CLONOE’S season of misery has turned the corner, and a relegation battle has given way to a championship charge, with a place in the final just 60 minutes away.
They face Carrickmore in Sunday’s Tyrone SFC semi-final with spirits lifted and the mood unrecognisable from the darkness of just a few weeks ago.
“All our young lads are getting experience. Sometimes you get one championship match and you don’t get another one until next year, but we’re having the benefit of having three championship matches, and it’s great to get these games,” said manager Niall O’Neill.
Clonoe may not be the force they were, but several members of the current team have won Championship medals, and their experience will be vital against an emerging Carmen side at Plunkett Park.
“We have lots of experience there. Some of our lads are going for their third championship medal. Some of them have two medals in the bag, some of them have one championship medal, so we thought that was our strength coming into these matches, and thankfully it paid off.”
The threat of relegation hasn’t gone away, and there’s a league play-off to contest against Moy, unless Clonoe can go all the way and win the championship to copper-fasten their senior status.
“Our season has become very simple, it’s just game on game, because we have the potential glory of a semi-final waiting, and if that doesn’t work out, we’re into a relegation dogfight,” said O’Neill.
“So it’s just one game at a time, and we’re one step closer. It’s still a massive long shot, but we’re there, and if we show that sort of spirit, who knows where it will bring us?
The O’Rahilly’s will go into this weekend’s last four clash as underdogs, but their squad is growing stronger in numbers and in confidence.
Key players have recovered from injury, including ace attacker Danny McNulty, who came off the bench to grab a vital goal in last weekend’s quarter-final win over Donaghmore.
“We’re still maturing as a team. when we took over this year, we didn’t actually know what our best team was until halfway, three quarter ways through the League.
“And it’s only in the last few games that we’ve started to get some consistency in selection and getting some of our players back.
“I think we’re only coming back to where we should have been, and had we had a full hand to play with at the start of the year, we possibly wouldn’t have been in the relegation zone.
“But that’s where we’re at, and we’ll just take it one game at a time now.”
Clonoe managed to carve out a result in that game despite having four players dismissed at various stages, three of them on black cards.
Former Tyrone attacker Connor McAliskey was handed 10 minutes in the sin-bin, leaving late in the first half along with red-carded defender Jerome McClure.
But the O’Rahilly’s received a double boost seven minuets into the second half, springing two quality finishers off the bench as McAliskey returned, accompanied by impact sub McNulty.
“Thank God the red card and the black card came just before half-time, and gave us a chance to get organised,” said the manager.
“If they had come earlier in the half, it would have been more difficult to get organised on the field.
“Obviously the message was to try and stay in there until we got Connor back on the field, ‘til his black card was up.
“It was just one of those things that sometimes you just have no explanation for, that the O’Rahilly’s sometimes find themselves in.
“Danny came off the bench in the last game and scored three points, so all week, you’re thinking we want to play him.
“We didn’t think he had sixty minutes in his legs, but we always knew he has that impact, because he lifts the team.
“So we thought to ourselves, and we made the decision that when we’re bringing Connor back on, we’ll bring Danny on at the same time, and it would be a double lift for everybody.
“And thankfully that worked out, because sometimes you plan these things and it backfires on you.”
