A satisfying comeback – Brian McGuigan

Donaghmore players Kelvin Hughes and Gary Heatherington challenge for a high ball with Ardboe’s Ryan Coleman and John McConville

THERE are few better feelings in football than winning a championship game with you’re own club mates. And when you win one in the manner we did last weekend against Donaghmore, it’s even better.

Ardboe were six points down midway through the second half and, in all honesty, we looked like we were heading for the exit.

But the boys dug in, we said, ‘This is what we have trained for all year,’ and we managed to turn it around to win by a point.

It was another red card for myself but, thankfully, unlike Tyrone’s match with Kerry, we won this one and it was a second yellow right at the death and had no real impact on the game.

To be losing a match by six points, knowing that your season could be effectively over, and then to storm back and win is an incredible feeling.

In the changing rooms afterwards there was that buzz that can only be created by a big win with the boys you have grown up with. It’s a unique feeling.

And then I was thinking, if there was a back door would this have felt as good? If this had been a league match or if we had the safety net of another match, would we been able to dig deep for that extra bit of energy to get us over the line? Probably not.

I was talking to a player there at the weekend from the Derry camp. He was carrying an injury ahead of his club’s championship match last weekend. Despite being fit to make an appearance from the bench, the manager decided not to risk him because there was a back door. That just doesn’t seem right to me, it defeats what the club championship should be about.

The full story is in the current issue of Gaelic Life, published on Thursday August 16. Buy your copy now in your local newsagent, or you can purchase the online version – for only 90p – by clicking here