By Barry O’Donnell

AMBITIOUS Tyrone midfielder Ruairi McHugh insists that the minor’s team desire for further honours this season remained steadfast even with the Ulster title in the bag.

The Coalisland powerhouse, who forms such a formidable tandem around centrefield with Ronan Donnelly, was again at his marauding best in the Ulster final triumph over Donegal at the weekend.

The only blot on his copybook was a second-half black card which reduced his team down to 14 men, but in his absence his colleagues more than rose to the challenge, swooping for two decisive goals to take the game beyond the reach of the Tir Chonaill.

Amid the post-match celebrations though, McHugh outlined the lofty ambitions which all of the squad still harbour, as he turns his thoughts to this Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final meeting with Munster champions Cork in Tullamore.

“Donegal was our toughest test so far and we expect them to be tougher still going forward into the All-Ireland. Cork is definitely going to be a battle.

“But winning the Ulster title was our first marker and after that we want to push on now next week.”

Having breezed into the provincial decider on the back of facile victories over Down and Fermanagh, the young Red Hands found themselves embroiled in a more traditional derby arm-wrestle at Brewster Park against Donegal.

The outcome remained in the melting pot with Tyrone leading 0-7 to 0-5 at the 45-minute mark, before those two last-quarter goals form sub Sean Owens and captain Conor Devlin put the issue beyond doubt.

McHugh, a student at Holy Trinity in Cookstown, said the scale of the resistance posed by Donegal came as no surprise.

“We knew it was going to be our toughest test yet and up till the latter stages scores were hard to come by. We knew it was going to be a more defensive game and that we had to be patient. We had to work around them and thankfully we did that and got the positive result.

“We looked to get a few points on the board early on which we did but we struggled for a long spell after that.

“You have to give credit to Donegal for that. They got into a defensive mode and made it tough for us to break them down.

“In the second half we drove up at them from the throw-up but again they hung around and made things tough for us.”

McHugh praised the strength in depth within the Tyrone ranks as illustrated by the significant impact of the second-half substitutes who were drafted in to help see the job out.

“We have great depth in our squad. You seen that with Conor Owens coming off the bench.

“He kicked four points last week and kicked a goal and two points this week. There were other boys too who came on as well and made a big difference.

“This team won the Ulster title (u-15) two years ago as well so we knew we had it in us.”