Aghyaran at Home in Playoffs

Tuesday 02.11.2010

Club

Well the last official league fixture of the Tyrone All County Division One for the 2010 season did not take place in Tyrone at all but was actually played in Donegal, in Castlefin to be precise. Following the abandonment of Sunday’s game Aghyaran and Dromore locked horns once again under lights. The opening half was all Dromore following Eoin Mc Cusker’s eighth minute goal. Rory Mc Menamin scored three fine points for the blues while the recently returned Shaun ‘Snowy’ O’Neill showed he is close to regaining his best form with two fine points. By half time the 2009 county champions looked to be in total control leading on a scoreline of 1-7 to a point.

Few if any would have foreseen the late second half comeback staged by the St. Davogs especially after Emmett O’Neill scored Dromore’s second goal of the game with less than fifteen minutes left. That left the score 2-9 to 5 points in favour of the league semi finalists and the game seemed up for Martin Penrose and his team mates.

However Aghyaran refused to concede defeat and won a penalty a minute later which was brilliantly saved by Niall Mc Nulty in the Dromore goal. Back came Aghyaran again and with Martin Penrose in brilliant form they threw caution to the wind. Penrose himself scored a goal in the seventeenth minute and aided by Jude Hans the pair helped score one goal and eight points without reply in the last thirteen minutes of the game to force a draw.

The final score of 2-10 to 1-13 and the point that goes with that result ensured that Aghyaran have home advantage in their playoff game with arch rivals Kildress. That game plus the two league semi finals will take place on Saturday afternoon at two o’ clock and is sure to attract a large crowd. The border men are never easy opponents and as they showed this time last year in a similar situation, they will not give up their place in senior football without a fight.

With Errigal facing Omagh and Coalisland at home to Dromore in the top four games and Aghyaran  versus Kildress in the relegation playoff, supporters of gaelic games will have no shortage of topics to discuss for the remainder of the week. Tonight’s dramatic second half comeback is sure to arouse lots of debate but that will all be forgotten if results go the right way on Saturday. Home advantage is always important in these games and I would imagine all three home sides will fancy their chances of victory. My prediction however is two home and one away win but, like tonight’s game, we will continue the discussion later in the week.