Maxwell revels in historic times for Edendork

By Niall Gartland

PAUL Maxwell’s involvement with Edendork stretches back a full half-century.

He’s witnessed the club win multiple intermediate titles, but nothing even remotely compares to the achievement of winning a first-ever Tyrone Senior Championship. The word ‘historic’ would hardly do it justice.

The final whistle of last Friday evening’s replay sparked scenes of unbridled joy among the yellow and green of Edendork. Eventually, though, things settled down a little – at least until the big homecoming later that evening.

Supporters mingled on the Healy Park pitch for some time afterwards, including Edendork stalwart Paul Maxwell.

On the club and its catchment area, he said: “We’re a small club situated between Dungannon and Coalisland. If you know East Tyrone, the clubs are cheek by jowl.

“We would take players from that immediate area, but we also have people, like myself originally, from the Dungannon area. I often say you don’t choose your club, but a lot of our boys have made the decision to come and play for Edendork.

“Edendork Primary School would also act as a magnet for players. If you go to school here, there’s a fair chance you’ll end up playing for Edendork.”

Maxwell also hopes that this historic achievement will act as a catalyst for future success. While there’s no shortage of effort, the club has had its ups and downs at underage level. Now though, its players have the confidence that they can compete with – and even beat – the very best in the county at senior level.

“In truth, this was possibly the last-chance saloon for this particular group. In saying that, if you look at the subs’ bench tonight, there were quite a lot of very young players. We’ve a very young reserve team, too.

Youth

“The majority of our male youth players are playing at Grade Three, but I think this will act as a spur to develop our youth. Our youth teams have maybe always struggled between Grade Three and Grade Two, going up and down, but I definitely think this will revitalise our youth and act as a spur for the boys, that they can go and replicate their heroes.”

Reflecting on their two-game saga against Errigal Ciaran, Maxwell said the team had taken belief from the drawn encounter. They faced two massive battles against Errigal and kept their cool even when it looked as though things were potentially slipping away.

“It’s historic for our club, really, for our first-ever senior championship final. I think I mentioned the fact that we’d qualified for a couple of finals, so it was a big achievement for us even to be here. It was a big challenge playing an Errigal Ciaran team that have won nine senior championship titles.

“I think our players showed last week that they have the courage, the determination and the belief. They came into the replay believing they could compete with Errigal Ciaran and beat them.

“They got the match-ups right again, and a few changes in personnel worked well. I think a few players upped their game, too.”