Championship Wins For Glenelly and Fintona

Saturday 09.09.2023

Championship Football

The double header of Tyrone Junior championship fixtures on Saturday evening saw Glenelly and Fintona emerge winners after two contrasting games. The first fixture paired a Glenelly side fresh from their preliminary round victory over Augher last week with neighbours and rivals Clan na nGael before emerging winners on a score of 1-17 to 2-10.

The other game in the double header was a clash between Urney and a Fintona side that finished just two points behind league winners Cookstown. This one never really caught fire and an early red card for Urney diminished the contest even further with the Pearses displaying all their craft and guile to win comfortably on a score line of 0-18 to 0-7.

Glenelly took a while to settle into their game and for long periods of the first half it was Clan na nGael who were the better side. At the end of a low scoring first thirty minutes GNG led 1-6 to 0-5. They had played with the advantage  of a significant wind in the first period and points from Johnny Knox, Danny Ball and Robbie Conway added to a goal from Gareth Mc Dermott looked hardly sufficient to get a win.

Man of the match Lorcan Mc Cullagh and Garrett O’’Neill worked hard to ensure their team were well in the game when the second half threw in. Glenelly were much improved after the break and outscored their opponents nine points to one during the opening twenty minutes of the second period. Conor Mc Aneney, Ronan OKane, Garrett O’Neill and Cathal O’Neill were among the points as their side outfought and outthought their opponents.

With ten minutes remaining Glenelly had turned a four point half time deficit into a five point lead and they looked set for victory. CNG however were not finished and a Shea Browne goal gave them hope. Almost immediately Lorcan Mc Cullagh struck for a goal for Glenelly to steady the ship and leave six points between them with six minutes remaining.

A brace of points from Browne followed by a David Conway goal suddenly had the gap down to a point. However a further point from Lorcan Mc Cullagh and substitute Seamus Harkin were enough to see Glenelly home to a deserved win on a score of 1-17 to 2-10.

There was a large crowd in for the second game at Killyclogher as Fintona locked horns with Urney. Any hopes of a close fought championship tussle had disappeared by the end of the first quarter by which stage Fintona led 0-6 to 0-1 and Urney had been reduced to fourteen players following a straight red card for corner forward James Kelly.

The Pearses produced some very exciting football and deservedly led at the break 0-10 to 0-4 with scores from Peter Mc Glinn, Conor Mc Gillion, Conor Mc Goldrick, Aaron Mc Carney, Pauric Kelly and Aidan Donnelly. Urney’s response was patchy and mostly inadequate with Matthew Sproule, Johnny Lafferty and Jamie Mc Aleer on target.

Things did not improve much for Urney after the break as they struggled to match their opponents intensity and workrate. Fintona outscored Urney eight points to four as they easily made it through to a quarter final meeting with Drumquin.