Tyrone's Richard Donnelly is expecting a Donegal backlash at Ballybofey on Saturday after their comprehensive Division One defeat by Kerry last week.
Declan Bonner’s side failed to score for 35 minutes at one point and trailed by 0-9 to 0-2 at the break in Killarney.
The final score was Kerry 1-13 to Donegal’s 0-7 on a bad day for the visitors.
“There’s good characters in that Donegal dressing room,” said Donnelly, who hit one of the clinching scores in the All-Ireland champions’ one-point League win over Kildare at the weekend.
“They’re good players and they have shown that with their consistency over the last few years.
“I suppose every team has a performance where it’s not up to scratch or they’d like it to be better.
“But generally after that, you do get the reaction, and no doubt that will come, and especially with it being Tyrone-Donegal, that will be a factor as well.
“We’ll just have to be ready for that, and match it and overcome it.
“It’s a tough place to go and get a result in, especially against a good Donegal team.
“We’re well aware of that, but it’s another opportunity for us, and it’s a game that excites us, because we love going into those type of games that we know are going to be tough.”
Tyrone edged the Lilywhites out at Omagh despite being without the injured Mattie Donnelly and a quartet of suspended players — Kieran McGeary, Padraig Hampsey, Michael McKernan and Peter Harte — who are all available again this weekend.
They had to dig deep to shoot two late points as goal efforts from Darragh Kirwan and Daniel Flynn in the final eight minutes only yielded a single point for Kildare.
“It’s something that we are conscious that we needed to bring, to play for Tyrone, is that mental toughness,” says Donnelly.
“Anyone that’s in that circle and has done the work to get there, they have already shown that they’re mentally tough and can overcome adversity.
“As a team and as a group we have certainly shown on numerous occasions now that we can
rally the troops and really face adversity head-on and overcome it. Last Sunday was no different.
“It was very pleasing, with the personnel that we were missing, that we could come out on top and win a game like that against a team that is playing well and moving well and progressing under their new management.
“I’m sure they (Kildare) would have seen that as a huge opportunity, but we also saw it as an opportunity, as a game in which we were in trouble because of the personnel that we were missing.
“But that’s not how every individual person approaches it, or us as a team.
“I think we approached it as an opportunity to show and express the players and the depth that we have, and the willingness to play for the team and most importantly to get a result for Tyrone.”
