Determined Daly sets focus on U20s last eight clash with Armagh

TYRONE U20 vice-captain Callum Daly admits that the shock wake-up call the team suffered in losing heavily to Donegal might work in their favour in the long run.

The defending champions face Armagh in the Ulster Championship quarter-final at Dungannon on Wednesday night, having rounded off their group phase with a thumping twenty point victory over Antrim at O’Neill Park last week.

The Red Hands hopes of topping Section A disappeared with their emphatic loss at Ballybofey in their previous game, but while the nature of that setback came as a surprise, Daly feels it provided the squad with plenty to ponder on.

“ Obviously we were very disappointed in it and the Antrim game gave us a chance to wipe the slate clean again.

“ Who knows that Donegal loss might be the best thing to happy to us, it might have been the kick up the backside we needed, as maybe we were a bit complacent going into it. That showed in the performance. Maybe if we get a chance to face them again in the final we can put it right and get one over on them but that is a long way down the line yet.”

Upcoming opponents Armagh qualified for the knockout stages by the skin of their teeth, edging out Monaghan in their final game after losing their first two matches.

While the group winners advance directly to the semi-finals, Daly feels that the additional fixture which Tyrone now face should do them no harm.

“ We can’t afford to look any further than Armagh in the quarter-final. If you get past that you are looking at a semi-final against Derry and I would know their players quite well through schools football. We have our work cut out for us to defend our title no doubt but if you want to be the best team in Ireland again you are going to have to beat all these teams.

“ It is probably good that we get the extra game and it gets lads  more minutes in the legs. We didn’t have as many pre season games as other teams going into the Championship so our match fitness wasn’t up to scratch.”

Reflecting on the victory over Antrim, the young Omagh St Enda’s star felt any sort of positive outcome was going to be beneficial in helping to restore morale and self-belief.

“ We just had to go back to the drawing board as a lot of things went wrong for us against Donegal. They were very good and we just knew that we needed a big response. Antrim to be fair pushed us a fair bit so we were happy to get out of it with a win.

“ We got a couple of good goals near the end and had a lot of promising attacking play overall. There was other boys able to get some game time too which was also good. We will look forward to the quarter-finals now.”