KEVIN Madden’s philosophy – to meet fire with fire – carried all the risks and a level of reward that the bookies barely recognised.
But the Clonoe boss had a body of men with fearless hearts and a steely conviction that they could win a battle that most believed was beyond them.
Errigal Ciaran’s galaxy of stars would stroll into the Tyrone SFC semi-finals with ease, according to the pre-match banter, but the script was torn to shreds and scattered all over the O’Neill Park grass.
The sides will meet again on Saturday to settle a duel fought ferociously and with all the passion that the Red Hand series demands.
“If you go in to play Errigal Ciaran and try to play a game of containment, let them have their own kick-outs, and try to invite them on, ultimately you’re going to die a slow death,” said Madden.
“But we went out and we backed ourselves, we decided to have a cut at it, and we were very resilient throughout the game.
“When Errigal threatened to get on top and get away from us, we always came up with another answer.”
The Canavan brothers were stifled, Darragh restricted to two points and Ruairi held scoreless, but Odhran Robinson popped up with a couple of goals to swing the balance in favour of last year’s beaten finalists.
However, on each occasion, the O’Rahilly’s responded with a goal of their own, from Connor McAliskey and Pascal McClure, unbowed and utterly determined to take a gripping tie right down to the last play.
“The goal in the first half, we responded with a goal, the goal they got in the second half, we responded with a goal. We just wanted to bring the game down the final stretch.”
Substitute Ryan Quinn rose to the challenge with a couple of late points, including the stoppage-time leveller to tie it up at 2-9 each.
But far from elation at their achievement in taking the title favourites to a replay, Clonoe were somewhat perplexed that they hadn’t pulled off a sensational victory.
“The boys are disappointed, to be honest,” said Madden.
“We felt we had all the momentum there in the last two or three minutes to go on and win the game, but equally we’re delighted to have another crack at it.”
The former Antrim star felt the bookies’ odds didn’t make sense, and his players duly made a nonsense of the pre-match predictions of a championship exit for relegation-threatened Clonoe.
“The bookies had us in some places at 15/2,” he said.
“Like, 7/1 in a two-horse race just shows you what the mindset out there was in terms of Clonoe not really having a chance in hell, but we had inner belief within the group that if we got our gameplan right and if we played with that fire in our bellies, we could bring the game down the stretch, which we did.
“Clonoe have their own championship pedigree. There were a lot of players on that pitch with two championship medals and lots of young lads who are hungry to get one of their own.
“They’re not just in the championship to make up the numbers – we were there to get into a semi-final.
“We didn’t do it but we’ll set about our work in preparing for the replay on Saturday.”
The rematch, back at Dungannon on Saturday evening, is unmissable, with another epic set to unfold in the pursuit of a last-four clash with either Carrickmore or Killyclogher, who are also meeting in a replay tonight.
“We have exposed weaknesses in them that I’m sure they’ll work hard at during the week to try and improve,” said Madden.
“I’m sure they exposed weaknesses in us that we would be disappointed with.
“All those things are part of the joy of management and preparing for a second bite at the cherry.”