Gormley: Cork will punish a slow start

TYRONE defender Conor Gormley insists his side cannot replicate their slow start against Kildare when they face Cork in the All-Ireland SFC semi-final in three weeks.

Kieran McGeeney’s charges enjoyed the better of the first-half exchanges in Sunday’s quarter-final and after an indifferent display, Tyrone trailed by four points at the interval. The All-Ireland champions turned the match in their favour in the second half but Gormley believes Cork will punish any indiscretions in the semi-final.

“We let ourselves down a bit in the first half against Kildare, going in four points down.

“Half-time maybe came at a good time for us. We were four down, Kildare were on the up and got a goal. They were playing good football, getting ball in early to the full-forward line. They were working that bit harder than us.

“I think at half-time Mickey told a few home truths to us.

We definitely were lucky enough to get away with a win there. We won’t get away with that against Cork.”

The Carrickmore man regards the big game experience that Tyrone have accumulated from recent campaigns as central to their second-half revival.

“The experience helped. You have a lot of men there that played in All-Ireland finals and stuff and the experience did help. The start of the second half it needed the boys to stand up and take the thing by the horns, the likes of Mugsy, Stevie and Sean got the scores needed. Kildare kicked a couple of wides at the end when they could have been shipping it around to better men. We knuckled down and worked hard in the end. We got men back behind the ball back for a purpose, not just for the sake of it but back to help out and do the job while the likes of Brian McGuigan came on and settled the thing down very well. The wee bit of experience told in the end for us.”

Gormley has been impressed with semi-final opponents Cork’s form throughout the championship and his opinion was embellished further with their crushing of Donegal in Sunday’s curtain-raiser.

“That was some score Cork put up, it was like a hurling score. They have some forwards there, like Donncha O’Connor and Goulding. They’re mighty players and we will have to be at our best to curtail their influence as much as we can the next day.

“They have big strong men around the middle, but we are not too bad in that area with the likes of Sean Cavanagh. It will be an interesting contest and we have to be at our best to try and curtail them boys. They are strong and mobile and can get scores as well. We expected a tough test from Kildare but it will do us no harm going into the Cork game.

“We have three weeks to prepare. There’s going to be a couple of hard weeks of training, but a tough game behind us will do us no harm and we’ll look forward to Cork in the semi-final.”