Odyssey continues as foes find Fermanagh fire unquenchable

Fermanagh 0-12 Armagh 0-11

Saturday’s Croke Park double header always had the whiff of a potential upset about it, but like all good plots, the first twist came long before we expected it.

Designated as the undercard of the two games, Fermanagh went on to produce the fairytale not of the day, but perhaps of the summer.

It was a wonderful mix of raw emotion, heart and oceans of self belief. Charlie Mulgrew’s men found themselves four down after six minutes against the All-Ireland champions of 2002. After the break they hit nine wides against the favourites for Sam Maguire. Whereas, in the past, they would have committed ritual suicide in such situations, this most recent adversity seemed to act as a fuel for a side on an incredible journey.

“That win will instill a lot more confidence into our side and, as well as that, we’ve been expressing our game more as we’ve gone along,” said midfielder Liam McBarron.

“Apart from tradition, if you look at form in the league we’ve always come back in games. Sometimes we won them and sometimes we lost them. This time it went for us, thank God. They’re the kind of games Armagh used to always win.”

Yet how unlikely a Fermanagh comeback seemed after Paul McGrane plucked the referee’s throw-in out of the air. Ryan McCluskey must have had motion sickness trying to keep tabs on Steven McDonnell and Fermanagh hadn’t been able to string so much as one attack together after five minutes. And yet by the 23rd minute they were level and four minutes later they were in front.

By the break they were 0-8 to 0-6 to the good, thanks mainly to Stephen Maguire’s five-point haul. How? Belief and sheer hard work are the resounding answers.

For a time it seemed Enda McNulty’s dismissal in first half injury time for a high challenge on Martin McGrath would work against Fermanagh.

They were also conspiring against themselves in front of goal, firing those nine balls wide of the Armagh before one of the senior boys, Tom Brewster, stepped up to the plate to score the 73rd minute winner.

The odyssey, of course, is far from over. Mayo now await and despite Fermanagh’s heroics all season you can’t help but think that there won’t be too many pundits predicting they can claim a spot for late September.

“We’ve been written off since the start of the championship and, okay, we went out to a strong Tyrone side in Ulster but from that game we have learned a lot and we have a point to prove this year,” young Eamon Maguire said.

“Whatever way anyone else regarded us we knew deep down that we had it there. We just had to start believing in ourselves. I’m just astonished to tell you the truth, but there’s no reason why we can’t go on. Armagh were what? 1-6 favourites for this game?”

So what for Armagh and Joe Kernan? Has an era come to an end?

“You’re naturally going to feel sore and maybe in the morning I mightn’t feel as bad as I do now,” the affable Kernan replied.

“We’ll have a wee bit of a rest and nobody will make any rash decisions. We’ll winter well and I’ve told the boys to watch the two semi-finals and the final and if we’re still hurting after that then there’s definitely more left in us.

“We were beaten by a hungrier team at the end of the day but it’s not the end of Armagh football. It’s just another chapter.”

As for Fermanagh, well, they’re about to write their greatest chapter yet. Don’t rule out a few more twists as the plot continues to unfold either.

FERMANAGH: N Tinney; N Bogue, B Owens, R McCluskey; R Johnston, S McDermott, P Sherry; M McGrath, L McBarron; E Maguire, S Maguire, M Little; C O’Reilly, J Sherry, C Bradley. SUBS: T Brewster (0-3, 1f) for O’Reilly 25, D McGrath for J Sherry 58.

ARMAGH: P Hearty; E McNulty, F Bellew, A Mallon; K Hughes, K McGeeney (0-1), A O’Rourke; P Loughran, P McGrane; P McKeever (0-1f), T McEntee, J Toal; S McDonnell (0-7, 3f), R Clarke, D Marsden (0-1). Subs: B Mallon for Toal 31, A McCann for B Mallon 35, K McElvanna for O’Rourke 54, O McConville (0-1) for McKeever 56, B Mallon for Clarke 62.

Referee: J Bannon (Longford).