Club History 4​

The mid sixties saw Urney as the Kingpins and crowd puller at Tournaments throughout Tyrone, Donegal, Derry and Fermanagh and with the occasional trip to Antrim.  They won outright at these venues frequently and organisers “fixed” dream games here:- Urney v Ballygawley, Armagh Harps, Clontibert, McCumhaill, Omagh, Dromore – the list is endless, the gates were huge e.g. Armagh Harps v Urney at the Dromore Tournament  -  takings £240 at 2 shillings per head, i.e. at least 2,400 paying spectators.  At today’s rates this would be at least £10,000.

Urney continued to clean up in Club Tournaments in 1966 including the Omagh Tournament where they beat Dromore 5-12 to 1-07 in the semi-final and Omagh St. Enda’s in the final on a score of 1-12 to 1-05.  Shortly after, they won the Aghyaran Tournament. At the half way stage Urney led Omagh by 2 points in the league with 7 wins out of 7 games.  By the end of the season, they won the League with 24 pts (2 losses) from Carrickmore on 19 points.  To go with the League, Urney also beat Stewartstown in the final of the Fr.Campbell Cup for the second time in three years. At the end of the year Urney had played 23 games, drawn 3 and lost 6 – one of which was because of the late arrival on the pitch.

In 1967 Urney defeated Omagh in the League and Moy in the Fr. Campbell Cup and Championship before disposing of Carrickmore in the Omagh Tournament.  The successful team this year was the Juvenile Team who defeated Strabane in the North Tyrone Final by 0-12 to 1-03.  This team included a number of players from the then other half of the parish Castlederg. Urney went onto lose the final to a very strong Coalisland team after a reply on a score of 2-03 to 1-03.

Urney found it difficult to remain outside the relegation zone in 1968 but were saved as the All County Leagues were set up with Urney being in Section B.  Urney finished in a mid-table position that year.  Urney continued to play in the “B” section in 1970 and the highlight was qualifying for a St.Enda’s Cup Final against old rivals Carrickmore.  This turned out to be a very intense game – “it was tough, uncompromising but fair brand of football” played by Urney.  Jack Langan starred and scored 1-04.  Urney had one player sent off but still won the game.  Unfortunately Urney fell foul of the “top table” following a robust game against Clonoe at Cutt Park resulting in several players being suspended and the Club received a six months suspension.
 



























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By the start of 1973 Urney had been relegated to the Intermediate grade but because of the success of the Tyrone team, Urney were promoted back to senior grade because they topped an unfinished League table.  They survived in Section B of the League with a mid table finish – one of 3 teams on 17 points. During 1974 it was decided that all clubs would play in an all county system resulted in Urney being placed in Div 2 for the 1975 season. Life in Div 2 got off to a bad start with the team losing their first three games and collecting 4 points from their eight games.  
The club did not fair any better in 1976 losing out to Strabane in the Intermediate Championship and playing Strabane in a relegation play off in Div 3, which Urney won easily by 3-07 to 0-06.This reprieve was short-lived as Urney found themselves in the same position the following year after a perceived amalgamation between Urney and Strabane failed to materialise.

At the end of the season Urney and Omagh met in the last League game of the season, Urney needed two points to avoid a relegation playoff and Omagh needed two points to gain a play off for the title against Aghyaran.  Urney lost to Omagh leaving them to play Edendork in a playoff but they were docked two points by the County Board resulting in relegation to Div 4 by the end of 1977.

They survived in Div 4 in 1978 by finishing 5th out of 8 teams.  At the end of this season it was decided to re-organise the leagues again on a 16 team structure of 3 sections for the year 1979.   Urney again struggled to remain in the new Div 2 in 1979 going seven games without a victory.  They were relegated at the end of the season to Div 3 (Jnr League) and it would take 10 years to get out of this position.

The start of the ‘80’s brought hope but no success.  As usual the championship search was fruitless as they lost to Loughmacrory in the semi-final having defeated Greencastle in the first round on a score of 2-05 to 0-07.  The League performance was poor finishing third from bottom. Again Urney was suspended for a year following incidents in a game against Loughmacrory.  Urney was idle for the year of 1981.
As a result Urney needed to rise from the ashes again so a new committee was set up with Paul McNulty at the helm but the County Board called them to a meeting to decide whether or not they should be allowed back into football.   Questions came thick and fast as Paul answered with the first thing came to mind.  Emphasis was placed on a disciplinary committee within the club to which Paul indicated that they had set up.  Paul indicated that they would have U21; Minor; U14 and U12 teams, when in fact they would be struggling to get one adult team out. After due deliberation by the County Disciplinary Committee they were advised that night that because they had so many teams available especially at youth level that they would be allowed to compete.

One result of this new committee that was so unusual is that Urney were awarded a prize of being the best disciplined team.  Since then incidents have been few and far between. Again in 1982, Urney finished joint third from bottom in the league above Mountfield and Strabane.1983 saw the club climb to fourth place in the League by mid-season, only to fall to 6th position.

Centenary year (1984) of the GAA brought little change to our league performance. In the Championship Urney drew with Windmill and defeated them in the reply on a score 1-08 to 0-05 before overcoming Loughmacrory in the quarter finals by 2-04 to 0-06.  In the semi-final they met Clogher and for a change they showed true grit and determination as it took two replays to determine the winners.  Goals from Kirk and Lafferty were not enough to take the lead with 2 minutes left, Clogher led by 2 points when sub Jim Hunter settled the game with Urney’s third goal. Unfortunately the final against a very capable Pomeroy at Altnamuskin was totally one sided and they suffered a massive defeat by 19 points (0-02 to 3-12).  It was a devastating result.
Things looked bleak for 1985 after this result but spirits were high and a firm purpose of amendment was high on the agenda at convention.  It was decided to enter a reserve team in the League which was far from popular with many.  The team proved their worth by winning the majority of their league matches and losing to Drumragh in Reserve Championship.  On the back of the performance of the reserves the first team gained confidence and were lying in 3rd place after 12 games just one point from the top of the league. In the final game they hammered Strabane 6-10 to 0-07 with Billy McGhee scoring four goals.
The minors went one stage further defeating Moy in the semi-final 5-03 to 0-02 before losing to Kileshill;   However silverware came to the village when St. Columba’s Primary School won the North Tyrone Primary Schools Cup.
In the Junior Championship they defeated Drumquin in the semi-final by 0-09 to 0-08 and thus qualified to meet Drumragh in the final.   Having caused upsets throughout the championship and having already defeated Drumragh in the League they were favourites to collect the title.   Again, dreams were destroyed as Urney slumped to another miserable defeat 0-05 to 1-09.

Spirits in 1988 had not been hard to lift and this was shown in results having lost five games they qualified for a promotional play off but lost out to Eskra on a score of 0-07 to 1-09.

In 1989 Strabane stopped their run of defeats by Urney when they won by 0-09 to 0-07 and Urney slaughtered Tattyreagh by 8-11 to 0-04 in the last game of the year. Sam Bogle was honoured as Tyrone Clubman of the Year at an event in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin and Paddy Corrigan became the second Urney referee to referee a Tyrone Snr Football Final. (Billy Melly refereed the 1966 final.)

The first major event of 1990 was a concert to welcome Brian Farmer, President of the GAA in Canada and a leading industrialist who was a team mate of Gerry Convie, a native of Clonmore in Armagh and a then current player and official with Urney.  The night was a huge success which lit the embers of rebirth as the next twenty years was to show.

Both on and off the pitch things developed and fell into place as Urney got things to succeed.  They had a successful Jim Devlin Cup being unfortunate to lose to senior side Clonoe 2.10 to 1.10.  In the league they crushed Tattyreagh 6-19 to 0-03, Aghaloo 2-12 to 2-06, beat Errigal Ciaran, In the Championship they had a huge win against Dregish in the preliminary round and against Tattyreagh in the first round of the championship.  In the quarter final against Owen Roes where Jim Hunter converted a late 13 metre free to win the game. In the league, success continued against Derrytresk by 10 points.  Meanwhile the reserve team remained undefeated in the league and progressed towards the final with Strabane before beating them in a replay.  A first adult trophy since 1953 – a 31 year span.

In the Junior Final Urney played Aghaloo who were in their 2nd consecutive Final.  Urney led at half time but looked a beaten side. It took all of Palor McNulty’s experience to give them confidence to push on and win in the second half.  Indeed, it took an outstanding save from Joe McCrory to awaken the Urney team. Urney pulled ahead as Aidan Langan made sure with a trademark goal.    It was deemed to be one of the best Junior Finals seen in the county for many a day.  Urney were not able to win the league having lost to Eskra one week after the Championship final.  They finished runners up in the league.