Work rate and desire delights Flanagan

Holders Derrygonnelly's four in a row hopes remain on course as they booked their place in the SFC Final with a seven point victory over Devenish at Brewster Park on Friday night.

The Harps got off to the perfect start when Conall Jones lashed the ball to the net in the fourth minute and although Devenish battled hard in the first half, a spell of four points in three minutes at the end of the half saw Derrygonnelly turn a three point advantage into a seven point one and put them firmly in control of matters.

And Derrygonnelly were always able to keep Devenish at arms length in the second half to send them back into another decider.

"We got a good run at them just before half time and then added another right from the restart at the start of the second half and that gave us a good eight point cushion and we were able to see it out from there," said Harps manager Sean Flanagan.

Derrygonnelly have not yet hit top form in this year's championship but they have still been able to win games and Flanagan cannot fault the effort of his players.

"People are queuing up to tell us how badly we are playing but I am delighted with the application, effort, work rate and desire that the team has shown in two big championship games against seasoned opponents," he said.

Ederney now stand between Derrygonnelly and a fourth championship success on the trot and Flanagan acknowledges that they will have to improve if they are to retain the New York Cup.

"We have played Ederney twice this season and we watched them on Saturday night so we have a good idea from those what Ederney bring to every game that play in.

"We understand that we will definitely have to improve our play and that we will also have to try and negate their strengthens," stated Flanagan.

Devenish manager Malachy Cullen agreed that the spell prior to half time was the key phase of the game as the Harps took control and put the game away from his side.

"The black card decision for Martin Doherty affected us and between that and the end of the half they went on to score four points in a row.

"I thought that up to that we were going toe to toe with them but that put them in control and although we were competitive in the second half, we could never really bridge that gap," he said.

Derrygonnelly got off to the dream start as they had the ball in the Devenish net after only four minutes. Stephen McGullion's high ball saw Conall Jones out field Vincent O'Brien before slotting the ball beyond Tom Treacy in the Devenish nets.

Indeed, the Harps were close to a second goal moments later when Ryan Jones' thumping effort cannoned back off the crossbar before McGullion fired over from the rebound.

Devenish were also denied by the woodwork early on as Barry Mulrone teed up Ruairi Maguire but his effort hit the frame of the goal and was eventually cleared to safety.

Devenish though grew into the game and they opened their account in the eighth minute through a Chris O'Brien close in free although Derrygonnelly answered with a Gary McKenna free.

It remained nip and tuck over the next period with Vincent O'Brien and Terry O'Flanagan notching points for Devenish and Garvan Jones clipping over a free for the Harps to leave it 1-03 to 0-03.

However, it was the period before the interval were the game was won. Devenish suffered a blow when they lost Martin Doherty to a black card and to compound matters the Harps produced a strong finish to the half to open up a comfortable cushion at the break.

Garvan Jones, Paul Ward, Ryan Jones and Garvan McGinley all tagged on points for the Harps as they went in at the break with a seven point lead.

And the advantage was stretched out to eight points on the resumption as Ryan Jones slotted over to make it 1-08 to 0-03.

In fairness to Devenish, they refused to throw the towel in and they hit four of the next five points to bring them back to within five points.

Tom Treacy drilled over two excellent long range frees, Terry O'Flanagan also converted a free while Ruairi Maguire added a point from play with Garvan Jones fisting over a point for Derrygonnelly.

A McKenna point from a free nudged Derrygonnelly six ahead and Devenish were reduced to 14 men 11 minutes from time as Vincent O'Brien picked up a second yellow card.

Ciaran Mulrone knocked over for the Garrison side before substitute Lee Jones and Tom Treacy exchanged points.

However, Devenish were unable to get in for the goal they required and Derrygonnelly went on to add the final two points with Conall Jones and Lee Jones firing over to leave it 1-13 to 0-09 at the conclusion.