Ladies return to home soil

After watching his side suffer that six point loss in Ballyhaunus on Sunday Tyrone’s new ladies manager Mickey Rea took plenty of positives from a battling display against a strong Mayo. Eager to praise the workrate of his side Rea was however already focused on wrestling points from Laios at Healy Park on Sunday, the visitors will be inspired by a good win over Donegal on the opening day of the Tesco Homegrown ladies national football league.
Tyrone conceded an early goal and were on the back foot from the off, it wasn’t the start the Derrytresk man would have hoped for,
“We had a gameplan and the girls tried to stick to it but after that early goal we had to jig things around, we would also have been disappointed to give away a penalty just before half time but to be fair the girls worked hard, had chances and we have plenty of positives as we head to our first home game of the campaign.”
Tyrone indeed had chances, they enjoyed quite a sustained period of dominance in the first half, controlled the play but failed to convert, perhaps being a little hesitant in shot selection, that says the manager will improve with time,
“You have to understand that this line up has only played together maybe once before, it will take time for the girls to gel, as a management team we understand that, it all will take time but as a management team you feel a little pressure to get results, you can play well but this is a results business that we are in”
Rea will have been impressed with some performers on the day, his new captain Gemma Begley scored 1-4  while Cathy Donnelly also found the net as Tyrone remained very much in the tie throughout. There were some suggestions that upset the manager, suggestions that Tyrone ran out of steam,
” No that would not be a fair reflection on the way things panned out, we matched them ball for ball and the hard work put in over the past couple of weeks was evident, we will turn in more of the same this week, its vital we keep doing what we are doing behind the scenes on the training pitch”
Tyrone will welcome Laois to Healy Park on Sunday and the Leinster side have set out their stall early with a good win over Donegal at Bundoran. Their new management team of Tom McKittrick, Gabriel Lawlor and Sue Ramsbottom were impressed by the performance in the 1-16 to 1-9 win, Martina Dunnes goal paving the way for the win and some familiar names also performing well, Tracey Lawlor, Anna Moore, Martha Kirwan, Laura Marie Maher, Maureen Nerney and Aisling Kehoe among those who will cause Tyrone problems.
“Its good to be playing at home but its important we get off the mark, again we will look at the squad, reshuffle things but we already have an an idea of the line up, we are told Omagh will be available to us and that’s good news, we are trying to build something here and all the support we can get including the use of the county ground is a plus to the players and us all”