By Matthew Wilson
Carndonagh midfielder Pierce McConalogue was thrilled in the aftermath of his side’s dramatic Intermediate ‘B’ Championship triumph over Naomh Muire at O’Donnell Park on Sunday afternoon.
Naomh Muire led this encounter by four as we entered the closing stages however, a Davin McLaughlin two-pointer and a last-gasp goal from Kyran Cantwell secured the silverware for the Inishowen side.
Speaking to the Donegal News, McConalogue was delighted with the feat that the team had achieved at the Letterkenny venue.
“It’s breathtaking, it is just unbelievable. The boys put in a massive shift and it was just unreal. I couldn’t think of a better way to finish out a match.”
Trailing by four points with less than two minutes of stoppage time remaining, some outfits may have felt that it wasn’t their day.
But this wasn’t the case for Aidan O’Callaghan’s charges as showed huge character and great resilience to overturn this deficit late on.
The Inishowen side earned Junior ‘B’ glory last term and enjoyed a run to the Division 2B Final earlier this season.
That experience of the big occasion may have helped them down to the home straight and the Carndonagh midfielder said they knew the contest wasn’t over.
“Yeah, the boys dug deep, put their heads up and they kept on working. They knew that the match wasn’t over until the final whistle so we just dug deep and we managed to get away with it in the end.”
The O’Doherty Park residents have enjoyed huge success across all codes this term, with the club’s camogie side landing the Senior Championship title, while the senior hurlers were crowned the winners of the Intermediate Championship last month.
The reserve side have now followed these teams in bringing silverware back to Inishowen in the form of this Intermediate ‘B’ cup, just a year after picking up the Junior ‘B’ title.
McConalogue is in his first year of senior football and he expressed that the Inishowen club are certainly on an upward trajectory.
“It’s unbelievable, Carndonagh is on the up at the minute, especially with the senior team winning the Intermediate Hurling Championship and us winning that title now. Carndonagh is definitely on the up.”