By Orla Bannon

Tyrone forward Ronan O'Neill says he is being fuelled this season by a desire to prove his detractors wrong.

After starring in the county's 2010 All-Ireland minor winning campaign, a cruciate knee ligament injury stalled his progress with the U21s and after a couple of frustrating seasons at senior level, he has finally become an established first team regular this year.

He revealed he began to question whether he should stay in Mickey Harte's squad but has been a revelation this season and will be an important part of the attack in Sunday's Ulster SFC against Donegal at Clones.

“At the end of the year you always have these thoughts going across your head, thinking 'am I wasting Mickey’s time or my own time?'," said O'Neill.

“I thought things would kick in 2015 but it just didn’t happen. I was playing catch-up and then some of the U21 boys came in and got their chance. Getting just four minutes in the All-Ireland semi-final (against Kerry) was very frustrating and three minutes against Donegal equally so.

“But what really drove me on was to prove people wrong. People had a lot to say about me last year, now you can’t control that, but I wanted to prove them wrong. I wanted to play for Tyrone and be successful for Tyrone. That is what drove me on at the end of last year heading into this year.”

When his club, Omagh St Enda's got knocked out of the club champions last autumn, having been crowned champions the year before, O'Neill decided to “knuckle down, train hard and lose a bit of weight”.

He got a run of games in the McKenna Cup and Division Two of the Allianz League and his confidence is soaring again.

“Confidence as a gaelic footballer is massively important,” he says. “Things have fallen into place and I’m happy with how it has gone so far. But I’m under no illusions that I will be judged on how I do the next day so hopefully I can bring my performances up until now into the Ulster final.”

Tyrone have been criticised for a lack of a consistent free-taker, which has been their Achilles heel in recent seasons. Armagh's Oisin McConville, the all-time record scorer in the Ulster championship, has warned it will cost them down the line.

O'Neill is now the main right-footed free-taker and despite missing two in the first half of the Ulster semi-final replay win over Cavan, he insists he'll have no trouble standing over those kicks again on Sunday.

“You can miss free-kicks. There was eight or nine free kicks missed in the Monaghan v Donegal (Ulster semi-final) game the first day and there was nothing said about it.

“But whenever it's Tyrone, there's a big song and dance made of it. I saw Oisin McConville and Paddy (Bradley) harping on about it, but I'm sure they missed a few free-kicks in their time too. Listen, it's about stepping up after you miss and take them again. I'll be stepping up to take them again.”

The corner-forward's unselfish play set up a lot of scores for Tyrone in the second half of their 5-18 to 2-17 replay win over Cavan, but he hinted he may have to be more ruthless when living on scraps against Donegal.

“I’d like to think my vision is a quality in my game and I have that in my locker to set up other people for scores. If I see people in a better position I would give the ball to them. But the next day, there might not be that space, so when I get the ball I will have to weigh up whether to shoot for a score or pass.”