Dungannon Clarkes finish strongly in victory over Trillick

Dungannon 3-8

Trillick 0-11

DUNGANNON Clarkes found their goal-scoring touch as they overcame a sluggish start to record a deserved victory over Trillick in tonight’s first-round championship clash at O’Neill’s Healy Park.

The Clarkes failed to score for the first twenty minutes, and it looked like Trillick were on course avenge their 2020 final defeat to the same opposition as they opened up a deserved 0-4 to 0-0 lead with Lee Brennan scoring three early frees.

However, Dungannon turned the game on its head in the space of a minutes as Paddy Quinn knocked over their first point of the game before an alert Dalaigh Jones pounced for a goal following a misplaced kick-out.

In the first quarter, some of Dungannon’s play had been downright turgid, kicking away ball and running into challenges, but they’d finally sparked into life and they added another goal before the break via Quinn.

Dungannon carried a 2-2 to 0-4 lead into the second-half, but Trillick pushed hard in the third quarter with substitutes Richie Donnelly and the lively Seanie O’Donnell getting their names on the scoresheet.

It looked like we were in for a grand-stand finish, but it was Dungannon who claimed the crucial scores when the game was in the melting pot. Corner-back Darragh Skeffington showed tremendous initiative to score their third goal. Ciaran Barker added two clinical long-range frees in the final ten minutes, and try as they might, Trillick couldn’t breach the formidable Clarkes rearguard as they went search of a goal. It was Dungannon’s night and now they have two weeks to prepare for a quarter-final quarter against the winner of Saturday’s contest between Errigal Ciaran and the Moy.