FERMANAGH made a winning start to their Bank of Ireland McKenna Cup campaign when they had two points to spare over St.Marys in terrible weather conditions at Garvaghey last night.
It was an historic occasion as Cavan’s Maggie Farrelly became the first female referee to take charge of a senior inter-county game. Played in driving rain it was honours even at the break 0-6 apiece after an entertaining and fast moving opening thirty five minutes.
The Erne men had the wind at their backs in the first half but it was the students who had the better of things early on. Daire Kavanagh had the opening point inside thirty seconds but Eoin Donnelly brought Fermanagh level in the 4th minute with a fine point from thirty five metres out.
Former Tyrone player Danny McBride then put St.Marys back in front and Kavanagh from a placed ball made it 0-3 to 0-1 with seven minutes gone on the clock. Tomas Corrigan though began to cause the St.Marys defence problems with two fine scores either side of Kavanagh’s third of the half.
Corrigan then levelled matters from a free as Fermanagh enjoyed the better of things in terms of possession. Their finishing though let them down as they posted six first half wides to their opponents three. St.Marys on the other hand made better use of their possession with Ryan Johnston splitting the posts with an outstanding effort from the right wing with the outside of his boot.
Fermanagh's James Duffy under pressure from St Mary's Harry Loughran
After a couple of wides Fermanagh wing half back Ciaran Flaherty showed his attackers how it was done with the equaliser before Corrigan and McBride were both shown yellow cards after a scuffle.
In the closing stages of the first half St.Marys carved open the Fermanagh defence with keeper Chris Snow coming to his side’s rescue to brilliantly tip a Matthew Fitzpatrick pile driver over the bar. There was still time for Corrigan to have the final say of the half from a free, his fourth point of the contest.
With the elements now in their favour the students made a lightning start to the second half with Neil McNicholl booming over a superb point and that was following by a brace of Kavanagh frees before Kevin McKernan hit an outstanding effort from distance.
Within eight minutes they were five clear after Conall McCann hit a great point and there looked only one winner at that stage. St.Marys though then lost full forward Matthew Fitzpatrick to a second yellow card and that coupled with the introduction of Sean Quigley helped turn the game in favour of Fermanagh.
How fitting for #NollaigNamBan. Maggie Farrelly becomes first woman to referee a senior men's inter-county game pic.twitter.com/ro3XNfHiyQ
— Sportsfile (@sportsfile) January 6, 2016Quigley scored twice from play and converted two frees as the sides were level with ten minutes left to play. Three minutes later the decisive score of the contest arrived when a sweeping move was well finished to the bottom left hand corner of the net by right half back Ciaran Flaherty. Patrick McBride and McKernan replied with St.Marys points to close the gap to the minimum but Quigley had the final say for the Erne men.
Fermanagh: C Snow; A Breen, B Mulrone (0-1), P Cadden; C Flaherty (1-1), C Jones, S McManus; T Clarke, E McHugh; E Donnelly (0-1), J Duffy, J McMahon; K Conor, M Jones, T Corrigan (0-6, 2f).
Subs: D McCusker for McManus (ht); P McCusker for Clarke (ht); S Quigley (0-4, 2f) for Cadden (47); D Kelly for McMahon (49); R Hanna for Corrigan (64)
Yellow card: T Corrigan (28)
St.Marys: R Burns; P McAleer, D McBride (0-1), C McCooey; K McKernan (0-3), N McParland, H Loughran; P Carragher, B Og McGilligan; P McBride (0-1), C McCann (0-1), R Johnston (0-1); D Kavanagh (0-5, 3f), M Fitzpatrick (0-1), N Toner.
Subs: N McNicholl (0-1) for McGilligan (ht); C Meyler for Carragher (46); C Byrne for Loughran (46); A Nugent for McAleer (56)
Yellow card: D McBride (28); C Meyler (65)
Red card: M Fitzpatrick (52)
Referee: Maggie Farrelly (Cavan)
