By Geoffrey Gillis

TYRONE'S senior hurlers may have put one foot into the quarter-finals of the Nicky Rackard Cup on Saturday afternoon, following their thrilling one point victory over Donegal, but as they prepare for Saturday's clash with Monaghan manager Kevin McNaughton is taking nothing for granted.

The victory has put Tyrone in pole position for a place in the last eight for the second year running, but McNaughton was quick to highlight a number of mistakes claiming that his team can ill afford to repeat them, at Omagh this weekend, if they are to achieve their sole objective of winning the competition.

"I'm very relieved to have won that game to be honest with you because I thought we made life very hard for ourselves. We played excellent hurling in the first fifteen minutes, and at stages in the second half, but overall we put ourselves under serious pressure," he lambasted.

"We gave away a lot of needless frees in the second half that should never have been committed.We got the start that we were looking, but we took our foot off the pedal. We stopped marking and we let them get a lot of loose possession. Their two goals came from our failure to clear the ball after several attempts, and at this level it's not good enough. Donegal punished us and we are fortunate to have won the game," he sighed.

McNaughton believed that winning against Donegal has given his team the boost that they required, but perhaps more importantly it has taken the pressure out of winning Saturday's game against Monaghan.

"There is very little to choose between the teams, at this level, and it was important for us to get the win under our belt before the Monaghan game. Its better getting the win to put the pressure on the other teams to secure victory, because you have to win one game to stand a chance of reaching the playoffs. We have done that and now we can look forward to Saturday's game without the added pressure of needing to win."

Tyrone's prospects have also received a boost with the return of Terry McIntosh. The Dungannon man captained the team last year and McNaughton is only too keen to be able to call on his experience considering Justin Kelly is ruled out of campaign through injury.

"Terry's return is a massive boost for the team. He has a knee injury but we will let him rest during the week and see how it goes. He is a very good option to have on the bench."

Monaghan will travel to Omagh for their first game of the campaign, but Kevin was expecting a very testing afternoon from a team full of confidence.

"Monaghan competed in Division Four of the National League, and they showed what they are about by beating South Down in the Final after extra time. They also beat Donegal in the Ulster Championship and they ran Derry close as well. They are no bad side, but the pressure is on them to get a result. They need to win one game and they will be hoping to do that on Saturday because they won't get anything easy against Donegal."

Monaghan possess a number of quality players throughout the field that are capable of causing Tyrone problems. Michael McHugh, Brian Phelan, Brian McGuigan and Stephen Lambe are just a quartet of players to watch out for. Manager Frank Brady will have Monaghan well tuned for this game, and if recent meetings between these neighbouring counties are anything to go by then expect a thriller. Throw in at Omagh is at 3:30pm.