Errigal Ciaran just happy to stay on track-Horisk

ERRIGAL Ciaran assistant- manager Paul Horisk admits that this weekend’s Championship semi-final opponents Killyclogher have developed a ‘nice habit’ of pulling results out of the bag when all seemed lost.

The Dunmoyle side set up the last four engagement with the St Mary’s when getting the better of Clonoe at the second time of asking in their quarter-final replay last Saturday evening at O’Neill Park.

Again it was another stern examination of Errigal’s mettle, with the Rahillys showing that they are no respectors of lofty reputations, but a combined eleven point haul from the brilliant Canavan siblings- Darragh and Ruairi- helped the favourites to eventually prevail on a 0-14 to 0-11 scoreline.

Paul Horisk, a member of Tyrone’s breakthrough All-Ireland winning squad in 2003, is part of Enda McGinley’s backroom team at Errigal this season. He acknowledges that in their three matches thus far the side have been scratching around to find their top form, but adds that despite inconsistency in their game they find themselves exactly where they want to be.

“ Everybody is looking to hit a bit of better form. At this stage everybody wants to be in the next round. We came out on the right side of it tonight. We could very easily have been on the wrong side of it last week so we will take it.”

While Errigal have endured a few rocky moments enroute to the semi-final, their progress has looked fairly serene in comparison to Killyclogher, who were twice on the brink of elimination before late goals rescued them against both Omagh and Carrickmore.

Horisk states that such back-to-back Houdini acts spoke volumes for their character and never say die spirit.

“ That’s a nice habit to have, to be able to pull matches out of the bag. They are a super team as well. They play positive attacking football and have some super forwards and great midfield too. They have plenty of county men, current and recent, to call upon too.

“ They also have young Nathan Donnelly back in there and a few of the McCanns, so they are sprinkled with plenty of talent and experience as well.”

Clonoe probably felt they let victory slip from their grasp the first day against Errigal, but any suggestions they would quietly disappear into the night were dashed as they produced another obdurate and passionate showing in the replay under the Dungannon lights at the weekend.

Paul Horisk stated that Errigal knew that the Rahillys would still have a kick in them, despite their struggles at the foot of the Division One table for much of the year.

“ Without a doubt we didn’t expect anything less from them. We were under no illusions after the first game and before that when we played them in the league when they put it up to us. We knew that this game would also go to the wire and that is what happened.

“ Fair play to both sets of teams they laid everything on the line. They were two good games. Like everybody else you are just glad to be in the next round and we’ll go and lick our wounds and see who is sore and who is not sore, and get ready for Killyclogher.”