‘Second best throughout’

When Mickey Harte was sympathetically asked whether heavy training was the reason for Tyrone’s 1-13 to 0-6 trouncing by Donegal, his reply was stark and simple: “I don’t even have that straw to clutch.”

With the Red Hands due back at the same venue in the Ulster championship, there were few positives for Harte and his camp as they were brushed aside by the current holders of the Anglo-Celt Cup.

“It was one of those days and there are serious flaws that need to be attended to. We didn’t believe we were coming here to get a whipping like that,” he said. “We’re hugely disappointed. It is a very disappointing performance and I said to the players afterwards it was as bad a performance as I’ve been involved in with the Tyrone team over all the time that I’ve been involved – at any level and at any age.

“That’s where we’re at, so that’s the baseline where we’re starting from for next week and seven weeks’ time. I’m telling it like it is and that’s the truth of the matter.

“We were so second best throughout that game and Donegal had all the energy. They played with more passion and quality than we did. It surprises me or confuses me how we can be so good on certain days and today we were so bad.”

Donegal had eased their own relegation worries with their best outing to date.