Stunning Ardboe Fightback

Monday 04.10.2010

Club

We did have a bumper crowd in Dungannon on Saturday but not a great game between Coalisland
and Kildress in the first of the two senior semi finals. Anyone who travelled to O’Neill Park in search
of drama, excitement and a nail bitingly close game should have arrived an hour or so earlier to see
two really good minor sides produce a titanic battle. Ardboe looked down and out in the first half
when they found themselves trailing by six points as Stewartstown full forward Cathal Devlin led the
line superbly. The big Holy Trinity student was superb in the first half and it is worth pointing out he
still has two more years as a minor. He looks like he is going to be a huge prospect and showed some
fantastic touches particularly in the opening thirty minutes. However in the second half Ardboe got
much tighter to him and worked harder all across the pitch as they denied their opponents time and
space on the ball.

In spite of being down to fourteen men The O’Donovan Rossas produced a magnificent second half
to pip Stewartstown by a single point. Their full forward Conan Campbell was excellent but it was a
real team effort and team manager Benny Hurl was a very proud man at the end of this great advert
for minor football. I had a chat with Benny after the match and he was delighted with the attitude
shown by his team after the break. They can now look forward to facing Pomeroy in the league final.
The Plunketts beat Loughmacrory convincingly on Friday night to leave themselves in with a great
chance of winning a minor double.