Battle-hardened and streetwise, Omagh have found a way to win when it seems least likely.
And with a goal-scoring ace in the pack like Ronan O’Neill, they’re never gone until the final whistle.
The Tyrone attacker grabbed a crucial three-pointer to spark a ferocious fightback as they came from six points behind to beat Trillick in the Donnelly Vauxhall SFC semi-final.
But O’Neill traces the development of his team’s fearless, defiant approach back to the 2014 decider, when they stunned Carrickmore with a last gasp goal to win the O’Neill Cup for the first time in 26 years.
He was the stoppage time hero on that occasion as well, hitting the net in the dying moments to turn a remarkable game on its head.
“We have been to the wire, we have won tight games before, and if we come up against a tough team like Killyclogher, Dromore or Errigal Ciaran, you’d like to think you’d be in a good position, because you have been there before,” he said.
“Looking back to 2014, when we won a number of games in the last ten of fifteen minutes, you obviously draw confidence from that.
“It showed against Trillick, when we were six points down we didn’t panic, got the right men on the ball, took the right options, which we probably weren’t doing in the first half.
“And that probably comes from experience, and comes from 2014.”
The St Enda’s are back in a county final for the first time since that 2014 triumph, with Errigal Ciaran standing in their way in Sunday’s Healy Park decider.
The intervening seasons strangely passed them by, and the players still harbour regrets over their failure to compete, albeit in the unforgiving environment of Tyrone championship football, when as many as eight teams are capable of winning the title in any given year.
“The last two years, we under-performed. Every year you go out, you want to get to a final, but we came up against two tough draws in Dromore and Clonoe,'' added .
“This year we just wanted to get out, play a bit of football and improve from last year, take it just one step at a time.
“We really focused on the Ardboe game, trying to get over that hurdle, and whatever happened after that we would take it in our stride.
“I suppose one of the benefits was that the games came right and quick, we didn’t really have to think about things, we just went out and played another game of football.
“The Greencastle game came, we got over that, and we got through a huge battle with Trillick.
“It’s massively important to get back to these days, in a county final, especially on your own pitch, your home county ground, where we have played numerous game, have played under-age football.
“It’s great for the club, great for the community to be back in this position again.”
Former Derry manager Paddy Crozier has come in this year for his second stint as Omagh boss.
The Ballymaguigan man took time to mould a team in his style of playing the game. Form improved gradually, but too late to qualify for the league play-offs. However, by the time the championship came around, Omagh, with all their key players restored to full fitness, were ready to make their move.
“Paddy came in at the start of the year, he just said we’ll take one game at a time. And when the Ardboe game came closer, we just looked towards that game.
“We just wanted to better ourselves over the past few years, and give ourselves a fighting chance.
“There were no real expectations from a management point of view, or team point of view. All we wanted to do was improve from last year and previous years, and I think that’s what’s happened so far.
“We’re privileged to be in this position, and hopefully we’ll put in a big performance on the day and get another county title.”
