Fitzmaurice had huge confidence in charges

Eamonn Fitzmaurice revealed he fancied his team’s chances of making it a third consecutive win over Tyrone on the basis of their attitude during the week.

Although the indications at half-time were their two points would be have to be hard earned, they completed a 3-7 to 0-1 second-half rout of their rivals.

But Fitzmaurice had huge confidence in his charges given his players’ response to their defeat by Mayo in Castlebar.

“I was looking forward to the game; I’d a good feeling. I knew Tyrone were going well and after last weekend they would have a bit of momentum when coming back and winning a game at the death. But I knew we were in a good place and that once we kept at it and finished the job we would get something out of it. We trained well this week, there was no despondency after last weekend.”

After ruing a glut of scoring opportunities across the three defeats to Mayo, Derry and Dublin, Fitzmaurice saw James O’Donoghue convert the three goal chances that came his way after the break.

That said, Niall Morgan denied the home side on a couple of occasions in the first-half.

“Earlier in the league last year we weren’t even creating chances and we were scratching our heads,” said Fitzmaurice. “At least this year we’ve been creating chances in all the games but not converting.

“At half-time, we said there were goals there for us and if we got the chances to keep going for them. Maybe one or two of them were of the softer variety but it was great and gave us a bit of breathing space on the scoreboard.

“When we got the goals it seemed to take a lot of energy out of the Tyrone challenge and we just look stronger towards the end.

“A lot of credit has to go to the players. They applied themselves very well and worked very hard for each other. Execution of the basic skills was a good bit better than it has been in the other games. There was just an improvement across the board and we got impact from our bench today, which was satisfying.”

Fitzmaurice heaped praise on Bryan Sheehan who made an excellent return to action after a recent hip injury.

“I was delighted for him because he worked very hard in the winter and he really wanted to have cut of it this year. He was disappointed with the way last year went, he was frustrated with a lot of injuries through the year and never really got going. He came back to us this year in very good condition and it was disappointing, frustrating and demoralising for him when he got a knock in a challenge game that put him out again for a couple of weeks. “But he stuck at it and he got a reward today. He played well, he won frees, he converted frees and it was great for us to have him back.”

Prior to the game, Killian Young and Kieran Donaghy went through a light work-out on the pitch. Fitzmaurice said neither have returned to contact training.