Armagh won't underestimate Tyrone challenge

Armagh coach Conleith Gilligan feels his players are "cute enough" not to underestimate Tyrone in Sunday's Ulster Senior Football Championship preliminary round clash at the Athletic Grounds.

The Orchard men go into the game as overwhelming favourites to move into a quarter-final against Fermanagh 13 days later, but Gilligan insists they are not thinking along those lines.

Armagh retained their Division One status in the league while Tyrone did likewise in the second division, but the Red Hands had been tipped to do much more at the outset.

Malachy O'Rourke's side struggled to hit top form, but Gilligan feels Sunday's derby match could well produce a much different Tyrone challenge and it is one Armagh are ready for.

"The proximity of Armagh to Tyrone, even our younger players would have looked at their younger players winning Hogan Cups and All-Ireland U20s, so there's no illusion with the younger players as to the quality Tyrone have," Gilligan said.

"The older players, they've been through the mill before and been stung in big games before where they were supposed to be favourites. Last year's Kerry game was the prime example, where the expectation was that Kerry wouldn't beat Armagh, and look how that turned out.

"The fact that the league is done now, every team's looking for that one big win to ignite their summer. From a Tyrone perspective, going to Armagh to do that would be high on their list of priorities."

Joe McElroy, Andrew Murnin and Barry McCambridge are close to full fitness but a decision on whether this week has come a little too early will be made closer to Sunday.

The condensed season brings an added dilemma for players and management to risk a season-ending injury of rushed back too soon and with Armagh and Tyrone the first teams out in Ulster, they have had less time for recovery from the league.

Armagh perhaps left some wins behind them earlier in the year with four points their biggest margin of defeat, but Gilligan feels Tyrone will have a similar view of their own campaign and with some key figures to come back in, the outlook for the Red Hands this summer is not as bleak as some would suggest.

"Tyrone's league campaign was very similar to our own," he continued.

"You'd [Niall] Morgan, [Darren] McCurry, [Michael] McKernan and Darragh Canavan missing a few games. They were the same in trying to get up with new and untested players. Similar points, they'd be disappointed in some of the games they lost that they might have won.

"It makes it very dangerous [this week]. It's still Tyrone, it's still a derby game and the winning and losing of it is massive.

"You're in the preliminary round, earlier than you'd have wanted to be out but that's where we're at. It's a huge game for both teams in terms of kick-starting their summer."