Carmen surge through to semis at Edendork’s expense

SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTER-FINAL

Carrickmore 2-17  Edendork 0-18

By Niall Gartland

DOES redemption come into it? Or was it just about taking the not-insignificant step of booking their place in the final four of the Tyrone Senior Championship?

This time two years ago, Carrickmore slumped to a surprisingly limp first-round championship exit at the hands of Edendork at Pomeroy. If anything, the final scoreline of 0-14 to 1-4 was generous to a Carmen side that basically didn’t show up. A most un-Carrickmore-like performance if you pardon the cliché.

On Sunday, they laid that particular ghost to rest with a five-point victory over Edendork at the very same venue. Thoroughly deserved it was too – they held firm when Edendork went for broke in the second-half and a 47th minute Rory Donnelly goal proved crucial in the final end up. As did nine points from Danny Fullerton and myriad other positives from a Carrickmore perspective.

Carmen started like they meant business, Daniel Fullerton splitting the posts in the opening minute. And from their perspective, even better was to follow. Fullerton cleverly played the ball across to a perfectly positioned Lorcan McBride, whose attempt at batting the ball into the net was thwarted, but Colly McCrory was on hand to finish the job. 1-1 to no score after two minutes, the gauntlet was thrown.

They compounded their advantage with a booming two-point free from Lorcan McGarrity before Edendork got their account up and running via Harry Og Conlan, who came barging through before landing his first of three first-half points.

They were struggling to impose themselves in the middle sector, though, and Carrickmore surged into a 1-6 to 0-1 lead with Fullerton oozing confidence in front of the posts. He flung over a lovely effort from the wing in one sweeping movement, subsequently nailing a two-point free, and we were still only in the opening ten minutes of play.

Tyrone star Darren McCurry was yet to touch leather but it was only a matter of time before he came to the party. He came deep to find possession, assisting in Harry Óg’s second score, though Carrickmore were still very much in the ascendancy.

Edendork hit a brick wall on a number of occasions on their forays forward. In one instance, Rory Loughran shunted Luke Ferguson out of the way with a perfectly timed shoulder. In another, Loughran, Cormac Munroe and Rory Donnelly combined to stop Conn Kilpatrick in his tracks.

Carmen moved into a 1-8 to 0-2 lead with a superb Fullerton two-pointer, and they came agonisingly close to adding a second goal when Jonathan Munroe’s effort was tipped onto the crossbar.

Slowly but surely, Edendork grew into proceedings and they scored five points without reply in the second quarter to leave a more manageable deficit at the interval – three McCurry points from play, one McCurry free, and another effort from Harry Óg Conlan.

Conn Kilpatrick landed the first score of the second-half as Edendork’s fightback continued, but Carmen steadied the ship with points from play from Tiarnan Loughran and Fullerton.

Edendork had upped the ante though, and struck back with points from Stephen Corr and a superb team score polished off by Conor Mallon (Morgan dropped back to take the kick-out, Conlan fetched and Mallon scored – poetry in motion). A word too for Edendork half-forward Patrick McLernon, who was getting through a mountain of work all over the park.

At this point, Carrickmore could have yielded. They didn’t. Three points on the spin from the excellent James Donaghy, twice, and Fullerton re-established a five-point lead with Jonathan Monroe and Lorcan McBride among those stepping up to the plate when the moment required.

When you have a man like Darren McCurry in your ranks, you’re never truly out of it and he was responsible for the next four points of the game.

A two-point free, a ‘45’ and a classy score from play dragged Edendork back into proceedings, but his good work was virtually undone when Carrickmore pounced for their second goal, Rory Donnelly applying a tidy finish after a clever reverse pass from Lorcan McBride.

With 13 minutes remaining, Carrickmore held a 2-13 to 0-15 advantage but they still weren’t quite on the pig’s back. McCurry was again on target before further points down the other end by Cormac Munroe and Fullerton (his ninth of the day), but another two-point free from McCurry set up a potentially nervy finish.

Carrickmore finished with a real flourish though, driving forward in waves and winning two late frees, both of which were converted by McGarrity. Back in the semi-finals for the first time in three years, then – the dream is alive.

Scorers

Carrickmore: Danny Fulleron (0-9, 1 2pt, 1 2ptf), Rory Donnelly and Colly McCrory (1-0 each), Lorcan McGarrity (0-4, 1 2ptf, 2f), James Donaghy (0-2), Cormac Munroe and Tiarnan Loughran (0-1 each)

Edendork: Darren McCurry (0-12, 2 2ptf, 5f), Harry Óg Conlan (0-3), Stephen Corr, Conor Mallon and Conn Kilpatrick (0-1 each)

Teams

Carrickmore: Declan Grimes, Seamus Sweeney, Oran McKee, Brian Conway, Niall Allison, Rory Loughran, Cormac Munroe, Lorcán McBrde, Jonathan Monroe, James Donaghy, Rory Donnelly, Colly McCrory, Daniel Fullerton, Lorcan McGarrity, Tiarnan Loughran. Subs: Tiernan McGarrity for Loughran, Mattie McCallan for Conway, Pierce Byrne for Monroe, Martin Penrose for McCrory

Edendork: Dara Mallon, Cormac Mallaghan, Fionn Devlin, Fiachra Nelis, Ben Cullen, Niall Morgan, Correy Bell, Conn Kilpatrick, Luke Ferguson, Patrick McLernon, Conor Mallon, Jake Ferguson, Darren McCurry, Harry Og Conlán, Stephen Corr. Subs: Rian Nelis for McLernon, James Fearon for Corr

Referee: Mark Loughran (Errigal Ciaran)