BY DÁIRE BONNAR

SETANTA defied the odds as they went on to win the Ulster Senior Hurling Championship title on Saturday afternoon in Owenbeg.

For the third game of their Ulster Championship run, they went into the game as underdogs, but just like Ballinascreen and Middletown, Éire Óg, Carrickmore didn’t live up to the favourites’ tag.

After winning their first ever intermediate game against the Derry winners, the men from the Cross were dreaming of winning an Ulster Intermediate title and following up from the Junior triumph last year.

And with Gerard Gilmore scoring 11 points and Seán Ward netting a vital goal in the 1-16 to 2-11 win, sparking massive celebrations, Setanta became the first Donegal club in history to win an Ulster Intermediate title.

Setanta goalkeeper and joint-manager Kevin Campbell spoke following the victory and admitted it wasn’t something they expected coming into the championship.

“It’s completely surreal, we can’t put it into words, it’s just mental stuff. We changed our approach, we kept it low-key, it’s a 50/50 game and we kept it relaxed, no big chest pumps or anything and I think it stood us in good stead.

“We started well but then let Carrickmore into it with soft frees but the good start had us on the front foot.

“I think everyone said we’ll give the Ulster Intermediate a good rattle, we’ll put in a good performance and if we had got caught against Ballinascreen or Carrickmore or whoever else we wouldn’t have been too disappointed.

“But to win the three games and get over the line, looking back now we’d probably look at them games thinking we had a really good chance at this but at the start of the year we just thought we’ll see how it goes. It wasn’t expected, we always had the potential to do it but nobody really expected us to do it.”