Dungannon's Jonny ​Gillespie aware of AIL play-off ‘huge carrot’ and ‘massive stick’

Jonny Gillespie’s side needed a last-kick-of-the-game penalty to beat local rivals Clogher Valley in last weekend’s semi-final and the coach knows Dungannon will need to play better against Navan, who finished ninth in the division above them.

“The first thing is we had to acknowledge from last week the quality and energy of the opposition, they put us under pressure...so I was pleased with our resilience to stay in the fight despite not being anywhere near our best,” said Gillespie. “What do we need to do better? We're going to focus on starting the game better, the first 20 minutes we have to be on it, or the game could be over.

"We know this week there's a huge carrot but there's also a massive stick, we really want to put our best foot forward.

“We've got to get that first 10, 15, 20 minutes right because that's probably the one piece of the puzzle that's missing at the moment.

“At this stage of the season you take it...as I said last Saturday, if you had offered that to us before the game we would have taken it.

“It would be naïve to say we have to play perfectly all the time, obviously we’ll take one-point wins all the time if that is how they come.

“For us I suppose it is year three of the project, there's certain things we'd just like to be a little bit more efficient at...managing pressure and transferring pressure on to opposition.

"So that's what we've spent time looking at this week...how do we put pressure back onto Navan, they have a lot more to lose than we have.”

Navan beat an in-form Galwegians in their semi-final.

“I coached against Navan,” said Gillespie. “They have a pretty big pack, a good 12 and they are well-coached.

“If you look at their results a number of them were losing bonus points, they lost by seven away to Corinthians, so they have a lot to hang their hat on.

“It will be a hostile crowd, so we have to make sure we nail our bits and pieces and deliver a performance that, well, first of all, makes our supporters that travel every week with us up and down the country really, really proud.

“And, secondly, it's good enough to give us an opportunity in the last 10, 15 minutes to go on and win it, because it'll be that close and that late”

There is a huge prize on offer, but Gillespie is trying to treat it as another game.

“We haven’t framed it like that,” he said. “I suppose from around Christmas time we have spoken around every game is big, we have literally targeted every game to win.

“There is an expectation on us, that comes from within us that doesn’t come external, that is very much pressure we put on ourselves.

“I thought we were nervous and anxious against Clogher in the first 10, 15 minutes but that was the level of opposition and quality that they brought.

“Any pressure around promotion etc...that all comes from within our own group, so we know how to manage that and it's there to strive us on, not to hold us back.”

Winger Mervyn Brown is an injury doubt.

Omagh have home advantage as they bid to keep their senior status against Thomond.

The winner will play in Division 2C next season the loser will be in the junior ranks.