Fermanagh Erne their spurs

MOST of their players may be small in stature but Fermanagh proved yet again they are capable of big things with a dogged three-point win over Down in the preliminary round of the Ulster Football Championship yesterday.

All-Ireland semi-finalists in 2004, Ulster finalists last year, these guys are proof that it is not about the size of the dog in the fight.

It wasn’t a thing of beauty, not by a long shot, but Malachy O’Rourke’s side will fancy their chances of another big day in Clones what with Tyrone, Armagh, Derry and Monaghan all on the other side of the draw.

A strong wind and regular bouts of heavy rain made for an attritional 70 minutes but they out-fought and out-thought Down who, not for the first time, disappointed.

It was a result that made a mockery of league form and many a pre-match prediction after Down had spent the spring feeding a winning habit in the third tier while Fermanagh had stumbled from one defeat to the next in Division Two.

The tie turned midway through the second-half. The sides had shadowed each other zealously all afternoon, never letting more than a point come between them, until Daniel Hughes handed Down the whip hand with a score that made it 0-10 to 0-8 after 46 minutes.

What followed was a ten-minute period of mistakes, wides and general mediocrity but Fermanagh regained their composure first and fired off five points from there to the finish as Down fired nothing but blanks.

Referee John Bannon added to their misery seconds from time with what appeared to be a rather harsh red card for Aidan Carr who vented his frustration with a nondescript shove to the back of Marty McGrath’s head.

Bannon’s performance drew howls of derision and exasperation from many of the away supporters but, as manager Ross Carr admitted afterwards, Down had no-one but themselves to blame for the loss.

They had reached the interval level (0-7 each) despite playing into a considerable wind but the Mourne men allowed conditions dominate their thinking after the break and it was to their detriment.

A clearly unfit Benny Coulter had already been moved into full-forward during the first-half and Down’s game plan on the turnaround amounted to no more than lumping high balls into him. Fermanagh’s Hugh Brady ate most of them up. Those he didn’t were scooped up to safety by one or other of his defensive lieutenants. Not once did Down look to deviate from the tactic despite their ever diminishing returns.

Coulter’s appearance in the line-up had been one of a number of expected changes to Carr’s dummy team in the programme. Another notable alteration was the decision by Fermanagh to start Ryan McCluskey.

The wing-back had spent the year thus far playing soccer for Portadown in the Irish League. Like Coulter, who was desperately short of match practice, he made little impression on the game.

The sides were level six times in an opening half which lacked any discernible pattern and suffered from too many frees. The second-half was actually worse and 57 were awarded by the game’s end.

There were morsels of comfort amid the banality. Most of them were points and most of them were kicked by Fermanagh, fantastic efforts attempted from all manner of angles and distances.

The best of them all came from Coulter however, an ambitious effort launched from the left touchline after 40 minutes that rode the wind over the bar, but there was little, if anything, in the way of goal chances at either end.

All of Fermanagh’s seven first-half points had been fashioned from play but Ryan Carson addressed that anomaly five minutes after Coulter’s work of art and Fermanagh leaned heavily on those dead ball skills thereafter.

The lack of a reliable freetaker cost them dearly last year but Carson proved himself worthy of his championship debut with five-in-a-row in that second period, even if all were relatively straightforward efforts.

His third free, and fourth point of the day, drew Fermanagh level after 59 minutes and he was active enough to claim the resultant kick-out and feed Ciaran McElroy for the score that took his side into the lead.

That alone would have been a good day’s work but two more frees from the full-forward’s left boot put Fermanagh three points ahead which, given Down’s faults at the other end, was as good as ten.

Scorers for Fermanagh: R Carson 0-6 (5f); J Sherry 0-2, T McElroy, M McGrath, C McElroy, M Little, D Keenan 0-1 each.

Down: D Hughes, B Coulter, P McCumiskey (f), A Carr (f), all 0-2; S Kearney, P Fitzpatrick 0-1 each.

FERMANAGH: C Breen; N Bogue, S Lyons, H Brady; R McCluskey, S McDermott, T McElroy; M McGrath, J Sherry; R Keenan, C McElroy, M Little; D Keenan, R Carson, E Maguire.

Subs: P Sherry for McCluskey, 35; S O’Brien for Little, 47; R Foy for C McElroy, 73.

DOWN: B McVeigh; L Howard, P Turley, D Rafferty; C Garvey, D Rooney, K Duffin; D Gordon, S Kearney; R Murtagh, B Coulter, A Carr; D Hughes, P Fitzpatrick, P McCumiskey.

Subs: J O’Reilly for Murtagh, 53; J Boyle for Kearney, 68.

Referee: J Bannon (Longford).