Ben McDonnell believes the time is right for Errigal Ciaran to rise up as a provincial force once again, after securing the club’s first win in the Ulster Club Championship in more than a decade.
The Tyrone midfielder flashed over three late scores to swing a terrific preliminary round tie in his side’s favour as they got over the line by two points at O’Neills Healy Park.
The 0-12 to 0-10 defeat of St Eunan’s, Letterkenny was the club’s first victory in the competition since 2012, when they got the better of Mullahoran and Ballinderry, before losing out in the semi-final to eventual champions Crossmaglen.
Errigal were champions of Ulster in 1993 and 2002, the only Tyrone club ever to win the title, and the current crop are targeting a return to the provincial pinnacle.
“That’s what we’re aiming for. There’s a lot of history there in our club and we’re going to try and get back there and start playing at the top table again,” said McDonnell.
“It’s a long stime since we have had an Ulster Club win, it’s 12 years since we did it, so we owed it to our supporters to try and get one win at least and get on the road.”
A weather-enforced postponement of the county final meant Errigal had just a week to prepare for their provincial opener, and a hectic schedule sees them back in action in next Sunday’s quarter-final against Antrim champions Cargin.
But McDonnell feels that momentum can trump fatigue, and the busy run of games may suit his side.
“I’m sure they (St Eunan’s) had a lot of preparation, but it’s hard to beat playing games week on week as well, and maybe it suited us better, as opposed to them sitting for three weeks.”
Darragh and Ruairi Canavan were closely marked and restricted to just one point from play between the pair, and while they were influential in other ways, others had to take on the responsibility of nailing the vital scores.
“They have some of Donegal’s best man-markers and we knew that there were going to be tough battles there for the Canavans, so it was important for the rest of us to stand up.”
After a tactical, cagey first half, the second exploded into a frenzy of end-to-end action, with the Donegal champions looking the most likely to succeed after opening out a two points lead late on.
But McDonnell rose magnificently to the occasion, seizing his moments with a towering contribution and three priceless scores that dragged the Tyrone champions over the line.
“he last five minutes we had nothing to lose. We were getting beat and we said we might as well give it our all and go down fighting rather than lying down.
“The game probably opened up a bit, and we caught them on the turnovers which probably allowed us a bit of space. It got a bit frantic towards the end.”