Great for the club and for the village of Pettigo - Gallagher

“I don’t know if there is anyone left in the village at all. And there’s a few here from Kinlough and Ballyshannon as well, everyone is supporting Pettigo. The support around the village and the flags and there was a day in the National School and all the kids were excited putting on the Pettigo colours.

“If we didn’t win this today, winning is nice but it’s about building pride back into the team and the community and for the kids to go to school with a smile on their face. But this tops it off today, it is brilliant,” said manager, Pat Gallagher, after watching his side defeat acMCumhaill’s by a point (1-5 to 0-7) in the Co ‘C’ championship final in Crossroads.

“I know I’m repeating myself all year but you have to be very proud of this group of players. Because at the start of the year the future of the club might have been on the line. If things are not going well, it’s hard to get lads out.

“The club is over 100 years old and it means a lot to the local community and it was vital that we put out a team, one way or another. There’s a great committee there and they put a few things in place and we started off with low enough numbers. 

“And fair play, Tia McFarland got them going at the start of the year and then myself and Stephen McElrone got on board and we started to build from there.

“And after a few weeks you could feel something; sometimes you know when there is a special thing brewing in a place. There is not always the fairytale ending but if you aim high you never know what might happen,” said the Mayo native, who is a Garda based in Kinlough.

Gallagher has family ties to Pettigo and that made the victory more special. On Saturday he watched as his charges made an inauspicious start, going two points down before two of the mainstays of the team combined to get their first score, a goal.

“They have some strong forward, big physically strong men so we had to play a sweeper there for a while and it certainly curtailed us going forward.

“”The goal was a fantastic score to come out of nowhere and if you’re looking for character look no further than Johnny McManus and Kevin Kane, that goal kept us in it in the first half.

“We knew if we could keep it tight until half-time the fitness levels of our boys would come to the fore. Stephen McElrone has done huge work with them and so much credit is due to him.

“Then at half-time we were a point down and we hadn’t played well and we said we weren’t going to die wondering. And if we were going to die, we were going to die with our boots on.”

Kevin Kane had them level within 20 seconds and another minute had not elapsed before John Carrigan pushed them ahead.

“John Carrigan, who has a beautiful left boot on him, we pushed him forward from the sweeping role and he caused havoc. Basically we went man on man to  a certain extent and our fitness told in the second half.”

Pettigo hold on to take Senior 'C' title in close encounter with MacCumhaill's

An early goal from Kevin Kane put them on their way but there was never much in this contest until the final whistle

Carrigan would go on to land two more points at vital moments and they held on to seal the win.

“And of course that bit of character showed. And I must mention Jack Britton, who has been missing for a while with a knee injury. We couldn’t start him today but he came on and put in a great shift, and then got a very bad injury there.

“Listen, a lot of lads sacrifice a lot for Pettigo. It’s not like other clubs where maybe if you don’t feel like it, there’s plenty of others to take your place. In Pettigo every man has to put his shoulder to the wheel. Whether you like it or not you have to do your job,” said Gallagher.