NIALL MORGAN hopes his Tyrone side do not take a kicking off Donegal when they face off this weekend.
The old foes renew rivalries on Sunday in a mouth-watering Ulster SFC semi-final and the scale of the task facing the Red Hands is great.
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Last Saturday at the same venue, Donegal stunned reigning Ulster champs Derry with boss Jim McGuinness getting his tactics spot on in a resounding 4-11 to 0-17 win.
Shaun Patton’s booming kickouts paid big dividends against opposite number Odhran Lynch as the Oak Leaf No 1 was caught off his line for three of Donegal’s goals.
And stopper Morgan knows Tyrone must be wary of the threat. He explained: “Patton and Rory Beggan have the kickouts with the longest range.
“And it was an obvious game-plan that they had against Derry and it proved very effective.
“They didn’t win a massively high percentage of their own kickouts.
“But when they did, they did damage so that is something that we are going to have to look at and address and come up with our own plan to see what we can do to go against it.
“We have been shipping too many goals and I think we only had one clean sheet throughout the league campaign.
“And losing three like we did against Cavan won’t be good enough against Donegal.
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“We need to work at that this week in training and try and close that down because we don’t score a lot of goals ourselves.
“And as you saw against Cavan getting goals are massive momentum changers in games.”
Tyrone just about got over the line against the Breffni in a high-scoring encounter that they edged 1-23 to 3-16 after extra-time.
But they will face a far greater task against McGuinness’ men with Morgan admitting as much.
He added: “Donegal knew that the game-plan they had to beat Derry was going to beat any side in Division 2.
“So they got the opportunity to work on that progressively throughout the league, whereas we had to go game by game to see what we could do to try and match up to the top teams.
“It is going to be an interesting game and there will probably be more learning in the video analysis than there will be on the pitch this week.
“Donegal were super and I suppose we all knew with Jim coming back that they were going to bring something different.
“You sensed that they had been planning for Derry all throughout the league.
“They didn’t seem concerned about anything else.
“They got their game-plan right and they toppled them well and they will be a completely different proposition to the side that we met in the McKenna Cup. We are expecting a massive battle.
“They have some unbelievable players with boys who have been there for the last three or four years.
“But this year they look like completely different animals so we know we have a lot of homework to do.”
A win for Tyrone would see them reach a first Ulster SFC final since 2021 — when they went on to win Sam Maguire.
But Morgan will not be counting any chickens yet.
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He said: “Donegal look so fit and I suppose they look like the Donegal of old in terms of their fitness.
“Ryan McHugh and Brendan McCole look like different players this year and I was very impressed with Caolan McGonagle at No 6.
“You then have Jason Magee and Michael Langan in the middle and Ciarán Thompson as well.
“They are all players who are 6ft 2in or over and that is a big plus in that sector of the field.
“Up front they have firepower as well and are ruthless.
“They are just a very impressive side throughout and they have all bought into what Jim wants to do.
“And Jim strikes me as someone that if you don’t buy into what he is doing you can hit the road.
“He has been a massive plus coming back for Donegal this season and on Sunday it will be up to us to foil them.”
