FERMANAGH’S promotion hopes were fading in injury-time when Longford goalkeeper Paddy Collum aimed a kick-out to the right wing and Stephen McGullion found himself up against two men in blue.
Somehow the Derrygonnelly midfielder managed to get a hand to the ball and then he won his own break to set the Ernemen on the attack again and it was spirit like that at the death that enabled Ryan McMenamin’s side to battle back from the brink of defeat and clinch the draw they needed to keep their hopes of promotion alive.
“You get times in football when tactics go out the window and you have to go man-to-man,” said McGullion.
“It’s the team that has the hunger that comes out on top sometimes and luckily we got the draw today and we’ll reap the rewards of that the next day. We knew Longford were a good team, they have good footballers and we tried our best not to let them play football but at times they can pick you off and they did.
“But credit to our backs, they were very good and they came out with the ball after a few good turnovers.”
After a first minute goal from Sean Quigley, Fermanagh raced into a five-point lead against Longford but they lost momentum and trailed at the break and again as the game went into injury-time. The attitude in the Erne ranks was impressive and they clinched the draw they needed and deserved when Quigley scored at the death.
"We came out of the traps well and we tried to target a big first 10 just to get a bit of belief after the last day against Derry,” said McGullion.
“I was a bit annoyed at getting the yellow card and having to go off but the boys picked it up. We let Longford back into the game which wasn’t ideal but we showed good character to come back at the start of the second half. It was tit-for-tat for a good bit of it but a few massive scores from Sean (Quigley) and Darragh (McGurn) gave us the belief that we could push on and we got the draw at the end which was enough.”
Next up for Fermanagh is a promotion semi-final against Offaly, three-out-of-three winners in Division Three South. Both counties had two home games so there will be a toss for the venue.
“I haven’t come up against Offaly before but if they’re getting into the semi-finals they must be a good team,” said McGullion.
“We’ll be going down there looking for a performance and it’s the chance to get promotion and get to a League final. It’s not too often we get the chance to compete for a bit of silverware so we’ll be going
“We’ve a few injuries. Hopefully Eoin Donnelly will be back and we’ll have a few others boys pushing for places – there’s serious competition even to get into the match day panel. We’re missing a few boys from last year but the young boys are bringing in a great bit of competition into the squad, you have to battle for your place, it’s never guaranteed.”
