“We got a big wake-up call” – Errigal captain, Tommy Canavan

ERRIGAL Ciaran and Omagh have both progressed to the quarter finals of the Tyrone senior championship.

They defeated Moy and Ardboe respectively to book their places in the last eight, but it was far from easy as both had to pull out all the stops.

It was supposed to be fairly straightforward for Errigal who were big favourites to overcome the Tir Na nOgs. However, they trailed by seven points at half-time, as a goal late in the first half from Michael Conroy really boosted the confidence of the underdogs.

Moy were hoping to maintain that momentum on the resumption, but it was Errigal who upped the tempo. They were soon back on track thanks to scores from Ruairi, Tommy and Darragh Canavan to reduce the deficit to four. Ruairi and Darragh Canavan added further points to bring them level, before Mark Kavanagh edged them ahead.

A well-worked goal from Joe Oguz really set them on the road to victory and they emerged winners by 1-15 to 1-10.

“There were plenty of concerns definitely when you’re seven points down at half-time.We definitely got a big wake up call and we were shocked in the first half,” said Tommy Canavan, the team captain afterwards.

Little separated Omagh and Ardboe during the first half of their clash at Pomeroy. The teams were level at 0-3 apiece after 20 minutes, and were still all square at half-time on a score of 0-5 each.

But it was the St Enda’s who made their mark on the resumption, getting the scores required to progress. They took the lead in the final quarter and emerged with the win on a score of 0-14 to 0-9, much to the delight of attacker, Jason McAnulla.

“We were just looking one win in the championship because we haven’t recorded one since 2019,” he said.

“It’s just one hurdle and it’s great to get over it. Ardboe are a very impressive team. with a lot of great players. But we got our match-ups right, we enjoyed playing today and we’ll be looking forward to the next round now.”