O’Donnell: Victory over Errigal took guts

TRILLICK are hardly lacking when it comes to the talent stakes, but Seanie O’Donnell says it was their “guts” that ultimately won the day in a titanic Tyrone Senior Championship semi-final against Errigal Ciaran.

Defending champions Errigal Ciaran moved into a two-point lead with 45 minutes on the clock but didn’t notch another score for the remainder of the contest as Trillick battled their way to a priceless victory, setting up a county final showdown against the winners of Friday night’s replay encounter between Loughmacrory and Carrickmore.

Seanie O’Donnell has the height of the respect for Errigal Ciaran, who reached last season’s All-Ireland senior final, a first for a Tyrone club, so he was hugely relieved to come out on the right side of the result.

“It took a lot of guts, and a lot of hard work to come out on the right side of it. We were happy enough with most of it, but it wasn’t looking good for us at stages in the second half. We expected the match to be like that, they’re a deadly outfit so we really hard to knuckle down and drive on.

“We’ve always respected Errigal Ciaran and the way they play football, we saw them march through Ulster and the All-Ireland series, and we knew we really hard to up our game as we weren’t happy with how we played in the quarter-final against Pomeroy – and that’s down to Pomeroy as well, they were very, very good so we’re just happy to get to the final.”

Trillick have had mixed fortunes in county final day over the course of what’s been a hugely productive decade. They’ve won three (2015, 2019 and 2023) and lost two (2020 and 2024) and they’re keen on making amends for last year’s loss to Errigal Ciaran.

“I suppose getting to the final is one thing, but we lost last year and whoever loses probably isn’t remembered – it’s about coming out on the right side of it. We need to knuckle down and improve on a lot of stuff, but as I say, it did take a lot of guts to come through (against Errigal Ciaran).”