O’Donnell appreciates that St Enda’s face a massive task

SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTER-FINAL

PERHAPS a bit tongue in cheek but Omagh’s experienced attacker Connor O’Donnell has likened their task in the quarter-final of the Senior Championship this Saturday against the mighty Errigal to ‘Kidderminster getting Man City in the FA Cup’.

For one thing Midlands based soccer minnows Harriers haven’t the eight FA Cup triumphs to their name to equal the tally of Tyrone SFC titles that St Enda’s have secured in their illustrious history, but you get his point.

Few outside of Healy Park are giving Omagh much of a chance of causing a massive upset and knocking out the reigning Tyrone and Ulster kingpins this weekend.

So while there is clearly a bit of pre-match kidology at play, in using a somewhat exaggerated comparison, O’Donnell is realistic in his appraisals of where the two sides currently stand in the established pecking order right now.

“It’s like Kidderminster getting Man City in the FA Cup. It’s a massive task obviously and no-one is giving us a chance and probably rightly so with the league positions and Errigal’s experience this past couple of years.

“ They know what it’s about getting to Championship Finals and winning Championships. We played them in the league near the end of July. Both were missing boys on holidays and had injuries. I think they beat us by three points but they were in second or third gear.”

After a difficult league campaign, Omagh cantered to victory over basement side Derrylaughan in the first round of the Championship, and appeared in fine fettle, with the return of a number of established campaigners boosting their options.

Conor admitted the were pleased to draw a line under the league and move on.

“ When we got to safety we knew it was time to knuckle down and go full pelt in the Championship. Nobody has been talking about us so there was nothing to lose. In the past we maybe got too pent up for Championship matches and ended up getting beat with our season over.

“ We went into this Championship determined to enjoy it and give everything we have.”

During his impressive club career in the white jersey O’Donnell has had his fair share of clashes with Errigal in the Championship, and some have provided him with his most abiding memories.

“ Over my last 20 or 21 years I have ran into them a few times in the Championship. It is always a huge task. We were on the receiving end of a bad beating from them in 2019 but we came out on the right side of it in the 2005 Championship semi-final and the 2017 Final.

“ Look if you want to advance in this competition you are going to have to beat the best and we are under no illusions about what we face. They are going to need to have a bit of an off day and we need to have a brilliant day. We will relish the challenge and look forward to it but they will be massive favourites.”

St Enda’s are clearly going to have to pick it up from the Derrylaughan display, though given the horrendous weather conditions at Plunkett Park, O’Donnell was fairly satisfied with their showing.

“We kept up our standards and used the ball well in the second half which was a good thing as it would have been easy to drop off a bit. Obviously the conditions were very tough but I thought our skill level was fairly good overall.

“ One of the frustrating things about Omagh at times is that we tend to only start to play in the second half of the season. It shouldn’t happen like that. You need to get it going from day one otherwise you could end up facing the kind of relegation battle which we had to scrap our way out of. Thankfully though we have a stronger squad know with boys back at training and more men available which is nice to see for a change.”