THE 60 minutes was up, four extra had been added, and Glen trailed by a point against a St Eunan’s side giving away absolutely nothing easy. As he advanced into enemy territory, Michael Warnock could hear the shouts.
“Let him shoot, let him shoot...”
They didn't fancy the corner-back's chances.
“I’d have been saying the same if I was them,” he smiles.
With their Ulster prospects hanging by a thread, he ignored the taunts intended for his ears as much as anybody else’s before unleashing a superb, dipping shot between the posts from just inside the 45.
So true was the connection, Warnock was celebrating from the second the ball left his boot, turning to face the Glen goal and pumping his arms as the Maghera support found full voice.
“It was probably a one in 10 shot for me, to be honest.
“We practice them in training and when they go wide I’d be getting abuse from the boys. Funny enough the Letterkenny boys were shouting ‘let him shoot, let him shoot…’
“It’s a bit of a running joke about our club that we’ve 14 forwards and one defender, but it seems to be paying off.”
Just a minute after Warnock’s leveller, a Danny Tallon free edged the Derry champions ahead for the first time since early in the first half, the Watty’s holding on to secure a quarter-final showdown with Scotstown on December 5.
The sound of Sean Hurson’s whistle, and the walk down into the tunnel at O’Donnell Park as men, woman and children of all ages - and all clad in green and gold – roared their appreciation was yet another moment for the memory bank in what is fast becoming an unforgettable year for the club.
That long-awaited Derry championship triumph a fortnight ago takes some beating but, for Warnock, the manner of Sunday’s victory over the Letterkenny men made it even more special.
“I remember being 10 or 11 and watching Crossmaglen play Slaughtneil at our pitch with Emmett [Bradley], thinking ‘wouldn’t it be class to be part of something like that when we’re older?’ And now we are part of it. We’ve won a match in Ulster and it’s a great feeling.
“It’s probably more satisfying winning today than the county final because the county final [against Slaughtneil], in a way, it was comfortable for us in the second half, we had a good lead. But there today you’re grinding it out right until the end, and we kept going.
“Historically people have always said a Glen team will die… well we didn’t. We know what we have. It was always ‘Glen have no leaders’ – we showed all year that we have leaders, and we showed it again here.”
And yet they could so easily have been sitting there now, drowning sorrows and wondering when they will get another crack at the provincial stage.
Trailing by a point heading towards the last, Glen passed up a glorious opportunity to edge ahead when Stevie O’Hara’s penalty was saved by Shaun Patton. With only three minutes to go, those moments can suck the wind from a side.
Against an opponent hell-bent on making life as difficult as possible, however, they somehow forced this game to bend to their will – an indication that resilience, as much as the raw talent that delivered so much underage success, resides by the bucketload too.
“It looked like one of those days, but as Malachy keeps telling us, there’ll be a game where we kick a point in extra-time to win,” said Warnock.
“We knew there was still time, it’s just keeping that belief there. You have to keep going until the end. This year is the first time we’ve ever won a championship, that carries a burden when you’re coming into this.
“But one of the things motivating us is people from our club have never experienced this. They’ve experienced minor and U21 Ulsters, but the cream of the crop plays at senior level in Ulster.
“We’ve been envious of Slaughtneil the last few years, and we were keen not to just give our club two weeks then go back at it in winter time and go for it to next year. We wanted to keep this feeling going because people around our club deserve that for the amount of work they’ve put in.”
