Ballinderry Shamrocks are the Intermediate Ulster champions, beating last year’s Junior All-Ireland winners Arva in a thrilling game in Omagh’s Healy Park.
The Derry side got off to a good start with Shea Coleman and Charlie Crozier getting on the scoreboard in the opening minutes, but Jonathan McCabe got one back for the Cavan champions and the balance started to tip in their favour.
Ryan Bell kicked a fantastic score for the Shamrocks, but Arva were winning more possessions and looked more dangerous in attack, as proved to be the case when Barry Donnelly picked up the ball near the corner flag, wiggled his way into a dangerous position and buried the ball into the back of the net.
It proved to be a double whammy for Ballinderry as their goalkeeper Ben McKinless picked up what looked to be an ankle injury whilst trying to save Donnelly’s effort.
The fly goalie has been a potent weapon for the Oakleaf side throughout the championship this season, often joining in on the attack, but it was clear that this knock prevented him from running freely throughout the remainder of the first half.
It wasn’t all gloom, though, as Shea McCann scored what was arguably the point of the game almost straight after, and they were so close to taking the lead when Tiarnan Rocks zig zagged his way past the defenders in blue, only to ping the ball off the post.
Just before that, Crozier had found the ball at his feet inside the opposition half. After performing some silky soccer skills, he found himself with a free shot on goal, only for it to fly over the bar – it was starting to look like it wasn’t going to be Ballinderry’s day.
Points from Ciaran Brady and Conal Sheridan made sure that Arva went in at the break with a two-point lead.
Tristan Noack-Hofmann was given the unfavourable task of man-marking Derry All-Star Gareth McKinless but certainly rose to the challenge for the opening three-quarters as the flying centre back wasn’t having the impact on the game that he would have wanted to during the early stages.
The county star wanted to change that immediately and did with his first play in the second half by sending in a brilliant long ball into the forward line, which led to a foul, and the free was knocked over by Conor O’Neill to make it a one-point game.
Ruairi Forbes sliced one with the outside of his boot and straight over the black spot of the bar to equalise, and suddenly Jarlath Bell’s men had come to life.
Just like in the first half, though, a goal from Arva sucker punched the Mid-Ulster men as Sheridan collected a slick pass from Donnelly and made no mistake in front of the net.
But, unlike the first half, Ballinderry didn’t falter. They kept the pressure on and a brilliant goal from Shea McCann sent the young fans gathered behind the net into hysteria; the game was all square with just more than 15 minutes to go.
Now it was Arva who were on the back foot as Niall O’Donnell kicked over a point from an impossibly tight angle, followed by another score from O’Neill.
As the game crept into the dying minutes of normal time, two points from Kevin Boucher squared everything up and sent everyone’s heart rates at Healy Park into overdrive.
Boucher scored one more to cancel out O’Donnell’s, but Darren Lawn found himself at an angle where he could become the hero, and that’s exactly what he became as he curled over an unbelievable winner to crown Ballinderry as the Ulster Intermediate champions.
Scorers – Ballinderry: S Coleman 0-1, C Crozier 0-2 (1f), R Bell 0-1, S McCann 1-1, C O’Neill 0-3 (1f) R Forbes 0-1, N O’Donnell 0-2, D Lawn 0-1; Arva: J McCabe 0-2, B Donnelly 1-0, C Sheridan 1-1, C Brady 0-1, K Boucher 0-4 (2f)
Ballinderry: B McKinless, A Mullan, O Duffin, R O’Neill; E Devlin, G McKinless, R Forbes, N O’Donnell, C Crozier; T Rocks, C O’Neill, S McCann, D Lawn, Ryan Bell, S Coleman.
Substitutes: D McKinless for T Rocks, M Smyth for E Devlin, E McCracken on for A Mulalan, M Quinn on for D McKinless, E Rocks on for D Lawn.
Arva: C O’Hara; D Maguire, J Morris, F McAvinue; É Ward, S Sheridan, T Brady; C Brady, T Noack Hoffman; F McGlade, B Donnelly, J McCabe; P Morris, K Bouchier, C Sheridan.
Substitutes: P Conneely on for P Morris, S Hamilton for F Mcavinue.
Referee: Kieran Eannetta