Ulster Club SFC final: Errigal Ciarán (Tyrone) 1-8 Kilcoo (Down) 0-10
When it’s your time, it’s your time. As a sludgy, stagnant Ulster club final started to bubble up in the closing minutes, it was always going to be a question of who felt they had it in them to actually grab hold of this thing. Errigal Ciarán were a man up and in possession but so many of their players were suddenly gun-shy, unable or unwilling to be the man.
That was until Peter Óg McCartan, wing back on the Tyrone side, stepped up to the plate. He found himself a pocket of space but the shot was no dolly – he was kicking from the right with his right foot, with the natural curl of the ball reducing the size of his target with every yard. But McCartan, possibly buoyed by being on the scoreboard already, gathered his gumption and went for it.
Up went the umpire’s flag and with only 30 seconds left on the clock, it meant that Errigal were Ulster champions. “I wouldn’t be renowned for my scoring,” he said afterwards. He will be now.
“At the start of the Ulster club campaign we were sitting in a wee meeting room we have in Dunmoyle,” said manager Enda McGinley afterwards. “We said, ‘Right, everybody who has an Ulster club medal in this room, put up your hand.’ Knowing that it was just several of the management team. It was our wee chance of glory!
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“But the purpose of that – obviously, none of the players put up their hands – so the purpose of that was to show that this was completely doable. We are the oul’ fellas sitting up here with Ulster medals, how are you not going to get them?
“The Errigal team that we have taken this year, they have been so close multiple years. Three county finals in a row, lost last year in extra time to Trillick. The fourth year was Coalisland when they conceded three goals in the last nine minutes. They were right there for multiple years. Coming into Ulster they knew they had groundwork done too. And then you always need a bit of luck.”
It’s just the third time in the history of the competition that a Tyrone club have won the Ulster title and Errigal have done the needful all three times. They came through a final that was every bit the nip-and-tuck affair you’d expect. Cold breath, hard hits, every score a priceless one.
Kilcoo lost Darryl Branagan to a straight red card midway through the second half and though they upped their intensity after being reduced to 14, it ultimately told. Errigal were able to hold on to the ball for virtually all of the four minutes of stoppage time at the end of the game when the sides were level. Kilcoo ran themselves ragged but couldn’t get close enough to crowd them out.
Huddled up against December, the game brought 6,119 to Armagh’s Athletic Grounds, all looking to stave off the winter a while longer. Kilcoo’s travelling fans are old hands at this of course – this was their sixth Ulster final appearance since 2012. It was new ground for Errigal, though – the last time they were in an Ulster decider, Mickey Harte was the manager and Darragh Canavan’s dad was leading the line. Both of them even had hair.
They got a dream start here, Joe Oguz slamming home the opening goal after the selfsame Darragh Canavan wriggled through and popped a high ball to the back post. It shouldn’t have stood – Oguz was in the small square long before the ball was passed into him – but then again, Canavan looked to have his heels clipped as he bore down on goal so maybe it’s swings and roundabouts.
Kilcoo had a breeze at their back for the first half and despite the concession of the goal, they made fair use of it. Eugene Branagan swished over their first point from all of 40 metres, Niall Kane came up and split the posts with a free from the 45. Wing back Miceal Rooney was rampant, popping up to knock over two smartly-taken points in the first half alone.
At the other end, Errigal struggled to get either Canavan brother into the game and had a second goal ruled out, the umpires spotting the square ball this time around. Thomas Canavan kept them in touch with a couple of frees and Darragh Canavan ended the half with a fine score on the spin.
It meant that we had a level game at the break, Kilcoo 0-6 Errigal 1-3. The two sides went point-for-point most of the way home – Eugene Branagan’s excellent effort was matched by one from Peter Harte. Paul Devlin started to find space for Kilcoo but McCartan cancelled out his effort with an outside-of-the-boot special.
With 60 minutes on the clock, the sides were dead even, 1-7 to 0-10. All that was left was to see who could seize it. McCartan made himself immortal and Errigal march on to a date with Dr Crokes in the New Year.
“I was chatting to a fella, Danny Ball who managed them in 1993,” McGinley said. “And he said he bumped into Eamon Kavanagh, one of the players from ‘93 and he couldn’t believe that it was 31 years ago. It feels like yesterday. So he said, ‘Days like this, you remember for the rest of your life.’
“Whatever they do as a team is one thing. But they have achieved something today that when they are carrying each other’s coffins, days like these are still remembered. It’s exceptionally special, it’s exceptionally rare.”
ERRIGAL CIARÁN: D McAnenly; Cormac Quinn, A McRory, Ciaran Quinn (0-1); P Óg McCartan (0-2), N Kelly, T Colhoun; B McDonnell, J Oguz (1-0); T Canavan (0-3 frees), P Harte (0-1), C McGinley; R Canavan, D Canavan (0-1), O Robinson. Subs: M Kavanagh for Ciaran Quinn (46 mins); P McGirr for Robinson (52); R McRory for McGinley (61).
KILCOO: N Kane (0-1 free); N Branagan, R McEvoy, C Rogers; M Rooney (0-2), D Branagan (0-1), E Branagan (0-2); A Morgan, R Johnston; J Devlin, A Morgan (0-1), S Johnston; C Doherty, J Johnston, P Devlin (0-3, 0-2 frees). Subs: C Laverty for J Devlin (49 mins); C Mooney for J Johnston (61).
Referee: Noel Mooney (Cavan).
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