Logan looking for lift off against Galway

TYRONE will be all business as they head to the seaside resort of Salthill this Saturday night for only their fifth ever meeting with Galway in the All-Ireland Championship, joint manager Feargal Logan insists.

The new look Sam Maguire group format gets underway this weekend, with the meeting of the Tribesmen and the Red Hands one of the stand-out ties.

It will be five weeks since Tyrone last kicked a ball in anger in the Championship as they bowed out of the Ulster series in dramatic fashion to Monaghan, and during the intervening period Padraic Joyce’s Galway have breezed their way through Connacht to annex another provincial crown.

Having played the role of frustrated spectactors over the past month as the Championship unfolded at a breathless pace across the country, Feargal Logan admits that Tyrone will be desperate to return to centre stage again.

“ Teams generally prefer to be playing matches but until you get your fixture and get the group formed you are always in a bit of a no man’s land. Once you get the group formed and you know what weekend’s your matches are on you have to knuckle down and focus. We have been training away and we are hoping that it all comes to bear fruit on Saturday evening.

“ Generally we are in good order on the injury front with just a few niggles and those are the sort of things that the medical staff and management team have to keep an eye on on a day to day basis.”

Logan acknowledged though that Saturday’s assignment at Pearse Stadium provided no easy re-introduction to the All-Ireland series for his troops, with the new structure guaranteeing a meeting with top class opposition.

“ We suffered last year when people were saying that Tyrone are always good in the back door but that changed. Once you took the Taitleann Cup participants out of it you were left with the cream and every game a difficult game.

“ It’s the same this year there are no easy games and it’s a sprint from the start but it’s a new idea and we will see how it all goes.”

Tyrone were tripped up by Galway on their trek to Tuam in the National League in February and Logan expects this trek further out west to be equally as daunting.

“ They have played two games in the Connacht Championship since we played Monaghan and that is an advantage to them. When you are winning and on a roll you just want to keep playing games and they are in a position now were they are being tipped as potential All Ireland winners.

“ I know that they weren’t that far away last season when you look at it. They are a form team and one of the top teams in the Country at the minute and they are in the happy position of winning games and you can’t beat that and we will have it all to do in Salthill to get a result. We just have to land there and get on with it and I’m hoping that our boys are ready physically and mentally and go at it hard.”

While Tyrone follow up this weekend’s opener with a mouth-watering derby clash with Armagh, for now Logan said their only focus was on Galway.

“ But for a bounce of the ball and then penalties Armagh could be Ulster champions so we will have it all to do second day out as well but we won’t go there yet. Armagh and ourselves have met a lot of times over the years and there is a lot of history there and they are another outfit with a lot of quality footballers in their squad but that’s for another day. It’s all about Galway now and we can’t look beyond that massive challenge.”