By Barry O’Donnell

ERRIGAL Ciaran captain Thomas Canavan hopes that the re-introduction to the fold of a host of Tyrone star men can kick-start their season into gear.

The Dunmoyle boys secured their first victory in the league at the fourth time of asking last Friday when easily dispatching with the challenge of struggling Derrylaughan 2-13 to 0-8. It was probably no co-incidence that the return to winning ways arrived in the first non-Starred Game of the campaign.

The team were able to call upon a litany of county campaigners to spearhead their challenge, among them the Canavan brothers-Darragh and Ruairi- as well as Peter Harte. Ruairi underlined his importance as he weigned in with seven points, while one of the goalscorers was another Tyrone senior panelist Ben McDonnell.

The other man to hit the back of the net was Thomas Canavan, who was pleased that he was surrounded on the pitch by a plethora of talented individuals and proven match winners.

“If you take eight players out of any team it’s going to make a difference so it’s a big bonus to get all the lads back. It also helps at training where there is more of a buzz. So it’s good as a whole to get up and running again.

“The other boys put their shoulder to the wheel pover this last number of weeks and kept the thing going in games and at training. Thanks to them we stayed in a decent enough spot but any team is going to miss the lads we had unavailable.

“ It wasn’t easy scoring tonight with the strong breeze. Many’s a night in Dunmoyle it can be tricky with the weather when the wind gets up. But it was great to have a few forwards back in who know how to find the range.”

Thomas admitted that it was important to register a first league victory of the year, especially when they came into the Derrylaughan match on the back of a ten point hammering against fierce rivals Carrickmore the week vbefore.

“Anytime you come up against our neighbours Carrickmore it is always a very tough battle so we got what we expected. Carrickmore are going very well at the minute and they will be hard to chase this year. We might meet them down the line and hopefully make up ground between now and then.”

The team captain, who was also part of the Tyrone Minor backroom team this season, hopes that Errrigal can now build on the Derrylaughan result as the season picks up a gear or two.

“We have plenty of games to play yet. It is a long season. It was just good to get the first victory and hopefully we can back it up with a few more in the next couple of weeks.

“We are away to Coalisland next week which will be another battle. They have their County men back too so that cancels itself out but it is never easy getting anything there.”