All week the Errigal Ciaran manager Enda McGinley had sensed something special brewing among his players.
An added steely resolve, a sense that all those days when they were derided back home for coming up short was coming to a reckoning.
In Ulster club football these days, it doesn’t really get any bigger than Kilcoo. They haven’t won what they should have perhaps but they are still the litmus test for everyone else.
And true to form, even as they lost Darryl Branagan to a red card in the 44th minute for a head high challenge on Odhran Robinson that left referee Noel Mooney with no other option, Kilcoo were hardly discommoded.
Branagan had been among their best players, rampaging from centre-back, but in his absence his colleagues appeared to move up a gear, adding pressure on the numerically superior Errigal in those closing stages.
Had Kilcoo been told beforehand that they would keep the Canavan brothers, Darragh and Ruairí, to a point from play between them, they’d have been entitled to think that the main body of work would have been completed in staking out a third provincial title.
But Errigal are clearly more than just the Canavans and in Peter Óg McCartan they had a wing-back who soared in confidence as the game progressed.
He got the winner as four minutes of added time closed out, a brilliant spiralling kick at a time when others either couldn’t find the space or the nerve to do it. Worthy of settling any dispute.
But for the previous two scores, both to draw Errigal level with Kilcoo’s 14, he was protagonist too, slicing a kick from about 40 metres for his first score and then making the run to draw a foul that Tommy Canavan punished to set up the finish that unfolded. Ben McDonnell’s improvised kick while lying on the ground to put McCartan away after dispossessing Eugene Branagan should not be forgotten in any summation of this game either.
“Peter Óg is an exceptional player and again so many of our players, you live in the shadows of our stars and yet we know what they are capable of too,” said McGinley.
“The dressing-room before the game was one of those special places where you just know there’s a hunger, energy and pride in them that it’s going to take something very special to beat them.
“They have put up with plenty of things being said about them over the years, particularly within Tyrone whenever they have come up short but with the nature of the Tyrone championship that can happen. Whenever it happens, plenty of stuff is said about them in terms of doubting their character. They felt today was the final chapter of that, of establishing themselves and showing themselves what they can do.”
The ‘league specialists in chokers’ as McGinley suggested they might have been mischievously called had they not seen this one out, they are not.
Errigal Ciaran’s Niall Kelly, left, celebrates with teammates. Photo: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
It was Errigal’s third Ulster club title and consequently only Tyrone’s third too, adding to previous wins in 1993 and 2002.
Why any team’s character from this club could be doubted at home is a curious one in that context.
“To be honest, knowing the Tyrone championship, knowing the other teams that are there, knowing the management set-ups, that to me is a statistical oddity. I firmly believe there will be other Tyrone clubs winning Ulster titles in the coming years. But they’re very difficult won,” acknowledged McGinley.
Before 6,119 in the Box-It Athletic Grounds, it played out as anyone would have expected it – tight, tense and tactical. But there was still plenty of contests and most of the 19 scores were hard earned.
Darragh Canavan might have been restricted to a point but he was generally the source of most of Errigal’s better early moments.
Their fifth minute goal came from his sleight of hand. He might have won a penalty when Jerome Johnston appeared to clip him but on the ground he still scooped up a pass with his hands across the goalmouth, high enough for Joe Oguz to rise and bat home.
Kilcoo reacted well, injecting pace into it when they had and patience when that was required too. By the mid point of the half they had wiped out Errigal’s lead and by the 25th minute had forged two ahead, 0-6 to 1-1. By then four of their six points had come from half-backs.
They avoided the concession of a second goal when Tiernan Colhoun was adjudged, correctly, to have been in the square when a Robinson shot that had been thwarted and landed in his grasp, was struck on 24 minutes.
By the break there was parity, 0-6 to 1-3, and Kilcoo had just nudged ahead when Daryl Branangan was dismissed.
The temperature had been rising through that third quarter with various flashpoints erupting but when Paul Devlin finished a fine Kilcoo move on 49 minutes, it felt like it might just move the dial their way as they pushed 0-9 to 1-5 ahead.
McCartan’s interventions from then on effectively decided it but Errigal’s build up to his last score clearly benefited from the numerical advantage.
Errigal have a pedigree and McGinley acknowledged that they “stand on the shoulders of giants” in achieving this.
“I was chatting to Danny Ball who managed [Errigal] in 1993 and he said he bumped into Eamon Kavanagh, one of the players and he couldn’t believe that it was 31 years ago. It feels like yesterday. And he said ‘days like this, you remember for the rest of your life’.
“Those teams that have won before us, they do change mindsets, so there is a mindset factor to it,” said McGinley.
“Certainly for the club, you come in and there is that confidence. The enjoyment of the supporters, travelling out and heading to these places, they usually go in cavalcades.
“Whenever the team was out now, and we watched our final videos on Friday night, we had clips of the wins in ’93 and 2002 and all it does, it shows it is doable.”
SCORERS – Errigal Ciaran: T Canavan 0-3 (3fs), J Oguz 1-0, P Óg McCartan 0-2, C Quinn, D Canavan, P Harte all 0-1 each. Kilcoo: P Devlin 0-3 (2fs), M Rooney, E Branagan 0-2 each, D Branagan, N Kane (f), Anthony Morgan all 0-1 each.
KILCOO: N Kane; N Branagan, C Doherty, R McEvoy; M Rooney, D Branagan, E Branagan; Aaron Morgan, Anthony Morgan; P Devlin, R Johnston, S Johnston; C Rogers, J Johnston, J Devlin. Subs: C Laverty for J Devlin (49), C Rooney for J Johnston (61).
ERRIGAL CIARAN: D McAnenly; Cormac Quinn, A McRory, Ciaran Quinn; P Óg McCartan, N Kelly, T Colhoun; B McDonnell, J Oguz; T Canavan, P Harte, C McGinley; O Robinson, D Canavan, R Canavan. Subs: M Kavanagh for Ciaran Quinn (46), P McGirr for Robinson (52), R McRory for McGinley (61).
REF: N Mooney (Cavan).