Winning start in group for Tullylish

TULLYLISH Seniors began their Quinn’s Corner Ulster Club Intermediate Group D campaign last week with a win over St Enda’s.

On Sunday past Pairc nA nOg welcomed Tyrone’s Aghyaran club and what a tussle this one turned out to be.

Almost on the whistle Aghyaran’s full forward took advantage of a lofty ball falling into the Tullylish box and just as suddenly the ball was in the net and the home side were a goal down.

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This served as a loud wake up call and the Tullylish men closed in on their opponents and started to take more responsibility. Chris Magee at full back halted the Tyrone onslaught at the Tullylish goal and kept a cool head, working the ball out to Fintionn O’Dowd.

Then Kevin McCartan and a running Kevin Murphy clawed his way through the half forwards to find Gareth Johnston and the first Tullylish point.

John McAreavey was on target with the next two attacks and when Pete Quinn found Seamus O’Hare on the edge of the square O’Hare made no mistake, tipping the ball into the net to even the scores.

With only two points between the teams at half time, the second half promised to be an epic battle.

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Again and again the Tullylish half backs worked the ball into the danger zone. Shannon Drainey picked up two consecutive points with free kicks and John McAreavey, followed by Justin McCartan won deserved points.

Crux of the game in the second half was the mid field battle with Johnston and Murphy taking lions share. Fiontainn O’Dowd cleaned up breaking ball coming into the half backs and Barry Priestly intercepted continuously to deny the visitors the initiative.

Tullylish needed to make sure of their scores to take the game and that’s exactly what they did. McAreavey, Drainey and McCartan took points each to take the final score to 1-10, 1-8 in favour of the home side.