By 
SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL
JUBILANT Loughmacrory captain Nathan Kelly stated that his side were not in any mood to pass up the opportunity to make history on Sunday.
The 28-year old became the first St Teresa’s player to ever get his hands on the O’Neill Cup as they pipped Trillick by a point in a thrilling Senior County decider at Healy Park.
Amid the euphoric and emotional celebrations on the pitch afterwards the full-back said that the manner in which the side kept their poise and composure in those tense closing moments said it all about their character.
“That was the mantra of this side all year. We spoke about it a lot. That mantra is ‘not today’. That shone through in the dying moments of that game. I spoke before about maturity.
“ I don’t think you will see a more mature five minutes than what we put on there at the end. The way we were able to keep that ball and retain possession and work our scores whenever the chips were down, I thought are boys were just unbelievable.”
The Reds raced into an early three point lead and appeared set to underline why they carried the favourite’s tag into the contest but it wasn’t long before the underdogs from the Lough settled to their task. Kelly insisted that they expected Trillick to come firing out of the starters blocks.
“We knew Trillick were going to target an early start. We were first time finalists so we knew they would try and rattle us. So we knew that was coming but we also spoke about the need to say calm and stick to the process. Do what we have been doing all year.
“We have been able to respond to big setbacks all year. Ciaran Daly came racing through and stuck the ball in the net. They had a lot of momentum at that stage but we won the next kickout. So we were able to turn the tide back in our favour and regain a bit of control every time that we looked under the cosh.”
The Loughmacrory captain appreciated that this breakthrough triumph would mean so much to everyone in the village and local community, after years striving to reach the pinnacle.
“We are really proud people .Whenever our people are doing well we like to celebrate them because they have worked hard for it and they have earned it. The whole of Loughmacrory is here tonight to support us and I think it will go down as a pretty memorable day for everyone.”
