Moy’s chances of upsetting the odds against Errigal Ciaran in the Tyrone SFC later this month could be dealt a hammer blow.
Former Tyrone star Colm Cavanagh remains sidelined and he didn’t feature in last Sunday’s six-point loss to Derrylaughan as the Division One season drew to its conclusion.
The win wasn’t enough for Kevin Barry’s to move themselves off the foot of the table and they’ll be relegated unless they can go all the way in the Senior Football Championship.
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The Moy will have home advantage against Clonoe in the relegation play-off, which may not be played for several weeks as the Championship takes centre stage in the county from next week onwards.
Kevin Murray’s side take on an Errigal Ciaran side who are the current favourites to lift the O’Neill Cup. The game will take place at Galbally on Saturday, September 24.
After missing their recent run of games with concussion, the Moy will be hoping to have the 34-year-old former All-Star available for selection.
“Colm has been out for three or four weeks now,” said Murray after Sunday’s loss to Derrylaughan.
“It is unfortunate that he isn’t available to us.
“We’ll need to see closer to the time if he will be available for the Championship.”
Murray expressed his disappointment at his side’s performance at home at the weekend.
Tyrone ace Brian Kennedy turned in a stellar showing for Derrylaughan while his midfield colleague Ciaran Gervin scored four points from play.
The hosts were rattled by an early second half goal from Fergal McAliskey and, despite a late Michael Conroy goal giving the hosts a fighting chance, they couldn’t close the gap further.
“We set out our target to get a performance in the game and we didn’t get that,” said Murray.
“I’m not highlighting any individual, but we just didn’t perform as a group.
“We didn’t do enough to win the game and we were well beaten by a hungrier team. It is back to the drawing board a bit and we’ll have to prepare for the play-off now.
“You try to just focus on your own game - if we won, we stayed up. That didn’t happen.
“We still have a chance of playing Division One football next season. It is a bit of a transition year for the club, but there’s still players at the club. They’ll have to look at themselves after that performance because it won’t be good enough against Clonoe.”
Murray admits a Championship battle against a star-studded Errigal Ciaran side is a daunting prospect and feels the relegation play-off against the O’Rahilly’s is the main priority for his side.
“We’ll probably put our full focus on that play-off - that will be our priority,” added the Belfast native.
“The Championship seems a fair bit off for us at the moment. We’ll lick our wounds and get our heads down and get refocused.”
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