Lisnarick climbed off the bottom of the table and out of the relegation zone with victory over fellow strugglers Derrychara.

Two goals from Mark McCauley and two from Proinsias O’Kane helped them take all three points to give Lisnarick their third win of the season and lift them to ninth spot, but with the bottom five teams separated by a single point manager Peter Gormley knows they will have to maintain their form of they are reach safety.

“It was a big three points, and maybe an important three points come the end of the season,” he said. “We dominated for most of the first half and were very good going forward. We were positive in attack and looked threatening all the time. Then we took our foot off the gas and let Derrychara back into it in the second half. The job was done in the first half though and we saw it out. We have players coming back into the side who are starting to bolster it and they are coming back at the right time. Hopefully we can start to build on that and keep the squad together and keep improving. We should end up higher than we are at the minute. Slip ups now could make the difference but hopefully we can continue to get some points on the board after Christmas.” Lisnarick started brightly and took a deserved lead after 15 minutes when Mark McCauley finished well, and they doubled their advantage before half time through peter Law, with McCauley turning provider.

They put themselves in a commanding position early in the second half when Proinsias O’Kane added a third, but Derrychara finally roused themselves. They pulled one back when Dillon Martin headed in a Ciaran Magee corner, but could not close the two goal gap despite Lee Glass having an effort cleared off the line and Mark Gallagher seeing his shot well saved. In pushing for a second goal they were caught on the break with O’Kane adding his side’s fourth. Glass scored for Derrychara with twenty minutes remaining but it never looked like altering the outcome and McCauley made the points safe with a breakaway goal in the closing minutes.

“They bossed the game in the first half and we were very slack,” admitted Derrychara’s Johnny Noble, who has brought the experienced Billy Reynolds in to assist with the coaching. “He did a job at Fivemiletown United two years ago when he came in and he more or less kept them up. We have brought him in for the rest of the season, and hopefully we can keep him on a full time basis. It is good experience to have.”