Glen Emmets bag the title

GLEN EMMETS STABANNON PARNELLS 1-9 1-6

GLEN Emmets clinched the Division 3 League title after claiming a hard-fought victory away to Stabannon Parnells on Friday evening.

The Tullyallen men came out on top by three points to secure the crown for the first time in 12 years. When they last finished top in 2004 the restructuring of the leagues meant they weren’t promoted, but this time they have Division 2 football to look forward to.

The Emmets were hot favourites to complete their tenth win of the season and it looked as if they were in for a comfortable evening when an early Eamonn Mullen pointed free was followed by a fourth minute goal from Damien Grimes.

However, Stabannon proved they were in no mood to make things easy and after Aidan Shevlin opened their account they followed up with a second point before Ken Lynch hit the net to put the hosts 1-2 to 1-1 ahead.

When Shevlin added another point on 24 minutes, the Parnells were 1-4 to 1-2 in front but a late score from Ronan Grufferty cut the gap to one point at the break.

The Tullyallen outfit raised their game at the start of the second half and points from Grufferty and Mullen (two frees) had the, back in front.

Stabannon continued to make life difficult and the game was in the balance with five minutes remaining when another Shevlin point cut the gap to 1-7 to 1-6.

However, Glen Emmets weren’t going to let the opportunity slip and they sealed the win with scores from Damien Grimes and Mark Noone.