Tullylish secure Down title after dramatic final

Annaclone 4-6

Tullylish 4-7

TULLYLISH won the derby final of the Down Intermediate Championship on Sunday afternoon, beating neighbours Annaclone by the narrowest of margins.

There was only one point between the two sides at the end of the match at Pair Esler with Tullylish producing an incredible second half performance to claim the win.

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An attacking start saw both sides level on 0-3 each after only 10 minutes with Aidan Fegan putting the ball over on all three occasions for Annaclone and Kevin Murphy, Gareth Johnston and Kevin McKiverigan getting the points on the board for 'Lish.

Annaclone stormed ahead thanks to two Sean Byrne points with just five minutes of the half remaining before Paul Byrne scored the opening goal of the game after picking up a pass from Eoin Pyres, leaving the score 1-5 to 0-3.

But back fought Tullylish with Shannon Drainey scoring from the penalty spot before adding a point, but then Fegan put the finishing touches to an Annaclone passing move to leave the score 2-5 to 1-4 at the break.

Tullylish bossed the second half, Drainey and John McArevey scoring points and the latter set up John McKiverigan to score.

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From the re-start McKiverigan secured the ball and raced in to score a goal and their three minute period was topped off when a high ball was misjudged and David Corbett found the net to make the score 4-6 to 2-5 to Tullylish.

Annaclone did their very best to force a replay and when Eoin Pyres goald from a penalty and Aidan Fegan pointed they looked as though they could achieve that.

In added time Aidan Fegan set up Gerard Fegan for a goal, however it was too little, too late and Tullylish held out to claim the title.