By Barry O’Donnell

TRILLICK have no lack of attacking weapons at their disposal when at full strength, if you factor in the various Donnelly, Gray, Garrity and Brennan clans.

However they had to turn to a perhaps less obvious scoring threat in getting the better of Omagh last weekend in the league.

He may have been donning the No. 4 jersey but Daniel McDonnell wasn’t content to just marshal the line in front of his own goals. Instead, adopting a more adventurous role, he regularly roamed up the pitch showing real intent. His reward for such enterprise and dash was a Man of the Match display and a superb scoring contribution of a goal and four points as the Reds fended off St Enda’s 1-13 to 1-11 at Donnelly Park.

With a whole plethora of big names sitting out these starred matches for Trillick over the past few months, McDonnell appreciates that it is up to others like himself to take on the leadership mantle within the side. Not that he feels Trillick are lacking in that department, even though he jokes about his own seniority within their ranks.

“I like to think of myself still as a cub, but maybe the grey hair gives me away. But we have a few good leaders in that teams – even younger boys like Daire Gallagher. I have the age which comes with the territory.

“We have had some great performances. We have had some young lads come in, Daniel Donnelly, Rory Burns, and older boys, the likes of Proinsias O’Kane has come back in. Last year boys didn’t have the chance to set out their stall because the season was so short and there wasn’t that many games. This season with so many starred matches without county men everyone is getting more game time.”

Last week Trillick seemed to have matters relatively in hand at home to Carrickmore only having to rescue a point at the end up. Daniel admitted to have a feeling of deja vu against Omagh too on Friday with the visitors again staging a second-half rally, before his long-range goal turned the tide in their favour again

“We made hard work of it to be honest at stages. We did that last week and dropped a point at the end up, maybe we were even lucky to get a draw.

“Against Omagh it looked like something similar when they got the sucker-punch goal just before the last quarter. That put us two points down.

“The water break was after that and the managers just gave us a rattle. We were still well in the game and we were just determined to go at it in the last quarter and to see where that got us. Luckily we fought back and got the two points. Omagh is a good team, always have been, so it’s good to gauge where you stand against one of the better sides.”

Trillick have reached the past two county finals, and only just missed out on retaining the O’Neill Cup last season, following a dramatic penalty shoot-out loss to Dungannon. McDonnell feels that the recent first round draw has brought a renewed focus to the camp.

“The season has been a bit stop-start with having players injured. We have got a relatively small squad so when you are missing county boys and others through injury it does get stretched.

“But there is a lot of boys getting games. We have a lot of new players coming into the team so everyone is getting their chance to stake a claim for later on down the line.

“That will be the important stage of the season which every team is building towards. Now the championship draw has been made and that definitely gives you a focus point. Beforehand you never really do what lay in store but now we know we have Galbally who gave us a very good game last year.”

Trillick’s Daniel McDonnell in action against Edendork