McShane looking for hurlers to improve in Letterkenny

A PLACE in the National League Division 2B semi-final is up for grabs when Tyrone bid to record another important victory over their old rivals from Donegal in this final round clash on Sunday.

Both counties are tied on points on the table currently, and enter the tie in Letterkenny anxious to make amends for disappointing results last weekend. While Tyrone lost heavily to league leaders, Meath, Donegal lost out to Wicklow.

Barring a shock loss to Sligo, the Leinster county are probably certain to reach the semi-final. For Tyrone especially, the extra match should they defeat Donegal would come ahead of their debut in the Christy Ring Cup competition in a few weeks time.

The main priority at the moment, though, is to produce a much better display than that which saw them lose heavily to Meath at Omagh last Saturday. The 2-17 to 0-8 setback was their worst of the campaign to date, and came after the encouraging performance and victory over Sligo.

Team manager, Michael McShane, then, is well aware of the need for improvements, and the prospect of a semi-final clash against Wicklow is a real target for both the players and management.

“This is effectively a quarter final between ourselves and Donegal because the winner will then play Wicklow in the semi-final,” he said.

“Getting to the last four would be a good target and it means that this match has something to play for. But for ourselves and probably Donegal we’re coming out of the weekend with disappointing results.

“Last Saturday’s result against Meath was very disappointing because we had beaten Sligo, a good win against London and ran Wicklow to three points in a game which we felt should have been won.

“What we’re trying to do this weekend is to make amends. There was a lot of disappointment in our changing-room after the Meath game, not just because of the loss but also the manner of the defeat. We didn’t perform to the levels that we know we’re capable of.

“Every day this Tyrone team tries to go out and play to the best of our ability. If we get a win great, and if it isn’t then we’ve given it our best shot and that’s what we didn’t do on Saturday. The match began well, we were competing well, but the second quarter we let them away and we didn’t perform at all in the second half.

“It’s about trying to rectify that this Sunday and to look for a much improved performance.”

Games against Donegal have invariably been close and Tyrone are well aware of the threat posed by them ahead of this game.

“Our aim is to produce the kind of performance needed for the win. We want to focus on our performance. I don’t really buy into whether a game is home or away. We went to Sligo and won by 10 points and then lost to Meath by 15 at home.

“It’s all about how you perform on the pitch. Donegal and Tyrone don’t need introduced to each other. We’ve played them in the Nickey Rackard in the past two years, they were high octane matches and we were fortunate enough to come out on top.

“But Donegal will be hurting from those defeats and will be wanting to put one over us.

“ Their manager has said they’ll be waiting for us in Letterkenny, so we have no one that they are hurting as much as we have been this week and they’ll be coming with all guns blazing this Sunday.”