Eglish manager pleased with leadership of younger players

INTERMEDIATE CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTER-FINAL

SHARPSHOOTER Ethan Jordan may have grabbed all the headlines after Eglish stunned Coalisland in the tie of the first round in the Intermediate Championship, but St Patrick’s joint manager Aidan McElroy was keen to praise the role of two of the younger squad members.

Jordan amassed a stunning personal scoring tally of seventeen points as they edged out the Fianna in a thriller at O’Neill Park, but McElroy felt others were worthy of mention too.

“Conor Holmes was part of the Tyrone U20 panel this year but was injured and didn’t get the game time that he wanted. Nathan Horsfield is in the Under-20 panel this year but got injured and decided to step out which was a very mature decision for a 19 year old knowing that the county could go on to win an All-Ireland.

“They were massive for us and they have been all year. They were two of the youngest boys on the pitch but they are real leaders for us.”

Eglish now face Owen Roes in the quarter-finals this Friday night under the lights at Healy Park and McElroy has no doubts that his side can again rise to the challenge.

“The Coalisland game was seen as the tie of the round and it didn’t disappoint. I would have loved to have been standing on the terrace watching that and enjoying it because I certainly didn’t enjoy it standing on the line. They are two teams with aspirations of being up at senior level and it had that quality about it too.

“Everyone knows what the Tyrone Championship is about. At times we didn’t get to the pitch of where we needed to be but in the last fifteen minutes the boys threw everything at it. We had talked about that all week, the team that finished strong was going to get over the line and that is what happened.”