All-Ireland SFC qualifier: Impressive Tyrone sink Sligo

Tyrone were able to turn defence into attack on numerous occasions against Sligo

Tyrone produced a fluent display to set up an All-Ireland Football quarter-final against Monaghan as they defeated Sligo 0-21 to 0-14 at Croke Park.

Sligo restricted Tyrone to an early 0-3 to 0-2 lead but the Red Hands moved into a 0-9 to 0-4 advantage and pushed that on to 0-12 to 0-6 by half-time.

The Connacht side cut the margin to four after the break but wasted other chances before Tyrone regrouped.

Mark Bradley, Mattie Donnelly and Sean Cavanagh were among Tyrone's stars.

Bradley's running was particularly a feature of Tyrone's impressive first-half performance while midfielder Donnelly contributed three points in an all-action display for the Reds Hands.

Tyrone keeper Niall Morgan had to be on his toes immediately as he dived to save a fisted effort from Pat Hughes but the Red Hands then moved into a 0-3 to 0-1 lead, helped by two Darren McCurry points.

Hughes and David Kelly looked dangerous early on for the beaten Connacht finalists but Tyrone then began to take control as points from Connor McAliskey, McCurry, Donnelly, Bradley, Rory Brennan and Cavanagh helped them move into a 0-9 to 0-4 lead.

With Ronan McNabb beginning to subdue Kelly, Tyrone's ability to win turnovers and break at pace continued to cause major problems for a more static Sligo side.

Cavanagh had a sniff of a goal chance for the Ulster county just before the break but was content to fist another point as Tyrone led 0-12 to 0-6 at the break.

Tyrone did lose their way slightly after the break as Adrian Marren and Mark Breheny scores cut the margin to four by the 40th minute.

And Sligo kicked a couple of bad wides during a period of dominance before the Red Hands quickly regained control as scores from the impressive Bradley and McCurry re-established a six-point lead.

The Tyrone advantage was pushed on to 0-18 to 0-10 by the 56th minute with both Cavanaghs and goalkeeper Morgan among the scorers.

That lead was soon to become 10 and while Sligo reduced the margin to seven by the final whistle, Tyrone had done their job in a highly competent fashion despite missing a couple of late goal chances.

Tyrone's victory means they will face Monaghan in the quarter-finals at Croke Park next Saturday.