“We escaped by the skin of our teeth”- O’Neill

TYRONE’s Michael O’Neill admitted that they got away ‘by the skin of their teeth’ in Sunday’s dramatic draw with Westmeath to keep their All-Ireland dreams just about intact.

The Lake county skipper John Heslin missed a free with the last kick of the game which would have dumped the Red Hands out of the competition, but as it is Tyrone survived to advance to this weekend’s clash with Donegal.

There was mixed emotions in the Tyrone camp afterwards but Ardboe ace O’Neill admitted that the over-riding one was probably just relief to have avoided a stunning exit from the All-Ireland race.

“When we got four points up there near the tail end of that game we probably sat too comfortably and Westmeath came on with a bit of an onslaught, which we didn’t deal with well at all. We were very lucky because John Heslin doesn’t miss them free kicks, it was unfortunate for him that he missed this one because he is such a stalwart for Westmeath.

“We got away by the skin of our teeth, so we can count ourselves lucky in that regard that he did miss that free kick.”

As a result of the draw Tyrone will be on their travels this weekend with a tough knockout tie on the cards against Donegal. O’Neill appreciates that vast improvement will be needed.

“No games are easy at this stage and especially when they are away from home. We will have a week of learning and we’ll analyse what we can do better. In terms of physical preparations, it is about getting the body right and getting the heads clear and looking at what we have to improve on. A week is a short space of time, but you can improve in a week, there is a lot to learn in a week.”

Tyrone have won just one of their four Championship outings this season and could perhaps be seen as fortunate to still be in the hunt. O’Neill knows they have little time to rectify things at this stage, especially with regard to their use of possession.

“I thought we were a bit wasteful in how we distributed the ball. It’s the quality of ball we are putting or is it the right decision at that time. Once we got four points up there, we have to control the ball a lot better. It became a game of yo-yo football, that’s not what we set out to play, especially when we get on top, we want to control the game. I think we definitely could have controlled that game a bit better and it’s something we’ll definitely have to address this week.”

O’Neill remains confident that Tyrone can still have a real crack at this Championship despite btehir indifferent form of late.

“ Mattie had mentioned last week about catching momentum.

“Yes, we wanted to do that today, we wanted to catch our momentum today and build, but I still think you can learn a lot between the ears in a week.

“ I think if we knuckle down properly and get ourselves right physically, I think we can go to this prelim quarter-final and if you start building momentum.