Dooher proud of young charges effort even in defeat

TYRONE joint-manager Brian Dooher expressed his pride in his team after they fell agonisingly short in extra-time of Sunday’s gripping Ulster Championship semi-final clash against Donegal in Celtic Park.

It was the second successive weekend that Tyrone took the field for extra-time and on this occasion they didn’t manage to come down on the winning side of the argument, losing out on a scoreline of 0-18 to 0-16 against Jimmy McGuinness’ Donegal.

The Red Hands led for much of the contest but when Donegal forced a late equaliser, it was a big ask for Tyrone to reassume control of the contest in the circumstances and that’s how it transpired despite the very best efforts of all involved.

So there’s no Ulster Championship final against Armagh in the pipeline, but Tyrone remain in the chase for the All-Ireland and Brian Dooher believed his players couldn’t have done anymore yesterday.

“I can’t speak highly enough of them. I couldn’t have asked any more of them, they didn’t everything that was expected. They just ran out of juice a wee bit in the end up and after two weeks in-a-row, the bodies are probably a wee bit sore and it was just too much in the end up.”

“We’d a chance to win and didn’t get it in normal time. In extra-time we didn’t have that bit of energy or that bit of zip to create the scoring opportunities in the second-half of injury time and that was probably the difference on the day.”

Even though there will naturally be a degree of disappointment at missing out in the race for the Anglo Celt Trophy, Tyrone’s Ulster campaign has been a valuable one, particularly for their batch of younger players, many of whom made their championship debut last weekend against Cavan.

They were to the fore yesterday as well, with Ciarán Daly in particular having an exceptional game, scoring two classy points and proving himself an immensely useful outlet from Niall Morgan’s restarts.

Many others accrued significant game-time for the second weekend running in the bearpit that is Ulster Championship football, and they’ll be sure to feature when the All-Ireland group stages commence next month.

Tyrone joint-manager Brian Dooher said: “Every day they go out they’re getting more and more experience, but we know what these boys are about. I know what kind of lads they are, what kind of footballers and characters they are and they showed that through the league and today as well.

“They’ll learn from it and we all have to learn from it, there’s things we could’ve done better, despite what we’ve done well, and we’ll polish up those rough edges and push the thing on, without forgetting about the good. We’ll take that on and build on the other bits and pieces.”

Dooher was also asked about the state of play of Tyrone’s injured players, a list that includes key men Peter Harte, Conor Meyler, Frank Burns and Joe Oguz. He hopes to have them back soon but added that we shouldn’t forget about the lads who are available.

“We have what we have at the minute and the medical team will look at that. We’ll hopefully get everybody back. Look it is what it is and we’ve more than we’d like but that’s the nature of the season, intercounty and club season, we just have to work through them. And these boys have to come back and I think it’s doing a disservice to the boys who are there because I can’t fault them, they’ve really done everything that I’ve asked them.”

Asked if last weekend’s extra-time victory against Cavan was the single major contribution factor to Tyrone ultimately falling short yesterday in terms of how much it demanded of his players, Dooher also said:

“I’m sure there’s wiser people out there who’ll tell me how it’s done. We ran out of a bit of steam in the end up, didn’t create the chances, the scoring opportunities, we gave away frees that we shouldn’t have but here, that’s the way it is.”

“We probably didn’t create enough in the last half of injury time but I couldn’t fault the boys for effort. They gave everything they had and if we get that every day we go out I couldn’t ask for any more, that’s all we expect and I’m sure the Tyrone supporters would be the same.”