Strabane Sigersons.............1-12

Drumragh Sarsfields..........0-10

Strabane Sigersons entertained Drumragh Sarsfields at Páirc Mhic Sioghair last Sunday in the Tyrone All County League Division 3 and after a hard fought battle emerged winners with five points to spare at the final whistle.

The win keeps Strabane in second spot in the league two points adrift of leaders Drumquin but with a lot of difficult games ahead especially in the coming fortnight.

Strabane v Drumragh games are always closely contested and this one was no different and was always in the balance right until the closing minutes.

It was the home side who opened the scoring with a fine score from play via Brendan McLaughlin and this was quickly added to by a point from play via Chris Devine.

The visitors responded with a point from play before a Warner Mullen point from a free kick restored a two point lead for Sigersons.

Drumragh then levelled the game with two points from free kicks and were denied a goal when stand in keeper Conor McGrath pulled off a fine save to deny them a major. Strabane then stepped up the pace during which time they added three points in a row, Chris Devine and Martin McNulty from play and Brendan McLaughlin from a long range free kick.

Drumragh did manage to add a further two points from play prior to half-time but in between scores, Strabane forward Chris Devine was upended in the large square and a penalty was awarded by the referee, Warner Mullen took the spot kick and excellently finished to the visitors net for what turned out to be the only goal of the game.

This left Strabane 1-6 to 0-5 ahead at the interval but with still a lot of work to do in order to win this game.

The start of the second half saw Strabane increase their lead to five points with John McLaughlin sending over a point from a fisted effort.

Drumragh then responded with possibly their best spell of the game during which time they sent over three unanswered points, two from play and one from a free kick to leave just two points separating the sides.

Strabane now knew that if they were to gain anything from this encounter that they were going to have to dig deep and thankfully they hit the next three scores, Warner Mullen sent over the first from a free kick and then two well worked scores were sent over by the Strabane centre-half back Stephen Stewart.

Both sides did manage to add a further two scores to their tallies with Warner Mullen hitting both Strabane scores from play to seal a deserved yet hard fought for win.

Strabane will have been happy enough with the win but know that overall their performance wasn't outstanding, Drumragh to their credit played very well and will no doubt take points of several teams this season especially on their home ground.

Strabane will know that they can play a lot better than on this occasion and will be hoping that they can put in an improved performance on Sunday with a difficult away game against Beragh.

Further difficult games away to Aghaloo and at home to neighbours Owen Roes are to follow the week after which will bring us to the halfway point in the league and a clearer picture should then start to emerge of how the season is panning out for the team. Everyone expected this league to be competitive and tight and that's exactly how it is going at present with any team capable of causing a shock despite the form book.