Dooher confident heading to Killarney

MORE of the same will do nicely indeed for Tyrone as they bid to maintain their momentum of last weekend’s big win over Mayo in Division One of the National League when they make the trip to face Kerry.

Darren McCurry and Darragh Canavan were devastating in attack as Tyrone overcame the minus points of the first half to run riot on the resumption. They hit 1-10 between them as the Red Hands made a massive statement of intent.

Now Brian Dooher and his players will be aiming to repeat the high levels of intensity, teamwork and footballing fluency which proved so effect at Omagh.

Kerry are next up, and the confidence boost from Saturday night means that the Red Hands will be anxious to make the most of this latest top flight clash against the Kingdom.

“When Darragh Canavan and Darren McCurry are on song they’re worth the entrance fee alone,” remarked joint manager, Brian Dooher, afterwards.

“We weren’t threatening enough in the first half, but then got a bit of focus back into the game in the second half. There was no option but to go after the game. The boys knew themselves what they hadn’t done in the first half.

“In the second half, I thought the application, workrate and intensity was where it needed to be. We learned from the previous week with not falling into the trap of sitting back. You couldn’t fault the efforts of the boys.

“But this is just two points. Today is gone and it’s about looking forward to the next day and that script hasn’t been written yet. There are things from this game which we can take forward and will stand us in good stead if we do.

“It’s good to get the two points and to see the performance in the second half and the real drive. We can look at the table a wee bit easier, but there’s still a lot of work to be done and Kerry, Dublin and Monaghan coming up.”

First up from that group is this weekend’s clash against Kerry in Killarney. They lost heavily to Dublin at Croke Park on Saturday, so the stakes could hardly be higher for them and the Red Hands as they meet once again.

Nevertheless, Tyrone will travel in hope and expectation of producing another top class performance. It could hardly be tighter on the Division One table, as this year’s competition approaches its climax.

“We weren’t playing with the intensity and focus in the first half and were making mistakes as a result of that,” added Dooher.

“Kieran (McGeary) is back doing a bit of training and Mattie Donnelly as well. Boys are starting to drip-feed back. But let’s look at the boys that are playing, a lot of them are new and young and they did a good job.

“If we can produce the same performance as here then it gives us a chance in Killarney of getting a result at least. It’s going to take that application and a lot more against Kerry because we know what they have up front.

“The way I look at this is it’s just one game. We can’t change the past. It gives us a bit of confidence and belief and the players deserve that because they have worked hard over the last couple of weeks.”