We will dust ourselves down and get on with it-Dooher

TYRONE succumbed to a bruising seven-point defeat to Donegal at Ballybofey on Saturday night in their All-Ireland SFC Group Stage opener, and joint-manager Brian Dooher said they have no choice but to dust themselves down and get on with it with their second round match just around the corner.

The Red Hands played second fiddle for long stretches of the second-half and could have no complaints about the 0-21 to 0-14 margin of victory at the final whistle against an energetic and dynamic Donegal side that are a team reborn under Jim McGuinness.

Commenting after the game, Dooher said they found it particularly difficult to cope with Donegal’s attacking vigour and that’s something they’ll need to look at ahead of Sunday’s second round clash at home to Clare.

“We just didn’t handle the hard running, Donegal came at us in the second-half and broke lines and created good scoring chances. They deservedly won it, they were the better team, in the second-half particularly.

“They’re all good footballers across the field and we know that, I just thought they broke lines and overlapped on us and it makes it very hard defensively, once you have two v ones, even a one v one in a shooting zone.”

With no disrespect to Clare or Cork, Saturday’s game in all likelihood determined who would finish top of the table and earn a straight path into the All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals. Tyrone’s defeat means that the best they can realistically hope for is a place in the preliminary round of the last eight for a second year running.

“Yes that’s realistically what we’re looking for. It’s good we have a match next week again to get things back on track again, we’ll look forward to Clare next weekend at home. There’s no point in feeling too sorry for ourselves. We have to dust ourselves down and go again.”

While Saturday’s Round Robin opener against Donegal didn’t go to plan, there has been some good news in recent days as it emerged that a batch of players from the All-Ireland U20 winning set up have been drafted into the Tyrone Senior team.

Captain Michael Rafferty, forwards Eoin McElholm and Ronan Cassidy, and dynamic wing-back Shea O’Hare, who was named as U20 Footballer of the Year, have all linked up with the senior set-up.

And joint-manager Brian Dooher says they certainly aren’t there to make up the numbers.

“Four have joined us, they’ll train away with us over the next week or two and we’ll see where they go. They’ll be in contention for places the same as everyone else is, and they’ve had a very good season for the U20s. They should be looking to stake a claim, but we’ll see how they go in training and they’ll definitely be in contention or I wouldn’t have brought them in.”

And on another positive note, joint-manager Feargal Logan was also in attendance in Ballybofey on Saturday as he continues on the road to recovery having suffered a stroke in mid-February.

Asked by one of the press-pack what role Logan held on Saturday, Brian replied: “[He had the] same role as every other day. He’s been there for a while. That’s the first match he’s at. He’s been back a number of weeks now, he’s doing well and he’s getting better each day.”

Tyrone will be warm favourites to account for Clare next Sunday in their first ever championship match between the two teams. Dooher says Tyrone will prioritise their recovery in preparation for that game.

“That’s what it’s all about now, recovery, we can’t do anything about today [Saturday]. Today is done and dusted, we just have to take the learning from it and apply it the next day.”