AIB Ulster Club Senior Football Championship quarter-final: Derrygonnelly Harps (Fermanagh) 1-17 St Macartan’s, Trillick (Tyrone) 3-11 (Derrygonnelly win 6-5 on penalties)
BRENDAN Rasdale had to take a moment to compose himself amid the madness after watching his Derrygonnelly side set up an Ulster Club semi-final showdown with Kilcoo on an afternoon of high drama in Enniskillen.
Inseparable after 60 minutes of normal time, still deadlocked when referee Niall McKenna blew it up with 80-plus on the clock, penalties were called upon to decide an Ulster Club SFC clash for the first time.
Nails were bitten to the quick all around Brewster Park but in the end it was the Harps supporters who were flooding onto the field of battle when Lee Brennan’s penalty – his second, Trillick’s sixth – struck the post and bounced out to settle this epic encounter.
Rasdale, a teacher at St Michael’s College in Enniskillen, knows several of the Trillick players from their schooldays and, in a moment of ecstasy for the Fermanagh champions and their supporters, he was determined to find the right words.
“I’m absolutely delighted with our fellas, I’m delighted in particular with our second period of extra-time,” said Rasdale, who is joint manager of the Harps alongside Sean Flanagan.
“It was different class – the character, the use of the ball and they managed to believe in themselves and get it home. There was a couple of times that game could’ve gone from us but those scores at the start of the second period of extra-time were outstanding.
“There’s one thing I must say though - I know those Trillick lads, I taught them, I coached them and I would have nothing but the highest regard for them. I feel very sorry they had to lose a game like that, I really do.
“Their manager and the group of fellas, they’re of the highest order. I have a big heart for Trillick.”
And, despite coming out on the right side of penalties having watched his men convert all six of theirs, Rasdale doesn’t feel it was the correct way for the tie to reach a conclusion.
“I’m not sure it’s right. I think it’s a bit too cruel for a team that’s been going maybe since February to end up going out on that.
“The week’s there to work with [in the Ulster Club schedule], you’ve probably got to use it. That would be my view.”
Trillick boss Nigel Seaney agreed, and was obviously hugely disappointed to see their campaign come to an end in that manner after battling their way through Tyrone to land a second O’Neill Cup in five years.
“Look, I personally don’t agree with it. To get to the Ulster Club Championship, teams have to win their county championship, there’s a tremendous amount of effort goes into that,” he said.
“In the aftermath of the game, you don’t have real clarity on what you want to think about these things. In Tyrone this year the fixtures committee had it exactly right in that we got plenty of rest between the games, plenty of time to focus on the next challenge.
“I don’t see why that same thing couldn’t happen here where it would go to a replay, and that’s taking nothing away from Derrygonnelly who were immense.”
And the Trillick boss insisted Tyrone star Brennan would bounce back from yesterday’s disappointment.
“Lee said to me many, many years ago when he was a cub ‘you miss 100 per cent of the ones you don’t take’.
“So it’ll not be something he’ll dwell on.”
