Tyrone champions will be out for a fourth consecutive weekend when they face Antrim side

AIB Ulster Club SFC preliminary round:

Clonduff (Down) 0-12 Edendork (Tyrone) 0-17

Edendork manager Brian McGuckin is planning a family get-together this week as part of his preparations for Sunday’s Ulster Club SFC quarter-final clash with St Brigid’s.

His brothers, John and Paddy, are former joint managers of the Antrim champions, and the St Malachy’s boss is hoping they’ll be prepared to share some useful nuggets of insight into the Belfast outfit.

The McGuckin brothers managed St Brigid’s for two seasons, leaving at the end of the 2024 campaign.

“I have two brothers that managed them not so long ago, and hopefully I’ll get one or two nuggets off them,” said Brian.

“John and Paddy had a really wonderful time down at St Brigid’s for a couple of years, and they seem to have built up a really good bond with the club and the players.

“So I’m just hoping that they’re willing to give me a pointer or two.

“But we’ll analyse them and we’ll try and prepare as best we can.”

Edendork return to action for the fourth successive weekend, having come through a county final replay against Errigal Ciaran ahead of their provincial debut, and the tight schedule has brought its challenges in terms of recovery and injuries.

“Our ultimate aim is recovery, to get the boys recovered as quickly as possible, so that we can get out on the pitch and get up for St Brigid’s next Sunday.

“We spoke directly after the game. Obviously last week had to be celebrated, and we allowed the boys to celebrate for a couple of days.

“But we had to focus on Clonduff, recovery started on Monday night, everybody bought in, and the aim was to win.

“I think our celebrations had taken a toll on us, so we’ll hopefully be in a position to put in a good performance next weekend.

“The game took its toll, we had a few muscular injuries, and we just hope that they recover fast.”

A comfortable preliminary round win over Clonduff pleased McGuckin, but he accepts that his side must find another level if it is to go deeper into the series.

“I thought we played reasonably well, but there are areas of our game that we need to improve on if we’re looking to go any further in the competition.

“But it was all about going out and putting in the performance required to win, and we did that.

“It was a tough turnaround, there’s no doubt about it, but the fact that we won the game, that’s pleasing, the boys were all very keen to put their best foot forward and to perform as well as they could.”

After escaping the pressurised environment of the Tyrone championship, Edendork revelled in the freedom of the provincial arena as they carved out a 0-17 to 0-12 win at Pairc Esler.

“Most definitely, there was a wee bit more freedom there.

“Although we tried to analyse the opposition as best we could, you’re not going to get analysing as well as you could analyse a Tyrone team.

“So the game was played definitely with a wee bit of freedom, and I’m just delighted that we came out the right side of it.”

For first-time Tyrone champions, an Ulster club adventure can be seen as bonus territory, but that’s not the way McGuckin sees it.

He wants his players to grasp the opportunity and represent the county with honour.

“We don’t look on it as being bonus at all, and that’s being completely honest.

“We feel that having won the Tyrone championship, we want to represent Tyrone with distinction.

“We’re looking it as we’re going into a competition where we’re representing Tyrone, we want to do our club proud, we want to do Tyrone proud, we want to go as far as we possibly can in this competition.”

Injuries have taken their toll, and the greatest concern surrounds centre back Ben Cullen, who was forced off with a knee injury at Pairc Esler.

“It took it all. Our squad is now being stretched to the very limits, and there were players who got game time there tonight who haven’t got a minute all year.

“But Paudie Donnelly has been a quite astonishing servant for Edendork, and for him to go out and perform like that as a 38-year-old, after getting no game time from the Ardboe game, he deserves a serious amount of credit.”