‘This is the sweetest victory yet’-Trillick’s Garrity

HAVING lost out in agonising circumstances in the 2020 County Final, talented Trillick attacker James Garrity felt last Sunday’s Senior Championship triumph was especially sweet as a result.

The Reds quest for back-to-back titles in 2020 was killed off in dramatic fashion when they lost the decider on a penalty shootout to Dungannon, but back at the scene of that gut-wrenching loss (Healy Park), three years down the line, they did get to belatedly annex the O’Neill Cup for a ninth time by virtue of their extra-time victory over holders Errigal Ciaran on Sunday.

Garrity, who weighed in with three points over the course of an engrossing battle, admitted that the buzz of victory on this occasion would be hard to surpass.

“ It’s the best feeling I’ve had yet after any Championship win. It was really sweet, especially after losing a few years ago the way we did.

“ It went to extra-time again and the whole way down to the wire. I just knew that we would dig deep inside to pull out the win and that is what happened.”

The 24-year old insisted there was no sense of panic or disappointment in the Trillick dressing room after normal time, despite seeing a six point second half cushion disappear.

“ We just focus on ourselves. We try and get our match-ups right. There was a couple of times we didn’t get them and they got a couple of runs on us to level things up. Whenever that happened we went back in and just stripped it all back. We talked about what we were going to do in the first half of extra time, taking it five minutes at a time. It was very much a process.”

Garrity admitted that beating a team of Errigal’s calibre was especially satisfying given the star-studded nature of their line-up.

“ Those boys were the best in the county for a reason. They have eight in the Tyrone set-up and are an absolute lion of a side.

” The rub of the green was on our side today and we just happened to pull through.”

The Reds of course have had to make-do this season without their regular talisman Mattie Donnelly, who has coaxed them on from along the sideline during the course of this successful Championship run, as he continues his recuperation from injury.

James maintains that the depth of quality in their midst was a telling factor in their eventual triumph.

“ We had to dig deep and conjure something up. Whether it was being inspired by those who went before us, we all had our own motivations I suppose.

“Every single one of the Trillick boys put in a shift from No 1 to No 26

“ From slugging it out at training in January, all the way through to now everyone has kept at it, even if the game time wasn’t as high as one or two might have hoped for. We have boys who could be starters in most teams but I suppose that shows the strength of our panel.”

It has been an emotional few weeks around the Trillick club with the sad passing of Gerry Donnelly and Garrity admitted that ‘Shep’s’ death provided additional motivation for all concerned in the St Macartan’s camp.

“ He was always going to be there watching over us, so we didn’t feel any additional pressure. It was more an inspiration.

“We just knew that we would have to dig deep for ‘Shep’. He’d be looking down on us all I’m sure very proud of what we did.”