Oisin O'Neill believes Crossmaglen have learned the lessons of last year's Ulster club SFC semi-final defeat to Gaobh Dobhair as they embark on another provincial campaign against John McEntee's Clontibret tomorrow night.

Fresh from scoring a late goal in Rangers' 45th Armagh SFC title success at the expense of Ballymacnab, the highly-rated forward recalled of last year's provincial exit in the Irish News: “It was tough for us.

“We maybe were a wee bit naive. For a lot of the boys it was their first time playing in the Ulster club, but this year we have done a right bit of work to tighten up the defence and not get caught as open at the back.

“Hopefully that experience of the Gweedore game will stand to us over the coming weeks.”

Cross' blitzed Ballymacnab with an unanswered 1-9 in the last 20 minutes of their recent county final win, but O'Neill wasn't happy with how they played before then. 

“We’ll have to improve on that, definitely,” he added.

“If we produce what we did in the first 40 minutes against Clontibret, we know we’ll be beaten out the gate.

“It was a great comeback, but we know ourselves that we’re going into a completely different kettle of fish starting with Clontibret and, with the calibre of some of the players that they’ve got, it’s going to be a real battle.”

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