U20 boss Devlin relishing Donegal challenge

IT’S fair to say that the Tyrone U20’s won’t be taking their Ulster Senior Championship semi-final opponents Donegal for granted.

Not only did Red Hands lose out to Donegal in last year’s provincial series, with a fair scattering of players from both teams still involved, but they came out second best in the final of this season’s pre-season Leo Murphy competition.

Donegal were deserved victors on a scoreline of 2-10 to 1-6 when they met last month, but the championship is what really counts and Paul Devlin’s Tyrone booked their place in Friday’s last-four clash with last weekend’s victory over reigning champions Down.

Devlin recognises the scale of the challenge but says they won’t be getting too bogged down worrying about their opposition either.

“They’re a very strong team, but we’ll focus on ourselves. We played them in the Leo Murphy final in Letterkenny and it was brilliant preparation for the championship.

“The scoreline might suggest differently but in my eyes there wasn’t a massive amount between the teams. We have to look at what we can do better, limiting our mistakes and seeing where it takes us. Donegal will know we’ll be up for it, it’s a big challenge and we’re looking forward to it.”

One of the talking points emerging from Tyrone’s quarter-final win over Down was the impressive performances from players from some famous footballing households in the county. Peter Canavan’s son Ruairi, Adrian Cush’s son Conor (who hit three points from play), Mattie McGleenan’s son Michael and Plunkett Donaghy’s son Steve all showed that the old adage that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree has more than a ring of truth about it.

“I’ve played with a lot of the lads’ fathers during my own playing days. I played two or three years with Plunkett Donaghy, he stayed around ’til around 1994. I’ve been around the block as the man says. His lad Steven had a super game against Down, he really knuckled down at the back when we needed someone to stand firm in the middle of defence, he was immense for us.”

Tyrone took a while to settle against Down, who had already claimed a preliminary round victory over Fermanagh, but they got to grips with proceedings after the break and claimed a 1-13 to 1-8 victory with Ruairi Canavan and Conor Cush leading the way in the scoring stakes. Devlin says they stayed composed after conceding a goal in the 11th minute.

“At the end of the day the game lasts for the full 60 minutes or so, there’s nothing won or lost in the opening quarter. We left ourselves a bit of work to do but we didn’t panic and kept out heads right. It’s all about what you produce over the hour and in the second-half Down only scored two points. Our lads have to take a lot of credit for their hard work and they took everything we said on board.”