St Michael's launched their MacRory Cup campaign with an impressive opening when they chalked up two wins in their starting two assignments; a first day win over St Patrick's Cavan last midweek being followed up by what was a crunch success over a rated Omagh CBS side in Tempo on Saturday morning.
The full quota of four points from those games has immediately established a strong platform for the remainder of the pre-Christmas league section.
Assured ten point defeat of Cavan
ST MICHAEL'S ........................................ 0-14
ST PATRICK'S CAVAN ............................. 0-4
Played in Kinawley, there was never any real doubt about the outcome of this rather one-sided affair with St Michael's promptly in command and that position was never to be seriously under threat at any stage. Opponents St Patrick's basically had an uphill task on their hands from an early stage and by the interval they had drifted five points in arrears.
The chasing side managed a brief flurry on the resumption but no significant headway was made by them and St Michael's were soon back in full flow to collect a string of unanswered points that hoisted them comfortably ahead.
Defensively, St Michael's were extremely sound with excellent individual contributions coming from Niall McGovern, who policed key Cavan forward Martin Dunne and half-back Padraig McCann was also an instrumental figure. Further upfield, Mark Cunningham was especially lively in a fluent attack.
St Michael's had the show up and running within a few minutes of the start, three points being fired over from Stephen Carters and Mark Cunningham. St Patrick's had their first success with a Martin Dunne point but they were left in St Michael's wake as the Enniskillen side drove through for further scores from Daryl Keenan, Kevin Connolly and Mark Cunningham.
St Patrick's had a late first half score from midfielder Paddy Brady and in the early minutes of the second half they added two more to narrow the deficit to four points but a full scale rally from them never materialised.
St Michael's upped the tempo of their game with relative ease and they stormed through for a sequence of scores, a number of players on the scoresheet and they were coasting at the finish.
Tighter game in Tempo
ST MICHAEL'S ...........................................1-8
OMAGH CBS ............................................. 0-8
This was a much tougher contest for the Enniskillen boys and they had to ride out a committed late challenge from an Omagh side who staged a strong finish. But the Tyrone boys had left themselves just a little too much leeway to make up, at one juncture they had fallen eight points in arrears.
That gap had been established principally through St Michael's snatching what proved to be the all important goal, this arriving shortly after the resumption. It was to be the only score for St Michael's in a second half that saw them face into a stiffish breeze.
For sometime, however, after that goal the Enniskillen position was not unduly threatened for Omagh could make no inroads into the deficit mainly due to a collectively efficient St Michael's defensive display, which saw a string of Omagh attacks flounder around the 30 metre mark.
It was to be almost the final quarter before Omagh at last shot their first point of the half and that encouraged them to an increasingly charged effort, which in the end saw them hit five points but it was becoming evident that they needed a goal to really put the pressure on the leaders and the opportunity for this was never delivered up by a tenacious St Michael's rearguard though there were a couple of half chances.
Aside from the defence, there was some solid individual play for the winners from wing half forward Stephen Carters and from centre half forward Daryl Keenan with Mark Cunningham slotting over crucial scores in the opening half.
For Omagh, wing half-back Micheal Gallagher had a steady match with centre half Liam Nicholas also working well. Colin Harkin had his moments in the centre of the park and Diarmaid McNulty was perhaps the most consistent in a forward line that took a long time to get through with appreciable regularity.
With the wind to assist them, St Michael's shaded the early exchanges, points supplied by Mark Cunningham and Daryl Keenan before Omagh hit back on ten minutes with their first score, Colin Harkin shooting over from play.
The teams then traded a point each before St Michael's embarked on one of their better attacking spells, which saw them hit five points in a row as the Omagh challenge faltered momentarily. Points came from Mark Cunningham with impeccable place kicking and from play by enterprising wing half forward Lee McQuaide.
A late free from Peter Harte for Omagh trimmed the gap to five points but on the restart the leaders received a tremendous boost when a left wing movement swathed through an Omagh defence, which was badly exposed, full forward Kevin Connolly gave the touch on to the unmarked Mark Cunningham and the latter beat the keeper in a one-on-one situation.
A strong position for the leaders and though they couldn't add further to the tally they didn't concede anything at the other end until time began to run out for Omagh.
Final quarter points for Omagh came from Peter Harte and Peter Hughes and there was a fairly intense finish building up but the goal that would have racketed up the excitement didn't arrive, some tidy defending and one smart deflection from goalkeeper Matthew Jackson keeping the St Michael's net intact.
