Tyrone must be on their guard against Clare- coach warns

CLARE are rank outsiders for their first ever Championship outing against Tyrone this Sunday, but that makes for the perfect ambush situation so the Red Hands will have to be on their guard in their All-Ireland SFC Round Two match.

The Banner County are a solid outfit that finished third in Division Three, gave Kerry a decent rattle in the Munster final and lost by a mere two points to Cork (a coming force, just maybe) in their group stage opener in mid-May.

Tyrone can’t afford to take them lightly and coach Joe McMahon recognised that anything other than a win won’t suffice in Sunday’s afternoon showdown at O’Neill’s Healy Park.

He said: “They have quality players, they’re well set up, and they won’t fear Tyrone, for sure.

“They’ll see it as an opportunity and a scalp as well, to go after a Division One team. In a way, all the pressure is on Tyrone, and very little on them.”

While it isn’t a total mathematical impossibility, it now appears highly unlikely that Tyrone will finish top of the table whatever happens in their two upcoming games against Clare and Cork. All Tyrone can do is get their own house in order, and McMahon admits that elements of their performance against Donegal, particularly in the second-half, were lacking as they succumbed to a 0-21 to 0-14 defeat.

“That was the aim, to top the group, but that’s not to say that the opportunity has been lost, because Cork and Clare are two very good teams also, and both Tyrone and Donegal will be up against it in both of those games.

“But in terms of our own performance, that’s all we can look at at this stage, and we would be disappointed with how we performed in the second half particularly.

“We hit a lot of wides, didn’t take our chances, and Donegal punished us for that.”

Asked exactly what needs improved and rectified, Joe said that they need to be more efficient in front of goal in particular, while expressing a degree of disappointment with the officiating of Joe McQuillan.

“We’ll learn that taking our chances when the moments come is important. >w 8.12pt<>f 100<We felt that the second half was poor, it also matched the officials’ performance as well. I think there were a couple of soft frees throughout the game, and you saw the response from the crowd.

“It’s very frustrating from that end, but we can only control what we do, and we certainly wouldn’t be best pleased with the way things went. >w 8.12pt<>f 100<The players know that themselves, and hopefully we can dust ourselves down and go again against Clare.

Feargal Logan, who suffered a stroke back in February made a welcome return to the match-day environment last Saturday, travelling with the team to Ballybofey and keeping an eye on proceedings from the stand. Joe was delighted to have him back.

“He was certainly a big miss, and has been very welcome back.

“Hopefully as the year progresses, he’ll become more prominent, but for now, he’s happy just to be there, giving his thoughts, his ideas. >w 8.12pt<>f 100<He’s just a quality manager and certainly a big lift for everyone involved.”