Donnelly thankful for home comforts

June 09, 2015

Donegal's Martin O'Reilly tackles Mattie Donnelly of Tyrone during the Ulster SFC preliminary round tie at Ballybofey.
INPHO.

Mattie Donnelly was relieved to hear that Tyrone had been given a home draw in the football Qualifiers.

The O'Neill County will host Limerick at Healy Park on Saturday fortnight and Donnelly is grateful to be getting a second bite at the cherry following his team's Ulster championship loss to Donegal:

"My gut reaction was that it was at home," he told the Belfast Telegraph. "I told myself anyway that it wasn't going to bother me who we got, because we are lucky to have the Qualifiers.

"We never thought about the Qualifiers until we were beaten in the first round of Ulster. You can't give it any thought, but now that we are there we are grateful to have it.

"The other thing is that Healy Park hasn't exactly been a fortress for us in the past few years...

"You put in so many hours that there is so much on the line. Every team in the backdoor is going to be throwing the kitchen sink at it, it's knockout football now. You only get one chance.

"Any team on any day now goes into the games with that mindset. They have to throw the whole shebang at it and it is going to be dangerous.

"We will have to go out with that mindset too and when two teams go out with that frame of mind, it makes it a real Championship battle."


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