By Michael McMullan

TYRONE ladies welcome Westmeath to Stewartstown on Sunday with top spot in their All-Ireland Intermediate group up for grabs.

Both have beaten Down so far. For Tyrone, it was a reverse of their defeat to Down in Ulster.

Tyrone also have the hurt of last year’s All-Ireland final defeat to Leitrim still lingering. As much as it’s a motivation, captain Aoibhinn McHugh is under no illusions of the battle to get back to Croke Park.

It’s an even field of teams, all capable of winning the title. Sunday’s opponents included.

Starting the campaign with a win is perfect. It’s something to build on and helps with the mood in training this week.

“There’s not much pressure going into the Westmeath game when you’re already through to the quarter-finals,” McHugh said, with a caveat.

“At the end of the day, you still want to go out and perform, do your best and win for home advantage.”

Tyrone had five weeks since Down knocked them out in Ulster to prepare for the All-Ireland challenge.

“We did work quite hard there in the break and I think maybe we learned a lot from the first game.

“We definitely reflected and all took a look at ourselves, so that probably helped.”

There has never been more than a kick between the teams. Tyrone were narrow winners against Down in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final but losing the final still hurts.

“It was really tough because we didn’t perform in that final and then we were still quite close, but it’s a long way back,” added the Tyrone skipper.

“We have a lot of games ahead of us to get to even a semi. We’ll just be looking to Westmeath now because you could easily find yourself not back in a final.

“We knew our group was a really tough one too. Going into it, we knew that both Down and Westmeath are two really good teams. It’s (the competition) really even this year.”

McHugh has been in the squad since she joined as a minor in 2017 before coming fully into the mix the following season.

It’s a close group and she is enjoying the progress in the camp.

“You spend a lot of time together,” she added. “You’re training a few times a week.

“When you’re playing league football, we were fully focused on the league, and trying to get the most out of Division One.

“Obviously, you’re playing a high-standard so we were trying to see if we could use it for the championship and learn lessons playing against the top teams.

“Getting beat by the Ulster semi-final was disappointing for us as well. We always knew the league was going to be tough, but we were trying to use it for championship.”