Tony Donnelly has stressed the importance of Tyrone keeping their goal intact against Donegal.

Mickey Harte's former right-hand man, who stood in for the long-serving manager in the drawn Allianz League clash with Kerry last month, feels goals have been the key to Donegal's dominance of this fixture since the 2011 Ulster semi-final.

"It is a case of who blinks first between Tyrone and Donegal," the Augher man said in the Irish News.

"When you're playing Donegal, you know you've got to keep the scoreline tight. If they get away from you at any stage of the game they seem to go on to another level after that.

"A goal in games like these is a massive score; it's a massive score in any game, but particularly between Donegal and Tyrone.

"They've got goals against Tyrone at crucial times and they've got away from us, and that's the way the games have panned out.

"Obviously, Tyrone will want to keep it tight or get ahead and force Donegal into a rethink. Because of that burst of five or 10 minutes of scoring that they do, tactically, they put you on the back footb, and you have to change things to chase them down."

Donnelly added: "I would love to see the game going into the last 15 minutes with the scoreboard still totally in the balance and to see a grandstand finish. I would take that (scenario) now."

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