Feargal Logan reveals where Tyrone are after five week training block

Lee Costello

“There was a bit of getting over the back of that defeat.”

Manager Feargal Logan reveals how Tyrone are feeling following their five week break from championship football after Monaghan defeat.

Derry beat Armagh to retain Ulster, and Tyrone had to sit and watch all of the action from afar, as they were knocked out in the quarter final stages.

However, the early exit meant that the team could go away and put in a block of training without being concerned about upcoming matches, and prepare diligently for Galway.

“Derry have won Ulster but we’re all rebooted and ready to go again,” Logan told BBC Sport.

“It’s a massive game on Saturday. Galway are coming off the back of a provincial win and are on top form, they’re probably the form team in Ireland.

“It’s a competitive sport at this level and our players and the Galway players will be going at it hammer and tongs. We’re both ambitious with eyes on big prizes so it’s not going to be straight forward, but we’ll see how we go.”

Defeat is always disappointing, but the manner in which they lost to Monaghan would have added an extra sting as they looked to have had the game won before Ronan O’Toole fired in a late goal in the most dramatic circumstances.

“It took us a while to get over Ryan O’Toole’s goal,” Logan admitted.

“There was a bit of getting over the back of that defeat, but we’ve been doing what football teams do – working away hard, training night on night.

“We’ll know in due course how this new format [of the All-Ireland] is shaping up, whether it’s wise to be away working on your own or playing last week in Clones [like Derry and Armagh]. Who knows where it’ll all go to.

“Even then, there can be so many shifts in momentum and so many things can happen in football matches. It’s very hard to read but you’ll not find many managers or players who don’t want to win every match.”

It wasn’t all doom and gloom however, as Tyrone had put in their best performance of the season against the Farney county, before O’Toole decided to rip up the script.

“It seemed to be that way, certainly in the first half. We climbed the mountain again in the second half to get in front at the critical time, we thought we’d hit the tape at the right time.

“There are some positives but losing is never something you’re too comfortable with so we’ll hopefully right a few wrongs in the next few games.

“Tyrone have traditionally done well in the backdoor system but this is a different route. Tyrone have traditionally come along that route and done reasonably well but with the split in the Tailteann Cup and the 16 in the Sam Maguire, there’s quality opposition everywhere you look.

“There isn’t a lot of forgiveness or rehabilitation but we’ll see how this first phase shapes up and hopefully we’ll be out the back end of it in the right position.”