By 
THE CHAMPIONSHIP dreams of a host of teams were either enhanced or dashed following a hectic few days of action in the first round of the Intermediate and Junior knockout series across the county.
The quest for both the Paddy Cullen Cup and Pat Darcy Cup is down to the quarter-finals in both competitions.
The first side through to the last eight in the Intermediate Championship was Tattyreagh who accounted for Eskra on Thursday night in Fintona, 3-11 to 0-13. The result consigned the Emmetts to the drop to Division Three next season.
Tatts captain Johnny Harkin knew that Eskra were going to give it their all given their perilous position going into the contest.
“ No matter who you play in the first round of the Championship you are going to be a bit rusty. You can be a bit panicky and second guess yourself. But whenever we got going you could see that we were the better team.
“Fair play to credit to Eskra it wasn’t easy for them after the season they had. We came on towards the end and we definitely have a shot in this Championship if we keep playing the way we can.
“We thought in the first half we had two or three goals we should have rattled in. You can think things mightn’t go your way but in the end we pulled through.”
Tattyreagh overcame an indifferent spell early on in the league to preserve their Division Two status fairly comfortably at the end up. Harkin believes they can carry that form and belief now into the Championship arena.
“This game is 90 per cent confidence. We started the season with the same team and as the season went on your confidence builds.
“To us now the sky is the limit but I suppose every team thinks the same.
“We will take every game as it comes and see how we get on.”
The Tatts now meet Galbally following their win over Pomeroy yesterday (Sunday) in the quarter-finals.
Harkin stated that they will relish going in as underdogs.
“Every game bar this with Eskra we have gone in as underdogs which suits us down to the ground. Coming into this game as favourites was a weird scenario. We haven’t been used to it.”
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