TG4 All-Ireland Ladies’ IFC semi-final
Down v Tyrone (Sunday, St Tiernach’s Park, 2pm, live on Sport TG4)
IT was expected that Tyrone would be there or thereabouts when it came to the business end of the championship.
After a remarkable league campaign which resulted in promotion to the top flight, hopes were high for the championship. They were installed as favourites for Ulster and to be there on All-Ireland final day.
However, they failed to ignite the championship, or the early stages at least, bowing out of Ulster to Monaghan in the semi-finals.
The All-Ireland group games gave Sean O’Kane’s side a chance to find form and they were looking very good against Leitrim in that opening game before seeing a nine-point lead end in a one-point defeat.
It made their last group game against Wicklow a must-win if they were to reach the quarter-finals and that was achieved as they recorded their first win since their last league game against Cavan back in March.
The quarter-final paired them with Clare, last year’s All-Ireland finalists, so one big name was going to exit very early on.
Clare had home advantage, they were favourites, but Tyrone did not read the script. They were six points behind at half-time but came back to win by the narrowest of margins and book their place in the semi-finals.
Really though, it has only been in the last two games that Tyrone have had to get the results to end up where they are and the victory over Clare has given them much-needed confidence according to skipper Aoibhinn McHugh.
“To reach the last four is a big achievement and something we are proud of as a group, but our goal is obviously to reach the final and get back to Croke Park,’’ she says.
“We were happy with our performance against Clare and to get over the line. It was probably our best performance so far this year in the championship.
“We will take confidence from beating Clare, it wasn’t an easy task. We had some poor results in the championship but I think we’ve learned a lot throughout the championship campaign.”
Down will pose a different kind of challenge, McHugh knows, and they need to bring another top performance to Clones.
“Down are going very well and they have made a lot of progress over the last few years. We know it’s another big challenge at the weekend but are looking forward to the occasion. It will take another big performance from the whole team to get over the line this weekend.”
The winner will face either Leitrim or Wexford – who clash in the other semi-final at Parnell Park (2pm) – in the All-Ireland final in Croke Park on Sunday, August 4.
