A first round exit at the hands of Cavan last year was the motivation behind Tyrone's All-Ireland U21FC success, according to Michael Cassidy.

Speaking to the Tyrone Courier after last Saturday's dramatic final win over Tipperary, the Ardboe defender declared: "We're back. It has been some turnaround. We walked out of Breffni (Park) last year, heads down. Every man said, right, we're going to have to go at it, dig deep for next year.

"Tipperary are a fine team, but All-Ireland finals don't come around too often, and you have to perform. We didn't really perform in the first half.

"We knew that and we got that into our heads at half-time. We knew we had to keep possession. If we had the ball, they can't score, and we knew that, and we had to play smart football in the second half, which I think we did."

Cassidy acknowledged that Cathal McShane's second half goal was the turning point.

"No better man to step up and hit it as Cathal, and I'm glad for him, because the work he puts in off the scenes is unbelievable too, and the goal was the winning of the game," he added.

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