Dromore 1-14 Ardboe 1-13 A coolly slotted penalty from Colm McCullagh four minutes into injury-time saw Dromore snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in the most dramatic circumstances in yesterday's Tyrone SFC final at Omagh. Ardboe looked to be on their way towards a famous victory at Healy Park after producing a superb second-half display to go two points ahead with little time remaining, but a foul on Dromore defender Kevin Donnelly in the Ardboe square saw referee Sean Quinn award a penalty that McCullagh showed nerves of steel to dispatch past Ryan Coleman to the net. The winners had made the better start to this match, with their captain McCullagh leading them towards a 0-7 to 0-4 half-time lead. Wing backs Ciaran Campbell and Gavin Teague had accounted for Ardboe's only points from play and at the break things were looking ominous for the trailers. However, the second-half saw Ardboe come to life and net their goal five minute into the restart through 18-year-old Shea McGuigan. All four of the McGuigan brothers along with young star Kyle Coney became the driving force for Ardboe as the O'Donovan Rossas hit 1-7 in a 12-minute period from the resumption and moved into a 1-10 to 0-8 lead. Conor O'Neill had registered Dromore's sole reply during what looked like a match-winning scoring stint for Ardboe. To their credit, Seamus Goodwin's team never threw in the towel, and had McCullagh's accuracy to rely on to bring them back into the game. A minute shy of the hour Ardboe's advantage was cut down to 1-12 to 0-14, but a fine point from 'Nishy' O'Neill looked to have sealed the deal. However, with time almost up Dromore managed to muster a last ditch effort which saw Sean O'Neill thread Donnelly through into the Ardboe square, where the defender was impeded by Coleman. Quinn awarded the penalty, much to the dismay of the Ardboe contingent, and McCullagh endured the O'Neill Cup would be going west in Tyrone for 2009 with the resultant spot-kick. Dromore - P Ward; F O'Neill, C McCarron, C Donnelly; K Donnelly, R McMenamin, P Montague; M Garry, B Collins (0-2) ; S McMahon, Sean O'Neill (0-2), C McCullagh (1-6 (1-0 pen, one free), Shaun O'Neill (0-1), E McCusker (0-1), R McNabb (0-1). Subs: C O'Neill (0-1, a free) for Montague. Ardboe - R Coleman; P Coney (0-1) , M McKeown, E Devlin; C Campbell (0-1), G Teague (0-1) , S Forbes; M Coleman (0-1), T McGuigan (0-1); K Coney (0-2, one free), B McGuigan (0-2), S McGuigan (1-1), G Wylie (0-1) , J McConville, F McGuigan (0-1, one free). Subs: N O'Neill (0-1) for Campbell, K Devlin for S McGuigan, S Devlin for T McGuigan. Ref: S Quinn (Brackaville) Tweet

Most Read Stories