Lisnaskea Rovers 3 Mountjoy United 2 Lisnaskea Rovers will play their football in the top flight of the Fermanagh and Western next season as they secured promotion with a 3-2 win over Mountjoy United on Saturday.

Indeed, it was a memorable day for both club’s with the Tyrone side presented with the league trophy having secured the title with their recent win over Drumquin United.

For Rovers boss Darren Graham though there was delight that they have got the job done after a sticky run of results in recent weeks.

“I’m over the moon and if I’m honest I’m also very relieved to get it done and dusted. We were missing four regulars on Saturday but fair dues to the boys, they did exactly what I asked of them and they got the result that we needed. This was also Mountjoy’s first league defeat of the season so it was a good performance from us and I’m very proud of all the boys,” said Graham.

Graham was clear from the start of the season that the goal was promotion.

“We wanted to go up to Division One and at the end of the day we have achieved that. Yes, we would love to have gone up as champions but Mountjoy deserved to win it, they were the better team throughout the season,” he stated.

The Rovers manager feels that they are now back where they belong but he stresses that he wants to keep pushing on.

“Lisnaskea Rovers should never be in Division Two but that’s where we found ourselves.

“Now we have got to build on getting promotion and we’ll be looking to strengthen the squad over the summer and get a few extra bodies in.

“We also have a brilliant youth set up at the club and hopefully that will eventually begin to filter through to the adult teams,” added Graham.

Despite being without four regulars for the visit of the champions, it was Rovers who were to grab the lead with 15 minutes on the clock as Shane O’Neill met a corner with a front post header which he steered home for 1-0.

The advantage though was short lived as Mountjoy hit back to level up the contest, Andrew Gilfillan the scorer for the away side.

There was little to divide the sides over the remainder of the opening half but ten minutes into the second half Rovers took the lead for a second time through a fine Andy Little effort.

Again Mountjoy levelled with Stuart Graham was this time on target and following this they enjoyed their best spell of the game as they pressed hard to get their noses in front.

However, Rovers stood firm at the back as they withstood whatever the visitors had to throw at them.

And it was the home outfit who were to go on and bag the winner in the game. Kevin Curran’s inswinging cross picked out Barry Flanagan at the back post and he powered a header to the back of the net to make it 3-2.

Mountjoy went in search of an equaliser after this but Lisnaskea defended solidly to see out the remainder of the game and clinch promotion.

“The boys worked really hard, they chased and harried Mountjoy from start to finish and they got their rewards for it.

“We lost a few games recently but this was the perfect response,” said the Rovers manager.