Derry manager Damian McErlain says his team could not be facing a bigger challenge in the Ulster championship than travelling to take on Tyrone in the first round.

The Division 4 champions are 13/2 outsiders for the provincial preliminary round clash in Omagh and McErlain is hoping they’ll be able to hold their own with last year’s beaten All-Ireland finalists.

"Hopefully we can compete really well with Tyrone and take whatever we get out of that game, win, lose or draw,” the Oak Leaf County boss told BBC Sport.

"In terms of our development going forward, we'd like a bit of a run one way or the other in the championship.

"We've just got to concentrate on ourselves and you just never know when that day will come when you realise that Derry are going to be massively competitive again for the next five to 10 years. That is the brief here."

He added: "But Tyrone are about as big a challenge as you can get in Ulster. We had Donegal last year and Tyrone this year so the draw hasn't been too kind to us."

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