The Tyrone ladies must secure a win on Sunday if they are to retain their division one status, after six rounds in the Tesco Homegrown national league it all comes down to the final game of the campaign against Laois It's literally win or bust for a Tyrone side who have struggled throughout what can only be described as a disappointing league season.

There was no-one surprised that the division one league campaign was going to be tough for Tyrone, a raft of players had opted to step away from the county set up, there were changes behind the scenes and this new look Tyrone side were forced to face five of their seven league games away from home, that included trips to Cork, Monaghan and Dublin with Kerry and Sundays opponents Laois making the trip North.

It was frustrating for Tyrone who despite failing to secure any league points turned in some decent performances, the lack of fire power and several big injuries made life difficult too for a new look Tyrone. There has been frustration too, the lack of home games and a lack of respect from some national media despite the efforts of the players has galvanised the squad ahead of their final league fixture at Clanabogan Park.

Primary schools have been issued free tickets and local clubs will be invlved in mini-games and theres expected to be a real family feel aimed at attracting a bumper crowd to this must win fixture. County Chairman Martin Conway said it's a massive occasion "The senior players have worked hard behind the scenes to try and get the support out for this vital clash, through the county coaches tickets have been sent out through the schools, it's both county boards working closely together as well but to their credit the players have been the driving force behind this, they deserve credit for those efforts and we all hope a big crowd comes along on Sunday afternoon, it will be special, indeed extra special if the team can get the win"

Tyrone sit second from bottom in the division one table, they suffered heavy losses to Dublin and Monaghan but ran Kerry and Mayo close, in that Mayo clash they hit a glut of wides and lost two key personnel, Emma Hegarty and Shannon Quinn to injury. That duo and Niamh O'Neill have returned to training ahead of Sundays home tie with Laois, while Shannon Lynch who missed the game against Dublin because of illness is also 100% fit again, a timely boost for Tiffy Quinn and Tony McVeigh as they focus their side on a win.

A win is the only result that will do for the O'Neill county side this Sunday and with O'Neill added to the attacking options, it could well free up Gemma Begley and the Donnelly's Joline and Cathy all of whom have struggled to get that vital scoring touch. To their credit the defence have settled well, Neamh Woods, Tori McLaughlin and Christiane Hunter have been superb throughout while Grainne Rafferty and goalkeeper Lynch have had some good performances, finding that scoring touch against the Leinster side on Sunday could be vital for Tyrone.

"We have worked hard but yes we need to get scores and continue to add to those on any given day " admitted  McVeigh whose side last time out against Dublin closed ranks in a bid to snuff out the Dubs attack, it would be likely that on Sunday at Drumragh Tyrone will throw caution to the wind and adopt a more attacking option against a Laois side who have certainly been off the boil.

Laois have not been the force they previously were, the loss of several players in the close season gave them issues to deal with and they also failed to field against Kerry, a bug blamed for their non appearance but Tyrone will not be taking anything for granted. Laois sit with a points difference of -115 to Tyrone's -81, the Leinster girls only managing to register 28 points on the scoreboard.

Being able to get scores themselves has been an issue for Tyrone, McVeigh adamant that they can turn that around and after securing their status again the focus will turn to Cavan in the championship with the club season getting underway next week.

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