Tyrone aim to build on Ballybofey result against wounded Mayo

AND just like that Tyrone are suddenly back in the game!

History has taught us that there is rarely any middle ground when it comes to the white noise which swirls around the county senior team. One loss and the whole edifice is crumbling to the surface or one win and we are an impregnable force set to march onto inevitable glory.

So just as the heartbreaking loss to Armagh in the Ulster semi-final didn’t mean that Tyrone should be written off as genuine live wire contenders for ‘Sam’, so last Saturday’s stunning victory over Donegal shouldn’t be the cue to over-egg the pudding as regards what could lie ahead.

What does lie ahead in the immediate term is a meeting with a county synonymous with unfulfilled hype over the past two decades, Mayo, who travel to O’Neill’s Healy Park this Saturday evening, with their prospects hanging by a knife-edge.

An unfortunate personal illness has caused their manager Kevin McStay to take a back-seat for the foreseeable future, but even before his departure their prospects of success were already looking bleak.

An opening Group loss to outsiders Cavan, coming on the back of a gut-wrenching Connacht Final reversal to Galway, has probably punctured the dreams of even the most optimistic Mayo supporter that they can make any sort of significant impact in the Championship this season.

However the schizophrenic tendencies which that County have demonstrated over the years, often when all seemed lost, should help to stave off any degree of complacency in the Red Hand ranks.

The scenario has altered markedly for Tyrone in the space of a week. This time seven days ago they were being cast very firmly in the role of underdogs heading to Ballybofey to tackle a buoyant Donegal, with Jim McGuinness and his men seemingly on the fast track to glory.

However rolling back the clock to those halcyon days of Autumn 2021, the Red Hands produced arguably their best Championship performances since that All-Ireland triumph, with Kieran McGeary, Conn Kilpatrick, Darren McCurry and Michael McKernan looking like men on a mission.

Two first half goals from Seanie O’Donnell made all the difference as Tyrone carved out a fully merited 2-17 to 0-20 triumph and from being deemed as peripheral contenders for the top prize, they are now being thrust into the limelight as front runners in as open a Sam Maguire race as there has ever been.

The trick for Tyrone now is to maintain that momentum. Twelve months ago the also reeled off back-to-back Group wins in the Championship, but those were fairly low key victories against Clare and Cork. Repeating the trick against perennial heavy hitters in Doengal and Mayo on successive weekends would send out a much louder statement.

One GAA podcast this week suggested that the ‘Tyrone-ness’ had returned to the O’Neil County set-up- that snarling, us against the world attitude which rankled so many of the established forces during the noughties.

Of course we can’t read too much into one result, but claiming the scalp of Mayo- whatever about their current plight- is a must to further fuel the feel-good factor that last Saturday’s result helped to initiate.