Trainer says Tyrone are ready for new challenge

ALL-IRELAND football champions Tyrone are enthusiastic about taking on Connacht champions Mayo in the Bank of Ireland championship quarter-final in Croke Park next Saturday.

Selector and team trainer Paddy Tally described it as a ‘fresh’ challenge against a county against which many of the current squad have had no experience of playing championship.

Reacting to the draw, Tally said that at this stage it ‘didn’t totally matter’ against whom they were drawn. Alluding to the fact that they weren’t paired with Armagh (or Kerry or Westmeath), he welcomed the fact that it would be against a different team. “We haven’t played Mayo in a championship game for a number of years (1989, in the All-Ireland semi-final, when they lost). The only experience for a lot of the present players against Mayo would have been in the National League semi-final in 2002. They are a very good team, very well organised and this year they proved themselves in Connacht. It’s certainly a new challenge for us.”