By Niall Gartland

CLONOE are third in the table after a gritty win away to Ardboe a week ago but manager Steven McDonnell knows that they’ll ultimately be judged on how they perform in the championship.

The O’Rahilly’s were flying heading into last year’s championship, but they fell short in their first-round clash against neighbours Coalisland.

They’ll be hoping that history won’t repeat itself as they were pitted against an in-form Errigal Ciaran side in the recent club championship draw, so McDonnell says they’re not getting carried with a few good league wins.

“The way it is, we’re trying to build game-on-game and trying to prepare for a very tough first-round game against Errigal in the championship.

“League results mean nothing when it comes to championship anyway.

“Our aim is to finish as high up in the league as we can but ultimately we’re trying to peak at the right time for championship football. In comparison with last year we only had seven league games whereas we’ve already had nine league games so it’s hard to tell exactly where we’re at.”

Clonoe claimed a deserved 1-13 to 1-11 victory over Ardboe at the Loughshore.

While former county stars like Declan McClure and Connor McAliskey were leading protagonists in their victory, it was a decent all-round team effort with half-back PJ Lavery getting up the pitch for an important first-half goal.

McDonnell commented: “I encourage all my players to get into scoring positions and if they’re the right man in the right place.

“I’m happy for them to have a shot on goal.

“We have plenty of high profile players as well but the way I look at it, we have 25 very capable club footballers and everyone has the quality to put in big performances.”

McClure was the star performer, however, hitting three first-half points from distance. He trundled off in the second half but his team manager says it was just a precaution.

“He just felt a slight twinge, Deccy had a fantastic first half kicking three points from play, that’s the type of performances we need to see from Deccy. It was a feisty encounter but you’d expect nothing less from a competitive club match in Tyrone.”

The Armagh legend also hailed his side’s response to a goal from DD Mulgrew with a quarter of the game remaining. It looked like the comeback was on, but Clonoe held firm, striking two of the next three points.

“It was a well-worked goal from Ardboe’s point of view and at that time it was a bit of a dagger in the heart for us, the boys showed a lot of maturity to compose themselves after that and to kick a couple of valuable points.

“That kept us a bit ahead of them but two or three points is never far enough lead in my book but listen, we did enough to see the game out.”