St. Joseph’s 1-14 St. Aidan’s 4-04

A four goal second half salvo was not enough to secure the win for St Aidan’s Derrylin as St Joseph’s emerged from this all Fermanagh Ennis Cup final with the spoils. With a commanding nine point lead at half time the Enniskillen school managed just four points in the second half while their opponents hit 4-01 in what was a pulsating encounter.
St Aidan’s also had a penalty saved before the break with  St Joseph’s goalkeeper Liam Magee saving well from Jack McGann.
After the game St Joseph’s manager Emmet Hackett was understandably pleased with the final result;
“I’m delighted for the boys that we were able to hold on and get the win. Derrylin really came at us the the second half but thankfully we were able to chip away a few scores and grind out the win,” he said, before adding;
You couldn’t ask for a better group of lads to work with. Their attitude has been phenomenal all year, and hopefully Friday was a reward for all the cold evenings spent out on the training field.”
His counterpart in the Derrylin dug out, Fergal Donnelly, rued the poor start that his side got off to; “We just left ourselves with too much to do, a real mountain to climb in the second half and even though we got the four goals it wasn’t enough in the end and fair play to St Joseph’s,” the St Aidan’s manager stated before going on to say that it had been a productive year for his team;
“I told the boys after the game that there was improvement this year. We were beaten by St Joseph’s by 13 points in the first game of the year and we have definitely improved so much from that.”
St Joseph’s had great performances on the day from Aaron Jones and Niall Maguire in defence while Lawrence McKeown and Oisin Farry in midfield had a great battle with Jack McGann and Oisin Murphy who had their moments for Derrylin.
Further upfield the winners were well served by Ronan McGovern, Brendan Cassidy and Niall Fee.
Oisin Farry finished the game with 1-03 and his first half goal was to prove crucial with his midfield partner McKeown chipping in with a trio of points while the dangerous McGovern notched a brace. The scoring was completed with singles from Aaron Jones, Niall Maguire, Jonathan Duffy and Brendan Cassidy.
For Derrylin there were a number of top performers. Owens was excellent when moved out to centre half back with Fionn Gilheaney enjoying a good battle with McGovern in the St Joseph’s attack while Jack Quinlan at corner back was impressive. Cathair Crudden was a real livewire in the full forward line with Oisin McKenna also a tidy operator in attack for St Aidan’s.
Kyle Prior scored two goals for the Derrylin school. during their second half fight back with McGann and McKenna also raising free flags. But it wasn’t to be enough as St Joseph’s held out for a win that they just about deserved and claim the Ennis Cup for their endeavours.