare last night.

The home side were much stronger in the opening half and led early on. Cork recovered in the second quarter, but Kildare held on to lead by 0-8 to 0-7 at half time.

Kildare remained on top early in the second half and increased their lead by five points. But they failed to score again as Cork turned on the power with a succession of points.