Maguire is keen to stamp out the slow starts

By Niall Gartland

TYRONE Minors haven’t always hit the ground running in their Championship outings this year, but their talented full-back James Maguire makes the very fair point that once they get going, they’re almost impossible to stop.

At times their unwanted habit of falling behind hasn’t made for comfortable viewing, but there’s no doubting the talent within the squad and they deservedly stand one step away from a place in the All-Ireland Final for a second successive year.

Killyclogher lad James Maguire was in buoyant form after they reeled in Galway a fortnight ago, and now they’ll take on Kildare this Friday evening at Breffni Park with either Derry or Cork awaiting the victors.

Commenting on their slow starts and blistering finishes, Maguire said: “That’s basically the last three games where it’s taken us until the second half to really get going, but we know if we get our tactics right we can tear teams apart.

“Some of our games haven’t really gone to plan – for example we knew it was going to be a really tough game against Cavan in the Ulster Championship semi-final as we’d a break before that match, and we ended up eleven points down.

“But one of the great things about this team is that we have such belief in each other and once we get on a roll, we know we’ll be difficult to stop.”

Maguire had a strong game on a personal level on their last day out against Galway, keeping close tabs on their dangerous full-forward Aaron Hanrahan. He stuck to his task even when Tyrone were under the cosh, and he thanks his manager Gerard Donnelly for all the diligent preparation work that goes on behind the scenes.

“All credit to Gerard and the management team. He does so much research – we look at all these players as soon as we know who we’re playing in the next game, so we know how to defend against them.”

Though Tyrone trailed by four points at half-time of their meeting with Galway, the strong breeze was an extenuating factor.

“You don’t realise from the stands how strong it was, and I think they got four two-pointers in the first half. That can be a killer, it can deflate a team. In the second half we knew we had to take advantage of the conditions, playing the fast football through the hands that we know we’re capable of, and that’s what we did.”