Clogher Valley 3 Enniskillen 15

Enniskillen made a glorious return to the top level of Junior rugby with a convincing win over rivals Clogher Valley in their own back yard by a scoreline of 15-3 on Saturday. 
However, if this was the cue for all out glee for a Mullaghmeen side that has languished in Qualifying Two for a numbers of seasons then you would have been mistaken. 
Indeed, coach Willie Gibson was talking more about the areas that need improvement when he reflected on the win on Tuesday. 
“It was not a bad win,” he explained. 
“I suppose the win highlighted a few areas that we need to work on, it was the first game of the season and we created a few chances and took them which was probably the difference at the end of the day.” 
Willie added: “It was a good team performance overall, the defence played well and if you can go to Clogher Valley and keep them to three points and not allow them to score a try, then you have to be happy.” 
Next up for Skins is Portadown and Willie admits, they might know more about the top league after that. 
“Clogher are going through a bit of a change at the minute and we have Portadown on Saturday, so that game will tell us more, it will be big test but we are looking forward to it.” 
Despite losing, Clogher joint coach Davy Black was far from downheartened. 
“You are never happy to lose, but certainly we were happy with some of the performances and from a long term point of view,” reasoned Black. 
2We had a lot of young boys playing and making their debut and they will now know what is required at this level. Hopefully they will go away and work on their game. Indeed, we had 34 at training on Tuesday night which was the perfect response.  Despite the defeat, it was good also for local rugby to have the derby game back on the calendar.”
The game commenced at a frantic pace, as seems an essential feature when these two teams meet. Philip Holme cleared the ball from the Valley 22’ to Skins’ fullback Ashley Finlay who countered impressively to bring play back into the Clogher half. 
Good pressure from the Enniskillen forwards forced a penalty and out half Adam Lendrum slotted it nicely to put Skins 3-0 up. 
From the restart the Valley had their best period of the first half. Treanor, McKenna and Trenier were all prominent as Clogher edged forward. A Porter surge was stopped illegally giving Holme the chance to square it up. The strike was good and Clogher were back on terms.
Enniskillen had the lion’s share of possession for the rest of the first half and it took some stern Valley defence to keep the visitors at bay. Eventually the pressure wrought rewards for Enniskillen as McKenna was yellow carded for ruck infringements with the Valley camp feeling this was harsh and a key moment in the game as the visitors ran in their two tries soon after. 
Enniskillen should possibly have crossed the line sooner but there were some errors from the side who possibly lacked cohesion at times given the early stage of the season. 
Eventually off the back of a solid Enniskillen scrum, the ball found Mark O’Shea at 12 who stepped his way around three defenders to cross the line for the first try of the game, unconverted by Lendrum to leave the score 8-3. 
Skins worked their way back into the Clogher half with the back three of Steve Neill, Ashley Finlay and Robert Baloucoune proving very dangerous in the counter attack. Carries from the Skins’ forwards continued to wear down a determined Valley defence and another penalty was awarded to the visitors that drifted just wide of the uprights. 
A scrum just inside the Clogher half was to lead to another away score before half time as Ricky Lee picked from the base and made decent yards before offloading to a hard running Ashley Finlay, side-winding his way through some Valley defenders before finding Jamie Johnston in support who touched down under the posts, converted by Lendrum to extend the lead 15-3 at the close of the half. 
The second half saw more controlled play from Clogher and they spent a lot more time in the Enniskillen half. 
This required a much bigger defensive effort from Skins and they worked well together to keep the home side out. 
Clogher’s Trenier was held up after a good lineout routine and Treanor was stopped short as he attempted to bulldoze his way over.
Good defensive work from Skins at the set piece made it difficult for Clogher to sustain any long term pressure as Kaine Holden disrupted the opposition line out well and the Skins scrum looked generally to be in the ascendency. 
A yellow card for Holden after reacting to some clashes in open play gave Valley an opening but the defence remained resolute and some key turnovers from David Buchanan and Jamie Johnston put an end to good periods of Clogher attack. 
For the remainder play was mostly in the visitors half but the Valley alas failed to consolidate hard earned field position thus scoring chances were limited. Holme arrowed another penalty to the corner but the line out failed to produce the possession required and the moment was lost. 
The game fizzled out thereafter and as Skins took the honours.