Red Hand Saved By Cavanagh!

Tyrone are on course to maintain their top flight status in the Allianz GAA Football League after Colm Cavanagh's 74th minute goal gave the Red Hands a dramatic 1-11 to 1-10 win over Kerry at Healy Park, Omagh on Saturday night.

Mickey Harte's men looked to be edging towards the Division One trap door as they trailed by four points with 11 minutes left on the clock.

However, Kerry centre-back Aidan O'Mahony was sent off in the 64th minute and the Kingdom failed to score in the final 18 minutes.

Martin Penrose fired two points in the last ten minutes to reduce the gap to two, before Cavanagh's dramatic intervention at the death means Tyrone's survival is now in their own hands.

Kerry opened the scoring in the third minute, with Kieran Donaghy fielding a trademark diagonal ball and feeding Donnacha Walsh, who popped the ball over the bar when he might have gone for goal.

Tyrone were level four minutes later when Sean Cavanagh, making his first start since last year's All-Ireland semi-final defeat took advantage of a defensive error to slot the ball over the bar. Tommy McGuigan sent the Red Hands into the lead for the first time when he landed a free soon after.

McGuigan sent the home side even further ahead after Aidan Cassidy had broken a high ball into the full-forward line and the Ardboe man added the finishing touch.

Tyrone scored their fourth successive point when Cavanagh beat O'Mahony and landed a point from long range.

Kerry then ended an 11-minute spell without a score as David Moran took advantage of some slack marking to reduce the gap to two. Kerry looked for Donaghy with their trademark diagonal ball into the full-forward line on every occasion, but Justin McMahon looked to have the measure of the Kerins O'Rahillys man.

Tyrone had the first real sight of goal when Cavanagh won a loose ball in the full-forward line and raced onto the ball before unleashing a thumping shot which was brilliantly saved by Brendan Kealy, the Kerry goalkeeper.

Kerry struggled in attack in the opening stages and their manager, Jack O'Connor, reacted by brining Darran O'Sullivan in for Kieran O'Leary in the 21st minute. O'Sullivan, last year's All-Ireland winning captain, made an immediate impact, using his pace to fire over from a tight angle a minute after his introduction.

Tyrone had no such problems in attack and Owen Mulligan, in particular, was moving well and he gave the Red Hands a 0-6 to 0-3 lead in the 28th minute.

However, the Kerry attack clicked into gear in the last five minutes of the half, kicking four successive to take the lead at the break. Donnacha Walsh started Kerry's purple patch, before Donaghy slammed a basket ball style fisted effort off the bar and over after Moran's clever pass. Moran himself found his range a minute later before Colm Cooper landed his first point of the night from a tight angle to send the Kingdom into the break with a 0-7 to 0-6 advantage.

After making such a good start, Tyrone's hopes were dealt a massive blow when Cathal McCarron, their corner back, was shown a second yellow card for an ill-advised tug on Cooper's jersey. 'Gooch' knocked over the subsequent free, but there was worse to come for the home side.

Five minutes into the second half, Declan O'Sullivan made a surging run through the Tyrone defence, which was showing yawning gaps at this stage, and exchanged hand passes with Cooper before tapping the ball into the empty net to give Kerry a 1-8 to 0-6 lead.

Tyrone finally ended a 17-minute spell either side of the break without a score when Tommy McGuigan slotted over a free, but Kerry were completely dominant by now. Donnacha Walsh sent over his third point of the night as if to illustrate their superiority. Darran O'Sullivan sent over his second of the night - a quality strike with the outside of his left foot - to re-establish Kerry's five-point lead.

Penrose then kicked two frees in a row to reduce the gap to just three points with eight minutes left on the clock. Kerry's task of holding on in the final minutes was made far more difficult when O'Mahony, who was already on a yellow card, was shown a straight red after a high tackle on Conor Gormley.

The momentum was in Tyrone's favour and Penrose further cut the gap with three minutes left, firing over his fourth point of the night. Owen Mulligan had a wonderful chance to leave just a point between the sides with two minutes left on the clock, but the Cookstown man somehow managed to send a close-range free wide.

However, there was to be late drama as Colm Cavanagh found the back of the net in the 74th minute, fisting the ball home with the last play of the game after a long ball had been floated into the square and was deflected into his path by Joe McMahon.