MICKEY Quinn admits “the big team” will win 99 per cent of games against lower-level opposition in the championship – but that Longford’s “one-in, all-in” approach to the qualifiers is what has seen them take scalps in the past.
Their record in qualifiers is difficult to explain. Since 2001, they’ve won 18 and lost 18. They’ve only ever made it as far as round four once, when Kieran Donaghy went to full-forward and began changing the course of history in 2006.
That was a summer when they’d beaten a strong Derry side. They’ve had the Oak Leafers’ number three times, beaten Down twice, beaten Monaghan twice, won in Mayo and run Kerry fairly close again in ’09.
Tyrone’s one visit to Pearse Park eight years ago wasn’t particularly comfortable, coming from behind at half-time to claim a five-point win in the end.
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And yet in the same time period, Longford have lost to Wicklow, Louth, Westmeath, Limerick, Wexford and Tipperary, none of them tree-pullers.
Leinster hasn’t been a pile different in recent years. They beat Meath last summer and had Kildare by the throat a few weeks back, but couldn’t get over the line in extra-time and were well beaten in the replay.
Quinn admits that a favourites’ tag has weighed heavily on them, but feels their mentality suits the welcoming of better sides to their atmospheric home patch.
“We probably looked at the Carlow game [their first round qualifier], and it was reported that they were favourites.
“They were home, but they were relegated from Division Three and we’d beaten them well, but still they were favourites. From my mind it was lazy journalism.
“We got the bit between our teeth and said ‘no, we’re a better team than Carlow’.
“When the tag is on the other foot, we seem to really struggle – Longford are favourites or at home, that always seems to be a different ball game for us.
“It seems to tighten up going from Leinster to the qualifiers, you have that little bit of a break and lads maybe leave the panel, and you realise you have to be one-in, all-in to get where you want to go. That’s usually why we’ve got a few great results in the qualifiers.”
Quinn, a PE and Maths teacher at St Mel’s College, was at a family wedding in Sligo while Tyrone were playing Donegal, but was hoping to get a look at the game in advance of the arrival of Mickey Harte’s team on Saturday.
He does feel that losing Peter Harte so early to a black card would have been “a massive loss for Tyrone – I can imagine the game would have been a bit different if he was involved for a bit longer”.
The Killoe clubman hopes they’re still carrying a bit of baggage from their loss to Donegal and last year’s first round qualifier, where they were seconds from being knocked out by Meath before Cathal McShane’s sublime equaliser forced extra-time, from whence they stole out by a point.
“In one sense, you get that little glimmer of hope, but Tyrone are no bad team. They’re not after going from All-Ireland finalists to a bad team overnight.
“I imagine there’s going to be a massive kick in Tyrone against us.
“The fact that they were very close to getting caught on the hop by Meath last year, they’ll have learned from that too and I think they’ll be a different animal than the Tyrone that played Meath in the first round of the qualifiers last year.”
