Mickey Harte and Declan Bonner will be most pleased with their sides’ weekend fortunes with morale boosting wins and – more importantly – crucial league points nailed to the Division 1 board.

Tyrone, in extreme conditions at Healy Park, rattled reigning All-Ireland champions Dublin with a gutsy display in what was a niggly and sometimes spiteful affair.

The big talking point was the incident in the tunnel at half-time as both sides and members of their backroom teams clashed.

In what remained a heated encounter after the restart, it was Rory Brennan’s goal that proved decisive on a scoreline of 1-10 to 1-7.

The midpoint tangle was caught by the TV cameras and also appeared online with various social media posting grainy videos of the flash point.

Although it appears that both sides may escape further sanction. The GAA’s Central Competitions Committee will no doubt review the official video but their findings may well prove inconclusive due to angle and sheer number of bodies obstructing the view of the cameras in Omagh.

“I didn’t see too much, just a lot of bodies in a confined space,” said Tyrone boss Harte after. “Maybe that was a good thing, that nobody could do any damage to each other.

We were the only one to lose a man at half-time, at all. Pádraig Hampsey got a black card out of it. We got a hint of it at half-time. Nobody else got anything, so I think we’ve served our punishment.”

Dubs boss Dessie Farrell seemed to lay the blame for the shemozzle at the feet of their hosts at the weekend.

“All I’ll say is that we came up here to play football and that was needless what happened at half-time. I could not see it. There were a hundred people in front of me.”

The Red Hand men now gear themselves towards what is a huge Ulster SFC dress rehearsal clash with fierce rivals Donegal in Ballybofey on Saturday week. 

Declan Bonner’s team answered their recent critics at the weekend with a comprehensive 2-12 to 0-8 hammering of Monaghan in Ballyshannon.

“We still have a distance to go but I think we are moving in the right direction,” said the Tir Chonaill boss.

“I’d be happy enough with our performances in the National League. Some results have not gone our way but you have to go out and create your own bit of luck.

“There are five games gone and we’re sitting on five points so we have a big game coming up now against Tyrone.”

For Monaghan manager Seamus McEnaney, it’s back to the drawing board as they slip below their provincial rivals on score difference in the standings.

“We were very happy where we were with 31 minutes gone in the game,” said the Farney boss.

“We felt that we had Donegal in a great place, especially with the strong breeze. But Donegal got a goal then and the first two points of the second half and it was going to be a serious uphill battle of that.

“When we dropped to 13 men and Donegal are one of the best teams in the country at keeping the ball. When you give them a lead like that, it’s not a good place to be.”

NFL DIV I