In a season of outrageous comebacks already, Glenanne pulled off their most remarkable win of the campaign to date when they saw off Pembroke 4-3.
Trailing 3-2 with 150 seconds left, Shane O'Donoghue earned and converted a penalty stroke to tie things up before Gary Shaw won it with the very last play.
It typified the deeply ingrained self-belief built up in the first half of the season en route to a four-point lead at the Christmas break.
Seven times they have nicked a one-goal victory, twice doing so from two goals down while five points have been won in the last two minutes of fixtures.
Pembroke, meanwhile, will wonder how they got nothing from the tie. After a second minute concession – Sam O’Connor dinking home – Pembroke had the run of things, winning five corners and took the lead via Stephen Sweetnam and Alan Sothern’s 18th goal of the campaign.
Shannon Boucher equalised at 2-2 with nine minutes to go but Richard Lynch appeared to have Pembroke in the winner’s enclosure before Glenanne’s amazing late salvo.
The leaders’ nearest rivals are Three Rock Rovers who produced their best performance of the campaign when they won 3-1 at Lisnagarvey despite the absence of Olympian Mitch Darling and four other front-line players.
Indeed, just two of their line-up were over the age of 23. ’Garvey did score a wonderful counter goal via Matthew Nelson but Rovers replied in kind to build a 2-1 half-time lead via Ross Canning and Luke Madeley.
Goalkeeper Jamie Carr made some crucial saves to maintain the lead before Madeley completed the win with three minutes to go with a powerful corner drag. ’Garvey are now ten points off the pace but with two games in hand.
At the bottom, Railway Union finally got off the mark at the tenth attempt thanks to Simon McKeever's second quarter goal, beating Cork C of I.
It halves their gap to ninth-placed Cookstown who drew with Annadale. Monkstown, meanwhile, clung on to record a 3-2 win over Banbridge despite seemingly being in cruise control with a three-goal lead with 12 minutes left.
