Football

Ronan McNamee back for Tyrone's trip to Fermanagh

Ronan McNamee has recovered from an ankle injury and will line out at full-back in Tyrone&rsquo;s NFL Division Two clash with Fermanagh at Brewster Park on Sunday<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;">			</span>
Ronan McNamee has recovered from an ankle injury and will line out at full-back in Tyrone’s NFL Division Two clash with Fermanagh at Brewster Park on Sunday Ronan McNamee has recovered from an ankle injury and will line out at full-back in Tyrone’s NFL Division Two clash with Fermanagh at Brewster Park on Sunday

TYRONE manager Mickey Harte has re-shuffled his pack for the trip to Brewster Park to face Fermanagh on Sunday. 

With the Red Hands already promoted, Harte has made four changes to the team which was clawed back to a draw by Armagh last time out. 

Full-back Ronan McNamee has recovered from an ankle injury and has been handed the number three jersey. The Aghayaran man comes in for Coalisland’s Padraig Hampsey.

Clonoe’s Mickey O’Neill also replaces Edendork’s Niall Morgan as the manager sticks with a pattern of rotating his goalkeepers. Barry Tierney of Omagh gets the nod in the half-back line ahead of Niall Sludden of Dromore.

Meanwhile, Errigal Ciaran’s Peter Harte will not feature as he has been ruled out by the shoulder injury with which he left the field against Armagh after just five minutes. His place is taken by Dungannon’s Padraig McNulty. 

Although Tyrone are already assured of a place in the Division final, they are seeking to keep an 11-game unbeaten run going which has saw them lift the O Fiach and McKenna Cups as well as gaining promotion back to the top flight with two games to spare. 

If they beat Fermanagh they could send the Ernesiders straight back into Division Three, depending on the results of other games. 

A loss for Pete McGrath’s men would leave them anxiously checking the progress of the ties between Meath and Laois and Armagh and Derry.

Meanwhile, the Roscommon team to face Dublin in their eagerly awaited Division One clash with sees Senan Kilbride return to line out at full-forward in a potent full-forward line alongside Cian Connolly and Cathal Cregg. 

The half-forward line is no less dangerous, featuring as it does the attacking talents of Fintan Cregg, Niall Kilroy and Ciaran Murtagh.  

Roscommon have been one of the teams of the season so far and are practically guaranteed to make the League semi-finals in which Dublin already await. 

Kerry are almost certain to join them in the semi-finals because they both have such healthy scoring differences.

The only scenario that would threaten their involvement would be were Roscommon to lose heavily to Dublin, Kerry to lose heavily to Cork, and Donegal to beat Monaghan by a wide margin.

That would mean that all four counties at the top of the division would be level on eight points each so scoring difference would be employed to rank them and determine which three go forward to the semi-finals.

At present the respective scoring difference of each team is; Kerry (+27), Roscommon (+25), Donegal (+13), and Cork (-11). So Kerry and Roscommon clearly have the upper hand going into the final round of matches as far as qualification for the last four is concerned.

The Kerry team to play Laois in the NHL Division 1B relegation play-off in Tralee tomorrow shows one change in personnel from the side that surprised Offaly in Round five with Shane Nolan coming into the half-forward line instead of John Buckle.

The winners will stay up while the losers face Division 2A champions Westmeath for a place in Division 1B next season.