After two and a half matches Crossmaglen have still not managed to shake the tenacious grip of Tyrone champions Errigal Ciarán. With a second replay in Clones next week the real winners are All-Ireland holders Ballinderry, currently filing their nails and awaiting whoever staggers through this marathon AIB Ulster club football quarter-final.
Weather conditions were much improved on a sunny afternoon in Crossmaglen before a big crowd of around 8,000. The pitch was heavy but there was relief from the downpour that had flushed out the previous week's draw in Omagh. Nonetheless the match itself followed a remarkably similar pattern with Cross taking a hefty lead and Errigal charging back to nearly win the match before even extra time failed to sort it out.
A strong wind made it very much a game of two halves. Cross looked to have established a stranglehold on proceedings at half-time when leading by 1-8 to 0-2.
But they could manage only a point in the whole second half while their opponents whittled away the deficit and struck near the end for a vital goal and took the match to extra time.
Oliver Short, the Crossmaglen manager, identified the sending-off of centrefielder Anthony Cunningham as the pivotal moment for his team. The player was sent off in the same incident that also saw red being shown to Errigal wing forward Adrian O'Donnell. But there was no mistaking who had secured the net gain.
Cunningham had been working hard and winning plenty of ball. When he left Peter Loughran took more and more of a grip at centrefield and - like last week - was instrumental in his team's successful comeback.
"I thought Anthony was outstanding," said Short, "and his dismissal changed the course of the game."
Errigal manager Mickey Harte was relieved even if the comeback was less alarming than last week's - nine points down at half-time rather than eight behind going into the last quarter. "You don't choose to be eight or nine points down," he said afterwards, despite the apparent evidence to the contrary over the past eight days. "But at least we had time to talk it over this week."
Crossmaglen took advantage of a ferocious wind to dominate the first half. Goalkeeper Paul Hearty's kickouts were hitting the Errigal 40 and exerting huge pressure. Oisín McConville turned in a seven-point display in the first half-hour before fading a little.
He brought a good save out of John Devine when going for goal and just before the break created a chance which Cathal Short and James Hughes couldn't get past Devine either.
Had either of these gone in it's likely Errigal couldn't have survived but the half-time score of 1-8 to 0-2 contained just enough encouragement for the Tyrone team given their exploits the previous week.
On this occasion, though, the trend of the match was thoroughly against them. They weren't winning enough possession and found the Cross full-back line dominant on much of what was getting through with Donal Murtagh's steadiness under dropping ball vastly reassuring. One problem, however, that did beset the home team was a tendency to give away the ball having done the hard work of winning it.
The goal that formed the substance of the half-time lead came on 14 minutes. Stephen Clarke delivered a sublime chipped pass to transfer a loose ball to McConville whose blazing solo run opened the way for Tony McEntee to slip the ball past Devine.
But once again Cross took their foot off the pedal in the third quarter. Bit by bit Errigal got back into the match. Eoin Gormley started the scoring and it became apparent that Peter Canavan who had gone into the match with a leg injury and had a quiet first half, was in more threatening form.
Corner back Martin Califf had to clear a ball off the line and more worryingly from Crossmaglen's point of view, their forwards had gone completely on the blink. The wind was a problem and McConville's attempts at kicking a couple of 45s demonstrated its scale.
Halfway through the second period O'Donnell and Cunningham got the line and Errigal's progress continued. The gap was steadily closing but it still needed a goal. That duly arrived when Loughran's strong run and accurate ball into the danger area found Peter Canavan unaccountably unmarked by anyone except the goalkeeper. Not the man opponents want to see in such a situation, Canavan finished to the net.
There was still drama to come and no sooner had Enda McGinley equalised than James Hughes finally got Crossmaglen's only point of the half. But Peter Canavan had the last word with a stunning equaliser.
Both teams managed just one point in extra time.
Errigal looked as if they might suffer the consequences of shooting five wides when playing with the wind but the teams merely swapped points in the final period. At the death Tony McEntee should have been awarded a free in front of the posts but play was waved on - to Clones in a week's time.
CROSSMAGLEN RANGERS: P Hearty; D Murtagh, M Califf, S McNamee; F Shields, F Bellew, J Fitzpatrick; J Donaldson, A Cunningham; S Clarke, J McEntee (0-1), O McConville (0-7, five frees and one 45); J Hughes (0-2), T McEntee (1-0), C Short. Subs: S Kernan for Short (42 mins), C O'Neill for Clarke (47 mins), G Cumiskey for Cunningham (extra time), G O'Neill for Donaldson (75 mins), M McNamee for Hughes (79 mins).
ERRIGAL CIARÁN: J Devine; B O'Donnell, C McGinley, D O'Neill; E McGinley, P Horisk, D Harte; Pascal Canavan, P Loughran (0-1); A O'Donnell, M Harte (0-3, all frees), E McGinley (0-2); R McCann, Peter Canavan (1-3, two points from frees), E Gormley (0-1). Subs: B McAnenly for McCann (55 mins), B Mullen for Gormley (60 mins), J Lynch for O'Donnell (extra time).
Referee: M McGrath (Donegal).
