Championship bow held no surprises for Urney boss

URNEY manager Dougie Corbett said that his first up close and personal experience of Tyrone Club Championship football came as no surprise to him.

The St Columba’s were much fancied to get the better of an out of sorts Fintona in the opening round a fortnight ago but they were pushed hard to earn their quarter-final berth.

Their reward for recording that hard-fought 1-9 to 0-10 victory over the Pearses under the lights at Healy Park is an outing this Sunday night against Killyman.

For Corbett the resilience of Fintona came as no surprise.

“I’ve been at Senior, Intermediate and Junior games in Tyrone and I know just how difficult they are. That game came as no shock to me. There are no favourites in Tyrone.,” he said.

“You seen Dungannon last year in the Senior. For us it was about now focusing on the next round,” confirmed Corbett who along with Reggie Porter, Matthew Neeson and Anthony Bogle form a solid backroom team.

Danny Lynch was the all important goalscorer for Urney in what turned into a real dogfight against Fintona. No-one gave the Pearses a chance but they worked hard throughout.

Corbett acknowledged that his side’s composure and experience proved important especially in the latter stages despite no Johnny Lafferty to call upon

“We showed that composure and added a couple of late scores to settle us. Hopefully we have a couple of players back for the next game”.

That next outing for the St Columba’s is Killyman who won their first championship game in some seven years with Enda Mc Gahan spearheading a memorable win coming back from five points down to secure a 1-15 to 0-13 win over Clann na nGael in driving rain at Carrickmore.

FULL STORYT IN THIS WEEK’S CHRONICLE