Jason Gibson highlights Bonagee's volunteers after Cup win

Jason Gibson gave his Bonagee United squad a familiar team talk on Saturday night.

Ahead of their last 16 showdown with Everton, Gibson reminded his players of who they were representing.

He began with veteran midfielder Michael Funston, whose father, Eric, is a stalwart at Dry Arch Park.

Bonagee’s 5-3 win on penalties squeezed them into the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time.

There are those who are a firm part of the furniture at Bonagee who have never tasted such heights before.

“I always say to the boys that the Intermediate Cup is about the club,” Gibson told Donegal Live.

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Goalkeeper Oisin Cannon saves a penalty in normal time and again in the shoot-out as Bonagee reach Intermediate Cup quarter-finals for the first time

“Every game is the same. I go to Mickey Funston and his dad (Eric); you think of all the people around the club, people like the Callaghans, the Pattons, John  Lafferty, Laurence Gidea, Donal Coyle, Derek Hunter. . . all of the people who put in so much voluntary hours to the club.

“It’s a chance for the players to give back for all the hours those people put in. I’m delighted for them. They can go out now and say that Bonagee is in the last eight of the Intermediate Cup.”

Goals by Micheál Doherty and Deano Larking tipped the scales in Bonagee’s favour after Alan Greaney put Everton in front only for Chris Fox to draw the Cork side level again.

A red card for Packie Mailey for a handball that was followed by Oisin Cannon saving a Jason Dunphy penalty.

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Gibson said: “When Packie got the red card, we probably thought that everything was against us.

“Packie is an honest big lad. He came off really frustrated and said it hit him on the face. I spoke to Marty (McGarrigle), who is a cracking referee, and he’s adamant that it went to hand then face.”

Bonagee had the perfect handful of penalties and Cannon saved from Troy O’Sullivan as the home side held the nerves.

Gibson said: “I was really impressed with how we tried to play in those conditions. I was really happy with the performance. Even going into penalties, I couldn’t have been disappointed if it hadn’t gone our way.

“We didn’t sit in. We kept the shape with two up top. Their manager actually said about how brave we were when we went to ten men. We had to go try win the match.”