Jude embracing the challenge with Pomeroy

SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTER-FINAL

By Niall Gartland

POMEROY half-back Jude Campbell says they’ve parked their forthcoming play-off clash against Gortin for now and are fully embracing their Championship campaign.

As it happened they were pitted against Gortin in the first-round and they finished strongly to set up a quarter-final showdown against a hugely successful Trillick team this Friday evening in Omagh.

Although they can still avoid a play-off battle if they win the Championship, it would be one of the all-time shocks if they make it beyond this weekend against the much vaunted Reds.

Campbell said: “It was a challenging league campaign. We ended up in the play-offs and face Gortin in a couple of weeks. But the beauty of the Tyrone Championship is that it’s a clean slate, and it’s nice to be able to go out and express ourselves after a difficult league campaign.”

Pomeroy didn’t have it all their own way against Gortin in their Championship opener.

They built up a cushion at half-time but St Patrick’s came roaring back into proceedings and it took a late goal to settle the Plunketts.

“The first round is just about winning,” said Campbell.

“The conditions were difficult and you’re coming up against a dogged team in Gortin, so we were delighted to get over the line and into the next round.

“We’d a comfortable lead at the break but we knew Gortin were going to come out and throw everything at it, and they did.

“We just stuck to the game plan, kept our resilience and got the goal and that helped us get the job done.

“The conditions were difficult, but they were the same for both teams.

“They were the conditions we were expecting so we trained for that and I thought we did well in the circumstances.”