Bank of Ireland Dr McKenna Cup semi-final: Fermanagh 0-4 Tyrone 0-8
TYRONE manager Mickey Harte says “you have to be in it to win it” as he looked forward to next weekend’s Dr McKenna Cup final against either Donegal or Armagh.
After the seven in-a-row chasing Red Hands had overcome atrocious conditions and a sustained challenge from determined Fermanagh to book their place in the decider, Harte said Ulster’s pre-season competition was the ideal preparation for the Division One campaign that follows hot on its heels.
“The more competitive games you get to prepare for the League the better, especially when we’re playing in Division One because we’ve got to hit the ground running,” said the veteran Tyrone boss.
“We’re away to Galway, we have Dublin coming to us and we’re away too Kildare. They are serious challenges and if you haven’t got yourself game-ready for that, you’ll find yourself with very few points after three games and that would not be a good place to be.”
Sheets of rain swept up the sodden Brewster Park pitch through yesterday’s game. As spectators huddled together in the packed stand, the players battled it out bravely in the gutters.
Handling was difficult, scoring was next to impossible, particularly in the second half which finished 2-1 to Tyrone. By the end the ball was plugging in the mud instead of bouncing but the Red Hands’ extra quality saw them over the line.
“Finals aren’t for experimenting, they’re for trying to win and we’ll have to be good next week if we want to win the competition again and we do want to win it,” said Harte (inset) afterwards.
“We’re going for seven and we want to do well, we’re in the final and there’s a trophy for it. We’ve always felt that if there’s a cup or a competition on we really should be in it to win it – it’s not fair to your players or supporters to go in with any less of an attitude.
“(Armagh or Donegal in the final) is going to be a step up from what we’ve done to date and maybe that’s a good thing.
“You want to be raising the bar every game you play as you approach the League. I expect that the final will definitely teach us a few more things.”
Meanwhile, Fermanagh manager Rory Gallagher – who played in 1997 when his native county last won the McKenna Cup – was able to reflect on three wins in the group stage and an impressive effort from his men (who lost Kane Connor to a first half red card) yesterday.
“We wanted to be very competitive in all our games, to work really hard for each other,” he said.
“We wanted to test ourselves against Tyrone, they have the best squad in Ulster and that’s why they do so well at this time of year because they have more players at the level of inter-county football than anybody else.
“We’re disappointed we lost but I thought it was very defining before half-time, there was a strong breeze but we had held Tyrone reasonably well. Then we lost two scores and a man and that left it difficult in the second half.”
