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18th Nov 2018

Injury time wonder goal wins Ulster final and sends Donegal club bonkers

Niall McIntyre

Johnny Carlin won’t have to buy a pint in Killygordon again.

There’s 20 minutes left in Celtic Park and Red Hugh’s are down by four points.

The Donegal champs have slogged it out with Limavady Wolfhounds for 40 plus minutes but they’re struggling to break the Derry defence down.

Enter Johnny Carlin. Limavady Wolfhounds have just been reduced to 14 men after Richard King was red carded and Red Hugh’s smelled blood.

They sent for their secret weapon. Carlin came onto a loud roar from the Hugh’s faithful in the lion’s den in Derry and before they’d even stopped roaring he’d put over two fine points from open play.

Strong, direct and fast running, that’s his forte, that’s what he was told to bring to this game and that’s exactly what he did.

The Wolfhounds were on the back foot now and every time that man Carlin got on the ball they’d take a few more steps back.

Carlin’s introduction lifted his teammates and the Donegal men began to take over this game. They took the lead in injury time when Ryan Kelly fired one over at the City end and from there on in, it was all about seeing this one out and taking a point to seal it if the opportunity came.

The opportunity did come after plenty of huffing and puffing but if they were looking for a point it came to the wrong man. It came to Johnny Carlin.

After their midfielder won a mark for the kickout, they worked the ball around, over, back and across the pitch and 11 passes later the ball was in Johnny Carlin’s hands.

On the 45 he picked it up. He raced in towards the 21, take your point they roared at him.
One, two, three defenders skinned and surely he’s going to tap it over now. He doesn’t, he shoots for goal and the rest, as they say, is Red Hugh history.

Video credit: Gerry Gallen

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