RECORD’S NOTHING BUT SPIN

MICKEY HARTE believes all the talk about Donegal’s impressive home record has been “overplayed”.

Down were the last team to win in League or Championship at Maccumhaill Park, in 2010, and Donegal have gone 21 games unbeaten in Ballybofey since then.

But Tyrone are better equipped to end that run now than they were on their previous visits this decade.

Manager Harte (above) said: “Okay, their venue has this name of being very hard to get a result out of and history and tradition tells us that.

“But that can be overplayed sometimes. It’s more important to say, ‘how do the players that we send out perform against how Donegal perform?’.

“We could turn around and say maybe they are at a disadvantage on their home ground. That (record) will change sometime, it won’t go on forever.”

Tyrone’s last visit in the 2015 Ulster championship was a toxic affair; both sides finished with 14 men and there was an ugly row at the tunnel as they made their way in at half-time.

Yet the 2016 Ulster final at Clones was a thriller with Tyrone mounting a fabulous finish, and by last year’s semi-final, also in Clones, Tyrone ran out easy nine-point winners.

Harte added: “There have been intense games but these last couple of years have been a bit different from the previous four or five years, when Donegal were building into a team that were really top class.

“Now they are blooding young players.

“I think we have similarities at this stage, seasoned players and youthful players.”