Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HARTE’S 300 NOT OUT
Landmark game for boss & final bid still alive
MICKEY HARTE says Tyrone never lost hope of reaching the Allianz League final despite a terrible start to the campaign.
Saturday’s big win over Dublin was Tyrone’s third success in a row after starting with losses to Kerry and Mayo and scraping a draw in Roscommon.
It was Harte’s 300th game in charge and the landmark win, which ended Dublin’s reign as champions, came six years to the day since they previously beat the Dubs.
It was also slight revenge for last September’s All-ireland final loss and means Tyrone could reach the League final if results go their way next weekend.
Three-time All-ireland winning boss Harte said: “A whole lot of people wouldn’t have thought that was possible but we never gave up hope on that. Where there’s light, there’s hope. Even though we lost a couple of games, we knew there was a fighting chance of getting a second place.
“But other things still have to happen to make that a reality.
“Now that we’re quite safe, we have our last game (v Galway) and we’ll give it our best shot.”
Unlike last year’s All-ireland decider when Tyrone caved in after a bright start, they were in control virtually throughout.
They took Cormac Costello’s fourth minute goal in their stride and were superbly led by a two-man full-forward line of Cathal Mcshane and Mattie Donnelly.
Mcshane hit 1-4 with Donnelly contributing 0-3 and Harte praised their power and ballwinning ability – something Tyrone have been lacking. He said: “We’ve been known as a running team for a few years now, and we do need to bring a bit of variety to our game and perhaps this is one way of doing it.”
But he isn’t convinced too much should be read into Dublin’s loss, their third in the campaign. Jim Gavin (below) has used 36 different players so far and Harte said: “It appears the League didn’t matter as much to them this year as in previous years.”
Dublin trio John Small (hamstring), Costello (ankle) and Paddy Andrews (blow to head) all came off with injuries. Boss Gavin was furious with the no show.
He said: “We have another game against Cavan next week, we have the club championships where we’ll be looking closely at guys and then after that we’ll have a few weeks to get ready for the Championship. But that performance obviously will not help the players that were out on the pitch, that’s for sure.”