Plenty of hard work ahead-Donnelly

MATTIE Donnelly spent more than an hour after the final whistle last Saturday evening at Healy Park signing autographs for young Tyrone fans, eager to share in the glory of a performance that earned him the man-of-the match award.

As he posed for photographs with youngsters from across the county, and accepted the congratulations of adult fans, the Trillick man may well have turned his thoughts back to a different Saturday evening almost a decade ago.

In 2014, the then young star lined out in his first championship match against the Orchard county. His involvement ended early after he was sent off. But on this Saturday evening in 2023, Mattie’s prowess was clear as he spearheaded the Red Hands to victory over Armagh in Group 2 of the All-Ireland Senior Championship.

“This was my first time beating Armagh in the championship, although I was on the bench in 2012,” he said.

“It was in the back of my mind come here this week because it was a similar scenario the way we were going into the game. It’s a different game and all that you don’t want to dwell on things, but it was certainly nice to win.

“Whatever way you dress it up, we really had to win today. I suppose we were a bit tentative at stages because we really just wanted to get the win over the line.”

Mattie is clearly delighted to get that victory, but concedes there’s still “a lot to work on.”

“We started here against Monaghan very sharp, and against Galway we were probably just feeling into it.

“But the red and black cards that day changed the dynamic and we probably came out of that game knowing that our game management was good and we stayed in contention. As long as you can do that at this level then you always have that chance.

“Today was just all about the win. There was that period at the end where we had gone four ahead but could never get five or six ahead.

“That’s something we really have to review because if you give teams a chance then you always leave the door open and roll the dice for a sucker punch like what we experienced against Monaghan.”

Westmeath is now the next focus for Mattie Donnelly and the Red Hands as they aim to maintain the momentum of this victory over Armagh.

But it’s a challenge which Tyrone will certainly not be taking lightly. While most will expect them to record a second win, there will be no sense of complacency among the players and management as they get set for the showdown in a fortnight.

“I was at their game last week. If we go into the Westmeath game at the wrong pitch, then it will be a long day for us.

“They are very well coached, have some excellent footballers all across the pitch with some big presences,” he added.

“They really showed up against Armagh and Galway. I was extremely impressed by them. It’s very evident that Dessie Dolan, Jason Sherlock and the rest of their management team are coaching them really hard and they’ve progressed on from the National League.”