Garrity happy to give his best every time for Trillick

TRILLICK sharpshooter James Garrity isn’t getting caught up in two-in-a-row chatter ahead of Sunday week’s Senior Championship final against Errigal Ciaran.

The prospect of becoming the first team in two decades to retain the O’Neill Cup is an incredibly enticing one – and on top of that, the Reds are bidding to win their tenth Tyrone Senior Championship title in the history of the club.

But Garrity, who lofted over four points from play in Trillick’s thumping of Dungannon Clarkes last Friday evening, says that he doesn’t worry too much about statistical matters. Instead, he’s very much focused on doing his best for the team and hoping that the rest will click into place.

“I wouldn’t really dwell on it, for me it’s about the enjoyment and pride of playing for Trillick. Quite a lot of the boys would be into the club’s history, and I’m obviously reminded of that, but at the end of the day, I’m here to play football.

“You go out every day to try your best and try to win. We have plenty of players who are stepping up for us and that’s what we pride ourselves on, that sense of the collective.”

That Trillick emerged victorious from last weekend’s semi-final joust with Dungannon wasn’t a surprise. But what was surprising was the manner of the victory, putting the Clarkes to the sword with a devastating second-half performance, outscoring their opponents in that timeframe by 0-12 to 0-3. Garrity was delighted with the win but adds that there’s always room for improvement.

“It took us a while to get going in the first-half, we didn’t move the ball as quickly as we’d have liked and ran into tackles.

“But we were still one point up at the break and I supposed that gave us belief as we knew we hadn’t played well.

“We knew we had to kick on and thankfully we came out in the second-half and did just that.

“In fairness Dungannon hit a fair amount of wides, they got shots off that we could’ve shut down and blocked so we have plenty to work on for the next day.”

Trillick are in familiar terrain, and not just because they find themselves in another county final. It’ll be their third final encounter with Errigal Ciaran in six years, and while their previous meetings (2019 and last year) went according to plan, Garrity appreciates that it’s a brand new day.

“Finals take on a life of their own and we’ve a big two weeks ahead of us.

“We’ll look at our opposition and what we can bring to the table. We’ll give it our all in the final and see how we get on.”