Experience vital – Harte

THERE may have been a school of thought that Tyrone had enjoyed an untroubled ride through the Ulster Championship, but when the stage was shifted to Croke Park yesterday, the Red Hands men were put through an exacting ordeal.

Kildare were strong-willed and determined in this All-Ireland quarter-final and not until referee Gearóid O Conamha had blasted the last whistle, did Mickey Harte feel he could relax.

“Relief is the main emotion. It’s a great reflection on what these players are about. It would have been easy to roll over there today. It would have been to decide that maybe this year wasn’t for us. But it is still for us. Kildare asked serious questions of us. The story going into this game was had we been tested? I think after today that question can be removed. We were certainly tested and full credit to Kildare for that.”

In a tight match that was still there to be contested in the dying embers, Harte believed it was the greater experience stocked up in his squad that proved vital.

“I would have to say that experience was the difference today. They matched us in virtually every way and they created as many opportunities as we did. I suppose the start of the second half was exactly what we needed. The longer we were able to keep them from mounting an attack, never mind a score, was so important.”

The first half had seen Kildare play with plenty of ambition. Ronan Sweeney’s calm finish to the net in the 14th minute underpinned their dominance and Tyrone were left trying to retrieve a 1-7 to 0-6 deficit entering the second half. Harte revealed he had expected a whirlwind opening from Kildare.

“I think Kildare were always going to come out and try and boss the first half. They needed to stamp their authority on the game and jolt us into a place where we didn’t expect to be. It can be difficult to deal with that on the spot. Again, as long as we could keep reasonably in touch, we felt that we would be okay. At one stage we felt we had it down to one, and we felt it would have okay going in at half-time only two down.

“The fact that we were four points down was reminiscent of Dublin in 2005 when we were hanging on by our fingernails. We were able to draw on that experience and say: ‘It’s not a lost cause. You can turn this around.’ That’s what experience is I suppose.”

When Tyrone needed scoring inspiration, they could rely on the clinical point-taking of attacking predator Stephen O’Neill in that second half. But Harte rattled off a series of performers that he regarded as standouts.

“Without a doubt, when you have a quality finisher like Stephen O’Neill, things can happen. I suppose Owen Mulligan was looking pretty sharp today too. Martin Penrose made a great contribution. I could name a whole lot of players but it is difficult to look beyond Brian Dooher again. The man continues to amaze. Sometimes you think the man is just hanging together and then he just takes off and leaves people in his wake. The introduction of Brian McGuigan too, as a man of his quality, and his experience and his guile. It’s so essential to have that in tight games.”

Being busy preparing for the tussle with Kildare, Harte had no time to take in the action in the opening quarter-final. But news of the demolition job Cork performed on Donegal informed him that the Rebels will be formidable opponents in three weeks.

“We weren’t there for the first half and we weren’t in the business of looking at them in the second half.

“We’ll get to looking at that in due course. I didn’t see it but the scoreline tells me plenty anyway, that they were in total control. Certainly they have been setting out their stall already this year and they’re in the same mould as Kildare. They have a lot of big physical players and they play with pace and I hope that’s been a good testing ground for us today.”