Sunday March 26

Allianz Football League Division One

Tyrone v Mayo, Healy Park, 3pm

Last summer when Tyrone left Ulster encouraged and optimistic, Mayo frustrated the Red Hands at Croke Park.

A tense All Ireland SFC Quarter-Final was decided in the closing stages when Lee Keegan skipped forward to nail an important score.

Ultimately it meant Tyrone were left reflecting on what might have been as Mayo carved out a hard earned win at the Jones Road venue.

That match mightn’t be central in Tyrone minds this weekend, but Mickey Harte’s team need points if a League Final place is to be secured, while Mayo’s loss to Cavan means relegation worries still exist.

Those little nuggets ensure that the impending fixture at Omagh carries real meaning for Tyrone and Mayo.

“They're going to come here with all guns blazing because they want to recover some of the form that they had last year,” Harte admits.

“They'll be disappointed in a few of their League outings and I think maybe to come to Omagh, it's a bad time for them to get beaten last week, I'd rather they'd won last week, because they come to Omagh now needing a result, needing something to lift their season. I think when you see the white jerseys of Tyrone, that seems to help Mayo lift their season.”

Having made a bright start, Mayo manager Stephen Rochford was disappointed that his team failed to close out the game against Cavan. "The reality is that we put ourselves in a good position in the first half and again we're being penalised for our own mistakes,” Rochford reflected. “We have to suck it up and get ourselves ready now for next week.”

Tyrone’s reversal against Donegal at Ballybofey was a blow ensuring four teams now sit on seven points as the race for a top two finish hots up. “It's obviously very disappointing - the result for us,” Harte admitted.

“Not only the result but the nature of our performance. We can say bad conditions and it was difficult underfoot, but you really can't say that as an excuse because Donegal were playing in the same conditions.

“So they actually performed very well. We know we can do better than that and we know we have to do better to maintain our push for the League Final.”

The next two matches will be revealing for Tyrone and Mayo.

TYRONE: Niall Morgan; Padraig Hampsey, Ronan McNamee, Cathal McCarron; Rory Brennan, Justin McMahon, Tiernan McCann; Colm Cavanagh, Declan McClure; Kieran McGeary, Niall Sludden, Peter Harte; Mark Bradley, Sean Cavanagh, Mattie Donnelly.

MAYO: David Clarke; Brendan Harrison, Keith Higgins, Chris Barrett; Colm Boyle, Lee Keegan, Paddy Durcan; Tom Parsons, Danny Kirby; Fergal Boland, Cillian O'Connor, Conor O'Shea; Kevin McLoughlin, Andy Moran, Evan Regan.