McBride pleased with the character shown by Carmen

ADDED maturity within their ranks ensured Carrickmore avoided another limp exit from the Championship for the second year running, midfielder Lorcan McBride believes.

Despite the boost of an early Daniel Fullerton penalty goal Carmen were beaten out the gate in the first round by Edendork last season- 0-14 to 1-4- and a similar scenario appeared on the cards against Dromore in their 2024 O’Neill Cup opener a fortnight ago.

Approaching the midway stage of the second half at Healy Park, St Dympna’s seemed to hold all the aces as they forged ahead 0-9 to 0-5, with Carrickmore toiling to establish any cohesion or fluency. The early loss of influential skipper Sean Loughran to injury also suggested it might not be their night.

However the introduction of savvy veteran Marty Penrose, allied to an inherent self-belief and trust in their system of play, saw the team stage one of its trademark comebacks of old, before Lorcan McGarrity swung over a dramatic winning point deep into injury time.

Lorcan McBride is one of an exciting batch of young players in the Carmen ranks who manager Noel Slane will
be looking to to carry the torch
for the record 15 times champions as they continue their Championship journey this Friday night against Killyclogher.

The midfielder was delighted with the character and fortitude displayed in turning around the momentum of the Dromore tie down the home stretch.

“ That’s probably the first battle we have had early on in the Championship for a while. It was the same maybe against Loughmacrory a few years ago, the intensity was similar. It was just great to get over the line.

“ At half-time last year we were in the same sort of situation. This year we had that experience to call on.

“We have a process and a system this year and you saw that in the second half how we escaped out of that. I think that is a sign of how we have come on.”

Lorcan admitted though that it probably took the second half introduction of seasoned operator Penrose to collectively ignite their challenge against Dromore.

“ We were flat. Marty brought that bit of a spark and he is always able to bring that physicality and pace to the game.

“He’s a great player to have to come on and he brings everybody with him. You saw that when he came on.”

Looking ahead to the quarter-final, McBride cautioned that Carrickmore could ill-afford another tardy first half, with no guarantee they could dig themselves out of another hole.

“ That victory has given us a massive boost building up to the next round.

“Hopefully we can start the next game with a bit of a bang as it’s tough playing catch up.

“ Killyclogher are a good team and in recent years have won the Championship and got to Finals. They are not a team you can afford to take for granted.

“It will probably be a similar game to the Dromore one. Unless we pull off a better performance we won’t win, it’s as simple as that.”

It’s fair to say that Carmen find themselves in a brutal quarter of the draw, with nothing to really separate any of the four teams.

That competitiveness was underlined with both themselves and Killyclogher pulling a positive result out at the fire with almost the last kick of the contest in the first round.

McBride though contends that there is no such thing as an easy ride in the Tyrone Championship whatever the opposition.

“ I think the draw this year is as fairly split as it has been in a while. There is no one game you can look at confidently and say that team is going to win. I think that definitely applied to the section we were in with Dromore, Killyclogher and Omagh.

“ But that is the nature of the Tyrone Championship and at least we have got our ticket to the next round.”