LAST year Ardboe lost out to eventual champions Dungannon in an extra-time thriller as they exited the Tyrone SFC at the quarter-final stage.
It was the latest in a string of narrow defeats to top teams in recent seasons, and now the Rossas have turned to Mickey Donnelly to try and get over the line in tight contests.
The former Tyrone Minor and Derry U20 boss is back for his second stint with the club, having taken them to a county final in 2009, which they last to a last-gasp penalty - for Dromore.
Once again, the road before them is a rocky one, starting with a preliminary round clash against the St Dympna's, one of the title favourites, this weekend.
“It’s a huge draw for us, we’re really coming with a new team, and there won’t be many bigger challenges than playing Dromore in the opening game of the Championship,” said Donnelly.
All-Ireland winners Michael O’Neill and Michael Cassidy are back in the Rossas side for Sunday’s Plunkett Park clash, and the recent arrival of former Antrim attacker CJ McGourty is a bonus. He marked his first start for the club with a seven points haul in last weekend’s League victory over Division One leaders Carrickmore.
“Michael O’Neill especially epitomised all that was good about Tyrone football over the summer, and you can only imagine how much we missed him at club level, and Michael Cassidy the same.
“You don’t only miss their playing ability, you miss their ability to lead from the front, and then other lads step up to the plate to follow them and they battle a lot more,” Donnelly said.
Ardboe defeated Dromore when the sides met in the League this season, but Donnelly sees no relevance in that result as he prepares his side for a sudden death, straight knock-out Championship.
“At the end of the day, we had a lot more to get out of the League game than Dromore did.
“We went into that game with nine points, we desperately needed League points, while Dromore were sitting top of the table.
“I would say their focus is on the Championship and the Championship alone, and probably the game reflected that.”
Nevertheless, League football in Tyrone is fiercely competitive, and plays a vital role in priming the players for Championship action.
“The competitive nature of the Tyrone League is reflected by one simple stat. of our first ten League games, nine of them went down to the last play of the game, other than the Killyclogher game, which we won fairly comfortably. And you can’t get anything more competitive than that.
“To quantify that, while we mightn’t have had the results, we have been damned close in every game, and we have eked out a couple of tight results.
“It’s just maybe about coming out on the right side of those results more often, but we’re a young team, and I suppose that’s going to happen.
“We’re just trying to battle-harden them a wee bit more, that’s where we’re at.”
Former Tyrone players Kyle Coney, Shay McGuigan and David ‘DD’ Mulgrew will be key men for the lough shore side on Sunday, bringing class and experience to their bid to set up a first round clash with defending champions Dungannon.
“We rely on those older players to help the younger boys.
“DD was a county minor on 2015, so he’s only 24 years of age, it’s just that he’s been about an awful long time, whereas Kyle and Shay both won All-Ireland Minor medals in ’08, and they are now embarking on their early thirties.
“Other than that, we have a big gap to the young players.”
