Derry will be gunning for us in U20 semi-final-McCullagh

TYRONE sharpshooter Ruairi McCullagh warns that Derry will be ‘gunning’ for revenge when the teams meet in Wednesday night’s Ulster Under-20 Championship semi-final at Owenbeg.

The Red Hands took the spoils after a penalty shoot-out in an extra-time thriller in last year’s final, before of course going all the way to All-Ireland glory a few weeks later.

McCullagh top scored with seven points in Tyrone’s quarter-final triumph over a battling Armagh last week, but all focus is now on another titanic tussle with the Oak Leafers in the last four.

“ We are going into the lion’s den at Owenbeg. Derry have been gunning for us since last year. I know it’s a different team but a lot of the same players are still involved so it’s going to be a big challenge. We will regroup and get back to training and get ready for the game.”

Reflecting back on the ten point win over the Orchard County at O’Neill Park, Loughmacrory ace McCullagh was pleased with how Tyrone seen the game out.

“ The scoreline flattered us. We were behind for a lot of the game and went in at half-time one point down. The gap then stretched to three when they hit an amazing two pointer. But when Sheehy stuck away that goal we grabbed great momentum from it and than Maccers (McElholm) and Noah (Grimes) off the bench got goals too. He had a great impact when he came on as did other boys too.

“ We got off to a slow enough start. They were winning all the breaks and we couldn’t really get our hands on the ball. They dominated around the middle for a large part of the half. We talked about that when we went in and the management spoke about more numbers in around the break. I thought we improved in that in the second half and we were able to build attacks from there.”

Clearly the black card handed out to Armagh’s chief scoring threat Aaron O’Neill with ten minutes remaining was pivotal to the eventual outcome of the contest, but Ruairi said it was then up to Tyrone to show a more clinical edge and make the most of that numerical advantage.

“ We made hay when they lost a man. That’s what you have to do when the opportunities are presented to you. We just kept the head and kept our cool. 3-4 without response is obviously a good sign.”