Enniskillen Rangers 1 Enniskillen Town 3 Enniskillen Town avenged their derby defeat earlier in the season as they produced a strong second half performance to run out 3-1 winners over Enniskillen Rangers at the Ball Range on Saturday.

The home side had enjoyed the better of the exchanges in the opening 30 minutes of the contest but they could not make a breakthrough and as the half drew to a close Town had started to get the measure of their opponents.

And two Frank Wallace goals in the first 15 minutes of the second half put Rory Judge’s side in charge of the encounter although a superb Adam Wallace free kick did bring Rangers back into the game.

However, with the game in added on time, Town secured the local bragging rights as Gary Lynch slotted home to clinch a 3-1 win.

Judge had been disappointed when the sides met earlier in the season by the lack of desire shown by his players but he was more than happy with the performance on Saturday.

“In the first game between us this season we didn’t make it look like a derby should be, we didn’t make them work for the win, but this time we had much more intensity which was very pleasing. After we got through that initial opening 30 minute period I felt we played as well as we have in a long time and we deserved the win. That’s three wins in a row now and hopefully we can go on and put a run of results together,” said Judge.

Home boss Michael Kerr though was far from pleased with his side’s display on the day. He was disappointed that his side could not match the hunger shown by Town and accused them of having their minds on Saturday week’s Junior Cup quarter-final.

“It was not good enough,” said Kerr. “Some boys heads seemed to be already on the Junior when they should have been focusing on this game as it was a chance to get another win and also to do the double over Town in the league. It was disappointing. Town were the hungrier side, they wanted it more, they won all the 50/50 tackles and deserved their win and a lot of boys now have a lot of questions to answer if they want to play in that Junior Cup tie.”

It was the home side though were the brighter side in the early stages of the game with Mark Cutler in particular giving Town a number of problems.

Cutler fired a couple of dangerous crosses into the box but the ‘Gers failed to get anybody on the end of them while he also forced one superb stop from Town goalkeeper Pat Cadden. Cutler’s effort looked set for the top corner but Cadden somehow got a hand to it to turn it away while he also made a save from Paddy Beresford as Rangers pressed for the opener.

Town were forced to make a change to deal with the threat of Cutler with Wallace giving him more of a physical presence to think about and as the half came to a conclusion the visitors were starting to settle to the challenge.

In a game that had a derby feel with some tasty tackles, it was Town who got on top in the second half and with 55 minutes gone they broke the deadlock as Wallace was put through one on one against Jerome Carleton and he kept his composure to slot home.

And seven minutes later the visitors doubled their lead as Wallace was again put through and he tucked the ball away at the near post to put Town in control.

Rangers though were soon back in the game as Adam Wallace stepped up to fire a free kick into the top corner of the net from a free kick to make it 2-1.

It was Town though who were to remain in control of the game and they were to make sure that they left the Ball Range with all three points when Gary Lynch was put through and he slipped the ball under the advancing Carleton to seal the victory for Judge’s outfit.

Town face another derby this week when they face Enniskillen Santos while Kerr will be looking for a big response from his charges when they take on Tummery.