Irvinestown 1-06 Derrygonnelly 0-13

Derrygonnelly Harps made it two wins out of two in SFL Division One with a four point victory away to Irvinestown on Sunday.
It was only though in the latter stages that Derrygonnelly began to pull away from the home side, with Ryan Jones and Conall Jones to the fore as the Harps hit five of the last six points to secure a 0-13 to 1-06 win in the end.
Derrygonnelly manager Sean Flanagan felt his side just about deserved the points on the day.
“It was a very good competitive game, Irvinestown were very competitive throughout. They posed us problems that we haven’t had to deal with in quite a while but we kept our shape well and and adapted and I felt we deserved to win because we had more scoring possibilities,” said Flanagan.
Irvinestown went into the game on the back of a seven point win over Erne Gaels the previous week but were without key performers like Tiarnan Daly, Krvin Duffy and James Duffy while they lost Liam McQuaid in the warm up before the game.
However, the home side were competitive from the outset.
Derrygonnelly had landed the opening two scores of the game with the Jones brothers, Ryan and Garvan, firing over points from play only for Gary Maguire to responded with two points from frees to level matters.
And there was to be little between the sides in the first 35 minutes as the visitors managed to go in at the break with a two point advantage, 0-06 to 0-04.
Conall Jones registered two points from play for Derrygonnelly, including a fine effort from wide on the right while Ryan Jones also added his second point as he drove through the centre before knocking over.
Two further points from Gary Maguire kept Irvinestown in touch before Declan Cassidy accounted for the final score of the half, Conall Jones intercepting a short kick out to tee up Cassidy to make it 0-06 to 0-04.
However, the Harps were to suffer a blow in the lead up to half time when they lost Garvan Jones to a black card as the two points divided the sides at the interval.
Irvinestown though got their noses in front early in the second half with the only goal of the game as Ronan Ormsby’s free kick ended up in the back of Harps goalkeeper Jack Kelly’s net to put the home side one ahead.
However, Derrygonnelly responded in a positive manner to this set back as Ryan Jones fired over after Shane McGullion had turned over possession before Paul Ward nipped in to fist over as the Harps reclaimed the lead.
When Maguire converted his fifth free of the game it tied things up once more and it looked to have set up a tight final quarter but Irvinestown, who had more than their fair share of possession, had struggled to breakdown the Harps rearguard throughout the contest and Derrygonnelly got a grip on the game in the latter stages as they managed to push on for the victory.
Conall Jones landed a free to put the Harps in front and it took two fine saves by Irvinestown goalkeeper TJ McMulkin from Colm Jones and Paul Ward to stop the Harps pushing further clear.
Ryan Jones added his fourth point of the encounter to put two in it and although Ormsby tagged on a free for the home side it was Derrygonnelly who finished the stronger and with Ward clipping over another two points and Conall Jones also on target they finished up four point victors to put them top of the table at this early stage of the season.
Irvinestown manager Sean Donnelly feels that Sunday’s encounter showed his side where they have to get to.
“It was a good test for us and it shows us the bar that we have reach. We lost Liam McQuaid just before the game and that was a blow and we found them hard to breakdown. 
“However, the boys are working hard and we are not afraid of any team in the division,” commented Donnelly.