Fermanagh grateful to ‘Blobby’

THE truth, as Malachy O’Rourke will happily observe, can often be stranger than fiction.

Fermanagh arrived at Kingspan Breffni Park on Saturday night bereft of short-term form after a disastrous National league and lacking long-term form on the back of a terrible record at the Cavan venue but were saved by a man with a less than complimentary nickname.

Full-forward Ryan Carson, affectionately known as ‘Blobby’ by his peers, provided the guile with a match winning 64th minute goal to book Fermanagh’s place in the Ulster SFC semi-final against Monaghan.

The fact that Fermanagh have now broken their Championship duck at the venue is important as they’ll return to Cavan on Sunday week for the last four clash.

Aside from Fermanagh’s excellent work rate, a feature of their successful teams in the last decade, they showed little to suggest they can topple the might of a Monaghan team currently in full stride.

Yet after a league campaign that yielded six losses from seven and relegation to Division 4 the view from the Ulster semi-finals is one that manager O’Rourke is simply happy to observe.

“I can’t say how happy I am for the lads because to come through a league campaign like we did with a lot of disappointment, a lot of negativity in the county, it’s very hard to lift yourself, it’s very hard to come back and produce a performance to win a game in Breffni Park when we’d never done it before,” said O’Rourke.

“I’m delighted for them that their work paid off and they came through.”

The resurrection of old values; hard running and high intensity pleased O’Rourke no end. Like the Fermanagh team that drew the 2008 Ulster final and the All-Ireland semi-final side of 2004, the impact of the collective unit amounted to far more than the sum of their individual parts on Saturday night.

“Well that’s it and that’s what you ask the boys for,” continued O’Rourke. “You have to have that work rate if you want to build anything else. You have to have that work rate and the desire there. There’s no doubt the boys showed that.”

Hard work only got Fermanagh so far though. Level for the fourth time in the second-half at 0-12 apiece – and for the sixth time in the game – it required a moment of expertise to finally put daylight between the Erne County and their hosts.

Carson provided that inspiration when he gleefully accepted Seamus Quigley’s flick on after a Tommy McElroy high ball in, shook off a couple of Cavan defenders and drove a left footed shot to the net. When Quigley followed up with a fine point a minute later, his second after coming on as a sub, Fermanagh led by four with as many minutes remaining.

“’Blobby’ got a great goal at a very crucial time,” reflected O’Rourke. “It was enough to get us through and we’re delighted.”

What will particularly irk Cavan is that they had most potential in exciting talents like David Givney, Gareth Smith, Rory Gallagher and Seanie Johnston but while all four impressed in patches the team were ultimately edged out by a more ruthless Fermanagh side in the second-half.

Cavan led 0-8 to 0-7 at half-time thanks in part to a strong midfield performance from Givney but eight wides in that spell were costly and they wasted some decent goal opportunities.

“We created enough opportunities, enough chances and when you don’t take them you’re going to suffer a little bit,” said Cavan manager Tommy Carr.

“We didn’t get enough possession in the middle of the field in the second-half. We probably made too many changes to try and get possession and then denied the forward line the more settled look they had in the first-half.

“In the 10 or 15 minutes before the end of the first-half we could have pushed on but ended up going in only a point up. From a possession point of view we should have gone in maybe three or four ahead.”

Hamstrung at midfield and struggling to make any sort of impact up front, Cavan could have done with the steadying influence of former Cavan minor captain Ray Cullivan in this sector late on.

However, while he was listed as a sub, he’d quit the panel in frustration late last week after being informed of his omission from the team.

“That didn’t affect us at all,” insisted Carr.

“It was only a late withdrawal by Ray, disappointing as it was. We said, ‘At the end of the year, at Championship time, if we were left with fellas who wanted to be here, who wanted to wear the Cavan jersey, that’s really all that concerned us’.

” We wouldn’t be using it as an excuse for losing the game.”

Fermanagh: Ronan Gallagher; N Bogue, S Lyons, B Mulrone; D Ward (Damien Kelly 63mins), R McCluskey, T McElroy (J Woods 69mins); J Sherry, M McGrath; D Keenan (0-1), R Carson (1-3), M Little; P Ward (0-3), Rory Gallagher (0-2) (Seamus Quigley 48mins (0-2)), C O'Brien (0-2).

Cavan: F Reilly; D Sheridan, T Corr, M Cahill; P Brady (0-1), E McGuigan, A Clarke (Michael Hannon 41mins); C Galligan, D Givney (0-2) R Flanagan, G Smith (0-4) McKeever (Lorcan Mulvey 60mins); C Mackey (0-1), S Johnston (0-2), M Brennan (0-2) (Martin Reilly 55mins).