Carmen’s Donnelly eyes up festive League title triumph

CARRICKMORE will be aiming to go one better than last season when they take on Dungannon at Father Hackett Park in Augher on Saturday afternoon with the Division One league title the prize at stake.

Twelve months ago they narrowly lost out to Trillick in the decider and this time around they face a Clarkes side who are bidding to win the Brendan Dolan Trophy for the first time in their history.

The St.Colmcilles will have the benefit of a semi final with Errigal Ciaran under their belts even though the newly crowned Ulster champions were well understrength.

It was a first outing for Carrickmore in eleven and a half weeks and full forward Rory Donnelly admitted prepartions weren’t ideal.

“The way things ran this year with Errigal going so far meant that there was going to be a lay off and to be honest it was tough to keep things going,” he said.

“We had to be ready whenever the game was going to be fixed. It wasn’t about anything fancy it was just about getting over the line and thankfully we managed to do that. It was always going to be a banana skin for us as they had so many key players missing but there was still fifteen hungry Errigal Ciaran players out there who had been doing all that training.

“ Eleven and a half weeks off certainly didn’t help us but it was just about getting a performance on the day and coming out with no injuries. Given conditions like that with a crossfield wind it was always going to be difficult to put up a big score and we struggled in the second half.”

Donnelly played a key part in that win last Sunday afternoon kicking four first half points as Carmen edged matters 0-10 to 1-6. Dungannon won their semi final against Galbally by a similar scoreline 1-7 to 0-9 and the Clarkes will take the field this Saturday exactly nine weeks after that encounter.

“They have been inactive as well and while some will say that this semi final will give us an advantage it will still all boil down to who takes their chances on the day,” admitted Rory.

“Dungannon gave us a lesson earlier in the year at home in the League. I think that they were caught a bit on the hop against Trillick as on the day they just didn’t perform in that semi final.

“ We have played this Dungannon team many times and it is never an easy game and the Final on Saturday will be no different but we are just looking forward to it and determined to give it our best shot.

“ There are two prizes up for grabs each year in senior football in Tyrone and of course it is a blow when you go out of the Championship but we regrouped after that and have worked hard at training since.”