‘We simply have to beat Dublin’- says Ciaran Daly

TYRONE got the result that they needed at O’Donnell Park in Letterkenny on Sunday afternoon when they proved too strong for an experimental Donegal side to stay in the race to avoid the drop out of Division One.

It was a contest that the visitors always looked to have the upper hand in after moving four points in front at halftime.

The break probably came at the wrong time for the winners as at that stage they were totally on top in midfield winning clean possession as well as most breaking balls.

It’s a facet of their game that wing half forward Ciaran Daly admits that they have been working on.

“It is something that we have been doing a lot of work on as it’s a big part of the game now,” he said.

“We were pleased with the amount of breaking ball that we got at that stage and halftime probably came at the wrong time for us. Thankfully though we increased our lead on the restart but we would be disappointed with the way that we allowed Donegal back into the game at times.

“There were a few ropey moments to be honest as we just couldn’t put them away. There have been a few games when things like that went against us so we will take it today. We are just glad to come out of here today with two points.”

Donegal rested a lot of their regulars and that if anything perhaps made it tougher for Tyrone as they were warm favourites to win.

“It’s tough coming down to Donegal anytime,” admitted Daly.

“We knew that they had made a number of changes to their team but to be honest we were just concentrating on ourselves and making sure we got the result that we needed. It was all about getting the two points today and thankfully we achieved that.”

It leaves everything to play for next weekend when Dublin are the visitors to Heraly Park when nothing only a win will do Tyrone. A win even may not be enough such is the competitive nature of Division one in the league but it will again be a case of trying to do what you can and see how other results go after that.

“It leaves us with another massive must win game next weekend when the Dubs come to Omagh,” continued Daly..

“It’s a game that we simply have to win and we are looking forward to the challenge. We will get back to training this weekend and work had and prepare for it.

“We have been unlucky during the league when some things just didn’t go our way. We were missing the Errigal Ciaran lads at the start and we had a few injuries as well but you can see things coming together now.

“You can see things that we are working on at training coming good on match day. We know ourselves that we have still plenty to work on as we are far from the finished article.

“All that matters now though is the game with Dublin next weekend and we will go out and give it our best shot.”