Donaghmore savour survival on final day

DONAGHMORE can breath a massive sigh of relief after pulling it out of the bag in a critically important match against Coalisland on the final day of All-County League Division One on Sunday.

They trailed by eight points early in proceedings and their challenge could easily have unravelled entirely, but they came good in the second-half to run out 1-18 to 3-9 victors.

The stakes couldn’t have been much higher and Donaghmore’s victory means they will stay in the top flight for another year while Coalisland will take on Moortown in a relegation play-off encounter unless they manage to win the Senior Championship.

Donaghmore manager Mark Counihan was proud of his young lads and justifiably so as they played with real distinction in a match of very real significance. Not only that, but they hadn’t won a game in their five matches previous to this so this was a gutsy display indeed.

Counihan said: “When we reflect back on the whole season we’d be very happy with how it’s gone. We had nine debutants this year, eight of them are still minor, so for those lads to not only get loads of game time, but to come through a match of that magnitude is great and we’re just delighted.”

Donaghmore endured a nightmare start against an experienced Coalisland side but Counihan said the important thing is that they didn’t wave the white flag. In the second-half they outscored their opponents by 1-12 to 1-3 so it was stirring stuff from a Donaghmore perspective.

“We’d a nightmare start and it took us a while to get settled but after that I thought we had the majority of the play and kept tagging on the scores. Even though we coughed up a big lead early on we just had to keep going and thankfully the boys didn’t drop their heads.”

So with Division One wrapped up, Dromore, Killyclogher, Trillick and Carrickmore will participate in the league semi-finals. Greencastle have dropped back to Division Two while Coalisland are due to face Moortown in the play-offs.

Clonoe wrapped up Division Two last Wednesday night while Beragh and Pomeroy finish in the promotion play-off spots. Beragh will be promoted automatically if Clonoe complete a league and championship double. Strabane have been relegated to Junior while Tattyreagh and Killeeshil are set for the play offs unless they win the Intermediate Championship.