O’Rourke offers no excuses for limp Tyrone showing

A PLACE in the All-Ireland Quarter Finals still remains very much within reach for Tyrone despite the disappointment which surrounded their defeat to Mayo in round two of the Sam Maguire series on Saturday night.

Hopes had been high that the Red Hands would record a second success to consolidate the impressive win over Donegal last week. But those ambitions were emphatically dashed as they lost out by 2-17 to 1-13 to Mayo at Omagh.

Now it’s all down to the final round of fixtures in a fortnight when the Red Hands meet Cavan at a neutral venue.
That has to be a must-win match for Malachy O’Rourke and the players as they aim to bounce back from Saturday’s frustrating loss.

Speaking after the match, the team manager offered no excuses for the manner of the defeat. However, both he and the players will be anxious to make amends when they meet the Breffni county for the second time in this year’s championship, following on from Tyrone’s Ulster win on April 13.

“That’s probably the most disappointing thing of all, you know, that we obviously knew that Mayo were coming really fresh.

“I suppose they had a longer break and they were coming hurting  from the last performance,” he said.

“Mayo came hitting the ground running. We were hoping to do the same, but it was just a flat performance.

“We didn’t really get to the pitch of the game at all and obviously at half-time we were seven or eight points down. It was always an uphill task.

“But the boys in fairness fought really hard in the second half. We got back to a point, but again made to many mistakes and Mayo took over again and finished the game out well.”

Darragh’s Canavan’s great goal and a two-pointer courtesy of Niall Morgan saw Tyrone reduce the deficit to the minimum approaching the closing stages. But it was Mayo who held all the aces subsequently as they registered 1-4 to emerge emphatic winners.

But the group remains very closely contested. Donegal’s win over Cavan in the other weekend tie means that all four teams are each on two points entering the final round of  fixtures.

Victory, then, is vital for Tyrone and they will be aiming to learn from the mistakes of Saturday night’s clash against Mayo.

“It’s hard to know, sometimes, just when you get a bad performance… there’s a lot of soul-searching in between and boys just come back and have a point to prove,” Malachy O’Rourke added.

“Having said that, we were just looking for consistency. We got a good performance last week, but you have to go out and repeat the next day and we just didn’t do that.

“Overall, we were disappointed with our play, we were flat and didn’t have the energy that we had last week.”

Tyrone missed the services of Padraig Hampsey and Brian Kennedy due to injuries, and will be hoping to have them back for the Cavan game. There will also be an expectation that some of the U-20 side who captured the All-Ireland title last Wednesday night will also be available for starting selection.

Understandably, then, the focus is now on Cavan on the weekend of June 13 and 14, and it’s a match which will no doubt be relished by both teams and their supporters.

“The day Cavan came here they would have been disappointed with their performance and (then they) went and defeated Mayo with a good performance after that,” the Tyrone boss added.

” There’s no doubt that they’ve improved a lot. They have five or six key individuals back, so there’s no doubt it’s going to be a hell of a battle. It’s going to be a must-win game.You could see four teams come into the final round equal on points and all the teams play at the same time.

“You have to get yourself ready because there will be no excuses. We just have to look and recover straight away, and as I say, look at the game this evening, see the things that didn’t go well, work hard on them and see if we can be better the next day. That’s all you can do.”

The date, time and venue for the clash against Cavan is expected to be decided in the coming days.