Tyrone pulled away with an unanswered 1-3 to book their place in another Dr McKenna Cup final and Mickey Harte insisted the competition hasn’t been devalued by Donegal pulling out.
Declan Bonner’s side were scheduled to play Monaghan in the semi-finals yesterday but cited player unavailability in their decision to withdraw.
Tyrone were without eight Sigerson and Under-20 players and only togged out 22 players yesterday but on Donegal’s decision not to field Harte said: “that’s their prerogative”.
“It is a pity but if that’s the way their resources were stretched, then who am I to tell them what to do?
“There have been a few times when people have put their Under-21 team into the McKenna cup and it didn’t take away from it.
“We always have a good finish to the competition The public in Ulster always looks forward to the final every year and it gets people warmed up for the League.”
Smart thinking by Niall Sludden set Tyrone on their way, his quickly-taken free teed up Conall McCann for an early goal.
The Red Hands hit the first five points and Conall McCann scored 1-2 in the first half.
Conor Poland was one of Down’s top performers with three points from play, two in the first half.
But Tyrone were dominant, Darren McCurry helped himself to six first-half points as the holders led 1-12 to 0-4.
Corey Quinn’s goal helped bring Down back to within four but Johnny Flynn’s black card halted their momentum and Tyrone finished with an unanswered 1-3, Ronan McHugh getting the decisive goal.
Scorers - Tyrone: D McCurry (0-7, 3f), C McCann (1-2), R McHugh (1-1), R O’Neill (0-2, 1f), B Gallen (0-1 ‘45’), R McNamee (0-1), B McDonnell (0-1), F Burns (0-1)
Down: C Poland (0-3), C Quinn (1-0), P Havern (0-2, 1f), L Kerr (0-1f), D O’Hare (0-1, f), D O’Hagan (0-1), S Dornan (0-1)
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