Dan McNulty saved Clonoe’s championship hopes with late goals against Omagh and Carrickmore

CLONOE have qualified for this Sunday’s Senior Championship semi-final against rivals Coalisland in no small part due to the exploits of their full-foward Daniel McNulty.

McNulty’s been their three-time saviour already in this season’s championship. He kicked a late free to snatch a draw against Omagh in a drawn first-round replay, and in that replay he smashed home a goal right at the death to clinch the win.

Clonoe found themselves two points in arrears with the clock ticking down in Saturday’s quarter-final clash against Carrickmore, and again McNulty proved their saviour with a late goal.

His manager Damian Cassidy believes that the word ‘pressure’ doesn’t exist in McNulty’s vocabulary.

“Dan is a big-game player and has been, I brought him on in the 2011 county final and it was first year out of U16s. He scored 1-2 in that final, he has proved himself time and time again to be a big-game player.

“Some people describe pressure, Dan doesn’t see it as that. He sees it as something to be embraced and it’s a serious quality that he has. Last year he played for the U21s and he was only coming back, he took a while to get back to the required fitness after he had sustained a bad back injury, that was acquired through the Tyrone seniors in the McKenna Cup.

“He was left to pick up the pieces after that and the club supported him very strongly and Fergal Logan also put in a big shift in helping him getting back to the level of fitness to progress.

“He showed his ability last year with the U21s to cope with pressure, but it’s the wrong word to use with Dan. He embraces that type of environment, in the All-Ireland U21 final at Parnell Park in dreadful conditions his free-taking was absolutely immaculate.”

The full interview with Damian Cassidy is available in store today or online here.