Final replay will 'take on a life of its own' - McGinley

Errigal Ciaran manager Enda McGinley expects the Tyrone SFC replay to take a different course from the drawn game and present contrasting opportunities and challenges to players on both sides.

He expects to be without Darragh Canavan for Friday’s second instalment, after the Tyrone star was ruled out of the drawn game by a knee injury.

“There’ll be boys on both teams that will have had quieter and poorer days today than what their normal standard is, so the next game will be very likely quite a bit different, with probably different players standing up,” said McGinley.

“And some of the players who stood up today will be very closely monitored next day, you would imagine.

“It is that panel thing, and the replay will take on a life of its own, which will probably bear very little relevance to today’s game.”

Errigal went into Sunday’s decider against a club that had never appeared in a senior championship final, and a team that has a relegation play-off hanging over it, but McGinley was always wary of the threat Edendork would cause to his side.

“When we sat down to watch Edendork, you could see the very significant threats they have got, a real good two-pointer threat, they’re excellent on the counter, they’re a really strong team.

“They’re a team that over the past six or seven years have been missing one or two players, but they have a full deck at the minute and it’s a very, very strong team.

“We knew that, but when you have been round enough corners in the Tyrone championship, you don’t take anyone for granted.”

Despite the absence of Darragh Canavan and the lack of match fitness that restricted younger brother

Ruairi to a late substitute appearance, McGinley felt his side was well prepared for the challenge.

“We prepared as well as we could, we felt we were in a very good place.”

He will assess the good and the bad from a performance that came close to securing victory, as he prepares to go again back at Healy Park.

“Aspects of the performance were good today, aspects of the performance let us down, and I have no doubt Edendork will be saying the same about theirs.

“So it will be about whichever team will make the most gains in the five days.”

Ruairi Canavan did look sharp when he came on after 40 minutes, but following a lengthy absence with a serious hamstring injury that required surgery, he is short on match fitness and may not be an option to start next weekend’s game.

“When you have been out for five months with a hamstring injury, five days doesn’t suddenly make you fully fit,” said McGinley.

“It will be as much seeing where the other players are at as well, and then trying to see what you start with, and trying to think about what you finish with.

“Both sides of that equation are probably equally as important.”

With just a five-day turnaround, the scheduling of the replay places heavy demands on two sets of players

who gave every last ounce of energy and commitment to a pulsating encounter that came alive in the second half.

But with an Ulster Club Championship opener against Down kingpins Clonduff coming up the following weekend, the game must go ahead this weekend.

“Look, it’s the same for both sides, it is what it is.

“You’re going to be no fitter, your skills aren’t going to be any better, there’s not going to be any massive changes, there’ll be a few tweaks here and there.

“So much of this week is just trying to squeeze as much learning as you can out of this game, and try to get the performance right for the next day.

“When the ball is thrown in, it will take on its own life again.”

There was a strange feeling in the Errigal dressing room in the aftermath of a game that they could have won and just as easily could have lost.

“It’s just weird, you don’t know whether to be very relieved, and there’s a component of that, or very disappointed, and there’s a component of that.

“And there’s the deflation of knowing that it’s all to do next week again, and it’s as if all of the build-up and all of that nervous energy, excitement, and everything that comes into a county final day, is now really for nothing.

“But you deal with it and you move on.”

And McGinley paid tribute to the quality and the nerve of steel with which McCurry executed a brilliant last-gasp equaliser.

“He’s a phenomenal player, he just has such craft and such ability, and those type of things are the things that don’t sit comfortably tonight, because you know that he had a quieter game than what he usually has, and he very rarely has two quiet games in a row.

“So that’s the challenge and you can only expect that that’s going to work better of them the next day, and we need to tray and somehow try and find areas where we can measure up as well.”

Rising star Shea McDermott was held scoreless from play by Neil Kilpatrick, but his manager feels he can shine the next day.

“He’s been so good for us, and then the tension just increases. He didn’t have his best game, absolutely, but no doubt he’ll be going at it Friday night again, and hopefully will have a better say.”

McGinley revealed that captain Peter Harte had won the toss and elected to play with the wind, but his side led by just three points at the break.

“The wee weather chart on the phone said it was going to die a bit, and the sun was going down, there was a difficult sun in the first half.

“So it wasn’t as much about getting ahead in the game.”