Losing last night was a bit of a disappointment, especially to Tyrone, but I can't say that I'm that bothered. We all know that Tyrone have been operating at a high level than us for nearly a decade now. They are one of the top teams in Ireland, with a deep panel of players to chose from and last night it showed that they are further ahead than us. But I think that what most fans wanted to see was us be competitive, which we were and for some better finishing, we could have won that game. The McKenna Cup has served it's purpose for us. We have gotten the maximum amount of games out of it, we've played some top teams (even if some of them haven't been at full strength) and won, we've introduced some new players to the panel and some of them have shown a lot of promise, other players who've been on the panel for a while and played sporadically have developed more and look more capable at county level and we've got some of our best players back and they are performing well. Out fitness levels will be high and have played plenty of football to get up to speed. I think that we are in a good place going into the league and we'll need to be because everyone of our games now is going to be competitive and we are going to need to play well to pick up points.
It was pleasing to see us stay with Tyrone and not throw in the towel when in the past we might have done. There were a number of needless turnovers last night, with sloppy passes or bad decisions, which Tyrone just pounce on and scored off. Every team will turn the ball over in a game, but it's the ones when we are under no pressure to give the ball away or run up a blind alley or put a player in trouble with a poor pass that are so frustrating.
I thought Niall Grimley had a good game, but that free at the end was a big miss especially when he'd nailed all the others. Stefan Campbell got some good points from play. Defensively we looked better I thought, even though there was some poor tackling. Kick outs were a problem and again it showed the level that Tyrone are at they were able to make it so difficult for us to find our men. I think James Morgan is a brilliant defender, but his gun-ho approach, launching into players on the ground and his over enthusiastic tackling gives away frees. I thought it was harsh to a second yellow as he clearly slipped and then collided with the player. Tyrone also got some frees which clearly never were, but that happens in every game.
It's been a good campaign, with some tough matches that should really set us up well for the league.
