Killyclogher captain McCann hopes to topple the champs

LADY luck hasn’t been kind to Killyclogher, being pitched in against the defending champions two seasons running in the first round of the Tyrone Senior Championship, but their skipper Tiernan McCann wouldn’t have it any other way.

St Mary’s tackle Errigal Ciaran this evening (Thurs) in a blockbuster opener to the 2023 O’Neill Cup race under the new floodlights at Healy Park, with the Dunmoyle boys setting out on their quest for back-to-back titles.

Killyclogher have been one of the form teams in the Senior League this term, their consistency earning them a semi-final berth, but they will go into this evening’s clash as underdogs against a star-studded Errigal line-up.

Having lost out to the then holders Dromore in the first round last season, Killyclogher were probably hoping for a less taxing assignment to set them on their way in 2023, but Tiernan McCann stressed that such a luxury doesn’t really exist in the Tyrone top flight.

“ The beauty of the Tyrone Championship is the fact that it is knockout, there is not too many if any at all left with that format and that is why it is so high profile and draws the big crowds. Everything is on the line in every game.

“ The draw is tough for us but there is that many strong teams contending now that you are always going to get a couple of massive ties thrown up, even in the first round.”

Mind you the former County star did toss in a quip that someone at Ballinamullan might have to try and rig the 2024 pairings.

“ It’s two years in a row we have drawn the county champions so again it won’t be easy. You could call it a bit of bad luck, maybe we need to send Donal Magee up to do the draw next year.”

Killyclogher accounted for Errigal 3-7 to 2-7 back in July when the teams locked horns in the league, but McCann refused to read anything into that outcome with the visitors shorn of the services of their entire Tyrone contingent that evening

“ To be fair they had seven or eight lads soldiering well for the County for a number of months who were nursing niggles and they sat it out whereas we had nobody out. So there was a bit of shadow-boxing going on in that match.

“ We always take the league very seriously, you have seen that over the last number of years. We like to build up a winning habit and we did that fairly consistently in the league. But the big one is obviously the Championship.”

McCann feels that Errigal’s depth in terms of resources make them the envy of every other team in the County.

“ They have a lot of numbers but they have a lot of quality too. They can put out a strong team any given day. We seen that in the Reserve Championship. We had won seven from seven in the league but we went up to Dunmoyle and they had a real seriously strong team out that night. It demonstrated the depth in their squad.”

Killyclogher last won the Championship in 2016 when they saw off Coalisland in the final after a replay. Tiernan feels that predicting who is going to get their hands on the O’Neill Cup in late October is a fruitless task

“ Tyrone has a really competitive league and that stands to teams then going into the Championship. It’s like a lottery trying to pick the winner of the Championship every year. I suppose that is part of its appeal as well, it’s so unpredictable.”