Joe Oguz believes Tyrone should fear no one and will travel to Killarney full of confidence this weekend following a morale-boosting win over Mayo.
The Kingdom will be keen to strike back following a chastening defeat to Dublin, with the Red Hands right in the firing line for the backlash, but Oguz feels there are two very attainable points on offer at Fitzgerald Stadium.
“We’re not doubting ourselves as a team. We know that we have great quality all over the pitch,” he said.
“All we have to do is just pull together as a collective and work hard, that’s what we showed, and that’s what we’re going to do for the rest of the year.”
Relegation worries may have been eased as Tyrone picked up a first win in three games, but a difficult run-in lies ahead, with Monaghan and Dublin still to play.
“Every game is going to be hard, but we’ll set our plans now for Kerry.
“You set your stall out if you can go out and do anything against Kerry down in Killarney.
“Every game is big from now, so we’ll just pull together back in Garvaghey and work on whatever we can do.
“We can only take it week on week and game on game, so that’s what we’ll do.
“Were not going to get ahead of ourselves, so it’s back to the drawing board again and see what we can do for next weekend.”
The Errigal Ciaran man, one of several Tyrone players stricken by injury, made his first start of the season against Mayo, and he’s hoping that it won’t be long before the strength of the squad is fully restored.
“Everyone is adding something, and the young lads who have come in this year are really stepping up to the plate.
“But we’re looking forward to getting the men back too and going full at it.
“It’s great to be back out there. It was slow enough about coming back, but I’m happy to be out there and do whatever I can.”
Tyrone badly needed a result from last weekend’s clash with Mayo following defeats to Derry and Galway, and while they are one of four sides on four points, bettered only by unbeaten Division One leaders Derry, there’s much work to be done.
“We still have a lot of work to do, but the year is still young, and we can take a lot of positives.”
Darragh Canavan’s brilliance and the impact off the bench of Darren McCurry helped the Red Hands pound Mayo into second half submission at O’Neills Healy Park as they recorded a vital win.
“Credit to ‘Dazzler’ coming off the bench and doing what he can do, and showing everybody what he can do.
“But it was all over the pitch, men pressing, men pressing the kick-out, and that just set the platform for the rest of the half.”
“We knew that we weren’t pressing them hard enough, that we were allowing them too much space.
“And Mayo is a great side, they’re going to hurt you if you give them space.
“So the second half plan was to show what we’re about as a team, pressing up, getting the pressure on and showing that Tyrone spirit, and that’s what we did in the second half.”
