The Tyrone star revealed that he was expecting his county colleague Peter Harte to split the posts with a late 55-metre free to bring the semi-final to a replay at O’Neills Healy Park last Sunday
Mattie Donnelly could barely bring himself to watch. The tension in the ground was palpable.
As a red sky emerged over O’Neills Healy Park late on Sunday evening, the omens weren’t good for defending champions Errigal Ciaran.
Down by two points, Peter Harte had a last-gasp chance to salvage a draw for the reigning Ulster club champions.
The neon lights from a Funfair behind the Gortin Road goals created an eerie backdrop for Harte’s attempt, but his kick from all of 55 metres dropped short and Trillick were able to clear the danger to claim a famous win.
Having shouldered with Harte at county level since winning an All-Ireland minor title together in 2008, Donnelly fully expected his county colleague to force a replay, even though it was an exceptionally difficult kick.
“When Petey was sitting over that ball, I was like ‘I’ve seen this movie plenty of times’ – look, we got a bit of luck,” said Donnelly.
“The feeling is major relief because they’re obviously a serious outfit and we’ve had serious encounters with them over the years. Serious respect for them.
“So we just knew that there was nothing after today, we couldn’t look any further than today, and we knew it was going to take a serious effort from us. And it did when we went three down in the first half.
“These new rules, the forwards they have, you’re just always on tenterhooks. So it took a serious effort from us, going down to 14 men for 10 minutes too, so to dig that out is just a serious source of pride and relief.
He added: “But, as you bring your thoughts to it, we left a lot on the table in the first half and the second half, so we have a fair bit to work on. We’re in the game of improving as a team, so there’s a lot there that we probably could do better and as we’ll be looking to do here over the next two weeks.
“We’ll enjoy this, but obviously after a few days it’ll dawn on us that we’re only at the same stage we were at last year – and it wasn’t too fun losing that either.”
Carrickmore were the last team to successfully retain the O’Neill Cup 20 years ago. That record will stand for another year.
Trilick came closest of all to ending the remarkable stat when, as defending champions, they lost a sudden death penalty shootout to Dungannon in 2020.
They then denied Errigal in the 2023 final before the Dunmoyle men returned the favour last term.
When asked what makes the Tyrone Championship so difficult to retain, Donnelly stated: “Football is very important in Tyrone, and clubs take it very serious. You can see that. The players that are being provided to the county from the clubs is a testament to the work that’s going on at club level.
“The facilities, the amount of time and effort clubs are investing in their teams now produces a Championship with a serious depth of quality. In other counties, you might have the luxury of being below par some days and getting away with it, but not here. That’s probably why it’s unfolded the way it has.
“It’s so hard. You have to be on your game every year. You drop, one or two boys drop, it can nip you, and we know all about it.
“You play away at league, toil away at training, but really, you’re training the whole year to just get ready for battles in Championship at the end of it.
“That’s what we look forward to every year, and that’s what we love doing. We’re so lucky we get to do it another day in two weeks’ time.”
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