Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
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ROSCOMMON boss Anthony Cunningham has stressed the importance of getting off to a winning Super 8s start at The Hyde this evening.
The Rossies lost all three of their games at the All-ireland quarter-final stage last year – starting with a defeat to Tyrone.
Cunningham (right), who wasn’t in charge last summer, vows his team will give everything at home to avoid a repeat.
“We’re going into the game in a confident mood,” admitted Cunningham. “Winning the Connacht Championship the way we did has given us great confidence.
“It goes without saying that we will be targeting a win to set us up for the rest of the campaign and make no mistake our aim is to beat Tyrone.”
But he was keen to stress the task facing his side as he points out how Tyrone have gone back to the game plan that took them to the All-ireland final last September.
“Tyrone are formidable,” he said.
“They have reverted to the system that they’ve had in recent years. “They defend in numbers and then break quickly and there are always players coming off the shoulder ready to run hard and set up attacks. “It’s been very successful for them over the years.” Cunningham could be the man to do that but his counterpart Mickey Harte is a past master at negotiating these type of hurdles. Tyrone have picked themselves up after their Ulster semifinal defeat to Donegal by outclassing Kildare and Cavan in the qualifiers.
“Quarter-finals used to be a very dangerous place, if you lost one game or had a bad day out, you were gone,” noted Harte.
“At least now there is a second chance, so I think every team will be looking at that prospect, perhaps short of Dublin.
“They’ll expect to win all their games and top the group.
“But the rest of us will be fighting for the other place and we won’t look past Hyde Park on Sunday because that’s the only game in town.”
“We will take it a step at a time.”