Connollys of Moy Tyrone SFC round one
Clonoe 0-12 Coalisland 1-8
THE last remaining place in the quarter-finals of the Connollys of Moy Tyrone SFC went to Clonoe, who overcame derby rivals Coalisland by a single point under the O’Neill Park lights in Dungannon.
A tie played out with all the passion of a local derby went right to the wire, with Kevin Madden’s side hanging on in the face of a furious Coalisland fightback to set up a last-eight clash with Errigal Ciaran.
Coalisland were without their three county defenders – suspended pair Michael McKernan and Niall Devlin and the injured Padraig Hampsey, although the latter did come in as a sub.
The sides will meet again in what is arguably a more important tie, a relegation play-off, which will see one of these famous clubs lose their senior status.
Clone raced into a three-point lead in the opening three minutes through Daryl Magee (2) and Connor McAliskey, but the Fianna tightened up at the back to frustrate their wind-assisted opponents.
The O’Rahillys went 20 minutes without a further score, before McAliskey landed a superb effort to spark another trio of points.
But frees from Tiarnan Quinn and Sean L Corr had Coalisland very much in touch at the break, trailing by 0-6 to 0-2.
McAliskey stretched the lead out to seven midway through the second half, but Sean L Corr crossed for Cathaoir Quinn to volley home a Coalisland goal, and a Corr free narrowed the gap to two.
But the O’Rahillys rallied for scores from Darragh McGrath and McAliskey to give them enough breathing space to withstand a late volley of scores from Tiarnan Quinn.
Scorers
Clonoe C McAliskey 0-5 (0-1f); D Magee 0-3 (0-1f); D McGrath 0-2; PJ Lavery & S Coney 0-1 each
Coalisland S L Corr 0-4 (0-3f); C Quinn 1-0; T Quinn 0-3 (0-2f); P Herron 0-1