After the disappointment of Tyrone’s non-advancement into the knock-out stages of the Suzuki National League, the attention now switches to the county minors who encounter their toughest opponents to date in the Ulster championship on Saturday.

Donegal stand between Tyrone, who hammered Antrim in the opening round, and a place in the Ulster final. The O’Neill county squad though accept that this weekend’s tussle will be a lot harder. Tyrone will look ahead to the encounter though with an air of confidence, certainly the Antrim side were weak but at times Tyrone played some quality football in difficult conditions and with the impressive Sarah Connolly expected to lead the attack their chances must rate better than 50/50.

Football as is often said is a funny game and the preparation for Saturdays game at Omaghs Healy Park (throw in time 3pm)  has been meticulous, it hasn’t though been easy as manager Ciaran Woods explained, “There was problems over a very bad spell of weather getting pitches, thankfully that has eased now and the girls have got their heads down and have been working hard to get it right for this weekend” The Donegal side eased past Armagh and it would be fair to say that none of the semi-finalists had really been troubled to date. Monaghan and Cavan who meet in the other last four tie were not tested against Down or Derry respectively while in the Donegal Armagh outing it was hard to judge if the Tir Connell girls had just done enough to get through or if there was more in the tank. Likely then that this weekends fixtures will see the real deal as far as the Ulster championship goes.

Tyrone’s management team of Woods and O’Neill have no injury worries to report barring long term injury concern Helen Ward and after a steady performance against the Saffron’s and quality preparation they are left with the headache, albeit the good headache, of selecting the starting fifteen to meet a strong looking Donegal at Tyrone’s headquarters.