We always kept the faith says Tyrone’s Cullen

By Niall Gartland

TYRONE half-back Ben Cullen insisted they never lost confidence in their own abilities after a sluggish start to the league, picking up their first win at the third time of asking with a swashbuckling victory over Cavan last Sunday.

The hope is that they have well and truly found their feet ahead of Sunday’s trip to Ardee to face Louth, though Cullen was confident that it was only a matter of time before their Division Two campaign clicked into gear.

A second-round defeat to Derry flagged up plenty of room for improvement, but the attitude within the camp remained positive and a second win this coming weekend could see them firmly back in the promotion mix.

Reflecting on their early-round woes, Edendork’s Cullen said: “After the first two games we were disappointed. We didn’t feel like we deserved to win either of those two matches (against Kildare and Derry). Heading into the Cavan match, it was so, so important to get the win and thankfully we did.

“We hadn’t really been playing like ourselves, things weren’t going right. We had been training hard, but it just wasn’t working out. Thankfully against Cavan things we clicked into gear.”

Opponents Louth, who are managed by Tyrone native Gavin Devlin, don’t have much to show for their efforts against three rounds. They did the job on their first day out against Offaly, before succumbing to Cork and Meath, two teams likely to be in the promotion hunt.

Results don’t always tell the whole story – they were desperately unfortunate to lose out to the Royals last weekend, Jack Flynn riding to Meath’s rescue with a late, late two-pointer to secure a 1-20 to 0-22 victory in Croke Park.

But the feeling is that if Tyrone play to their full potential, they should have enough in the locker to surmount the Wee County challenge, and that could leave Malachy O’Rourke’s team primed for an all-out assault on promotion back to the top flight at the first time of asking.

Cullen said: “Hopefully we can push on now. We’d a bad start to the league but we now have a win under our belts and hopefully promotion is still in touch.”

One of the most pleasing aspects of Tyrone’s 2-23 to 1-14 victory over Cavan was the influence of a couple of late inclusions. Seanie O’Donnell was drafted in and delivered a performance of considerable poise and energy.

Down the other end of the pitch, Killyclogher’s Michael Rafferty, who captained Tyrone to the 2024 All-Ireland U-20 title, started in place of Joey Clarke, who sustained a hamstring injury while playing for Queen’s University in the Sigerson Cup semi-final. Rafferty acquitted himself well and the competition for places is pushing everyone on.

Cullen commented: “You’re constantly pushing yourself in training. You know the next man is going to do just as good a job, so you have to keep on performing. It’s vital to do your best, to stay motivated, and we’ve all got each other’s backs and we’re determined to push on.”

After some way-ward shooting late in proceedings against Derry, Tyrone brought their shooting boots to Healy Park last Sunday afternoon registering 12 different scorers against the hour, including Cullen himself, who weighed in with a second-half point.

“Our shooting hadn’t been great. I suppose once we started to get away from Cavan, it became easier to break them down. We missed a few chances as well, but it was a good showing overall. We knew it was in us – it was just a matter of doing it.”

Cullen himself has been in fine form and has been a regular starter since the very outset of the season.

At the same time, he can’t afford to take his starting position for granted.

“From a personal perspective you just have to keep going. You have to push hard in training, push hard in the gym, and recover as best you can.”