Fermanagh Premiers were edged out on a penalty shoot out against Sligo Rovers in the Gary Bownes Memorial Cup at the Ball Range on Saturday.

Darren Higginbotham’s side had clawed their way back from 3-1 down against a strong Sligo side to take the game to penalties but it was the League of Ireland outfit who prevailed in the shoot out.

It was Sligo who had started the brighter of the sides with Fermanagh struggling to get into the game for the opening 20 minutes as the visitors took the lead.

However, Fermanagh did begin to get a foothold in the game as the half progressed and Niall Owens fired narrowly over the bar as it remained 1-0 at the break.

Sligo doubled their advantage early in the second half but Fermanagh responded well to this with Owens making it 2-1. Callum Jones picked out Owens and he fired to the roof of the net to get the home team back into the game.

It looked to be game over however when Sligo added their third but Fermanagh dug in and they hit back in the latter stages.

Curtis Coalter made it 3-2 with a good left foot drive and Owens then bagged his second with Jones again providing the assist to equalise.

Indeed, Coalter was unlucky not to win it for Fermanagh when his shot late in the game came back off the post.

“Sligo Rovers had a lot of quality in their side as you would expect but the boys matched them in most aspects. I was particularly pleased with how they kept pushing after going 3-1 down and we could have won it in the end. You need good, tough matches like this as they tell you a lot about the players,” said Higginbotham.

Meanwhile, Higginbotham has also named Jake Irvine as his captain and Niall Owens as his vice captain for the Super Cup, which gets underway in just over five weeks time.

“I’m happy with the selections, both players are very competitive and talented players,” added Higginbotham.