Niall Morgan wary of Longford’s taste for a giant-killing

Niall Morgan says Tyrone can’t afford to take anything for granted against a Longford side with a voracious appetite for big championship scalps.

Many giants have fallen at Pearse Park in qualifier shocks, with Mayo, Monaghan, Down and Derry all sent crashing out of the All-Ireland race at the hostile venue.

The threat is real and the Red Hands will ignore them at their peril as they head to the midlands for Saturday’s sudden death tie.

“I’m sure at the start of the year winning an All-Ireland wasn’t a target for Longford, but taking on and beating a Division 1 side would be very realistic for them,” said the Tyrone goalkeeper.

“They will feel that they have at least one big game in them and would see us as a big scalp and we have to be ready for the battle that lies ahead.

They might play their league football in Division Three, but as we have seen time and time again, that means nothing when it comes to the Qualifiers as anything can happen on any given day.

Tyrone are under pressure to find form and bounce back from a disappointing performance in an Ulster SFC semi-final defeat to Donegal.

On the other hand, Longford go into this Round 2 Qualifier with nothing to lose.

“There is no pressure on Longford, it’s the ideal scenario for them, a free hit if you like. It’s a win-win for them and a lose-lose for us so we need to be on our guard and we certainly won’t be taking them for granted,” said Morgan.

“I was talking to a friend of mine from Kildare and he was telling me how difficult it was for them at Pearse Park in the Leinster championship when they got a draw after extra-time. He said the pitch is tight and when Longford played well, the home support really got behind them so it’s a dangerous game for us.”

A first defeat to Donegal in four championship meetings halted Tyrone’s Ulster title charge in its tracks, with serious concerns emerging over a system malfunction at Kingspan Breffni Park.

But some straight-talking in an open squad forum has since addressed pressing issues and brought a renewed focus to the project.

“We talked about the Donegal game and we were all brutally honest with each other and held our hands up, and we know that we have a number of things to fix.

Our basics were good the last day and we have worked on them and training has gone well and there is a good positivity about the place.

“Thankfully, we have had a couple of weeks training since the Donegal game, and we have worked hard on the things that didn’t go well for us the last day. If this weekend’s game had come just a week after that defeat we maybe would have been papering over cracks, so to speak, so it was good to get that extra week.”