Super Sherry swoops late to conquer

Editorial Department • Published 18 Feb 2010 11:13 0 Comments

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Injury time winner... a focused James Sherry is about to slot the ball into the net as Fermanagh stole the points in Brewster Park.

Fermanagh 2-06; Roscommon 0-11;

Fermanagh staged a smash and grab at Brewster Park on Saturday night as an injury time goal from captain James Sherry handed Malachy O'Rourke's side their first win in Allianz National Football League Division Three.

It looked as if Fermanagh were on their way to a second successive defeat as a dire second half performance saw them enter the final moments trailing Roscommon by two points, the visitors having much the better of the exchanges in the second period after recovering well from Ryan Carson's 41st minute goal.

With Donie Shine punishing any Fermanagh indiscretions in the second half the away side turned a three point deficit into a two point advantage with Fergal O'Donnell's side looking set for the two points.

However, Fermanagh, who looked bereft of ideas for the majority of the contest, launched one final attack. Substitutes Chris O'Brien and John Woods combined on the right hand side with Woods feeding the ball across the goal to Sherry who collected and fired low to the bottom corner of the net to give Fermanagh a win they scarcely deserved.

The victory was the important thing for Fermanagh to take out of the game and O'Rourke will be hoping that it gives the players confidence as he will be very aware that a similar display at Casement Park on March 6 against Antrim will only produce one outcome.

Again this was a very inexperienced Fermanagh side that took to the field with first National League starts for Niall McGovern at full back and Paul Cosgrove at midfield while Chris Breen, Niall Bogue, Rory Foy, Ciaran McElroy and Ryan Carson were the other changes from the opening day defeat to Offaly.

Roscommon entered the game on the back of a drubbing by Cavan in their first outing and it was the visitors, who were keen to make up for their performance a week earlier, who started the brighter of the sides.

Half back Cathal Cregg strode forward to fire over the first score of the game in the fourth minute and this was followed by a point from Kevin Higgins shortly after to make it 0-02 to 0-00.

Fermanagh had missed a couple of opportunities before they finally opened their account in the 11th minute with Mattie Keenan knocking over after a fine pass from James Sherry.

And the home side were soon back on level terms as Ciaran Flaherty banged over a point. A Mark O'Carroll score and a fine point from Higgins restored Roscommon's two point advantage and that should have been greater only for some poor shooting by the visitors as they caused an out of sorts Fermanagh defence plenty of problems.

It was Fermanagh though who had the best goal chance of the half when Carson got on the end of a long ball by Tommy McElroy but he shot directly at goalkeeper Geoffrey Claffey.

Ryan Jones closed the gap back to the minimum with a well taken point and Flaherty had a goal bound effort excellently blocked away.

Daryl Keenan though did clip over an equaliser late in the half to leave the sides level at the break, 0-04 apiece.

Roscommon full forward Donie Shine, who was guilty of wasting some good opportunities for O'Donnell's side in the first half, certainly found his range after half time and he opened the scoring in the second half with a well struck free.

However, Fermanagh were to enjoy a good spell after this as Carson bagged the first goal of the encounter to put Fermanagh ahead for the first time.

He collected a long ball from Sherry and although his lobbed effort came back off the crossbar, the full forward was there to finish the rebound to the net.

When Jones then tagged on a point from a free it nudged Fermanagh and into a three point lead and the hope would have been that they would be able to push on from here.

It was Roscommon though who were to take a stranglehold on matters with their midfield dominant and Shine showing great accuracy from deadballs.

The Roscommon full forward went on to register the next five points of the contest as the visitors turned the game around in their favour. Those five points included three from frees, one from play and a converted '45 as Roscommon moved into a 0-10 to 1-05 lead.

Fermanagh were at this stage living on scraps with Roscommon well on top all over the field although a Flaherty point from long range did reduce the gap to a single point with 14 minutes still to play.

John Rogers though replied with a point for Roscommon two minutes later and as the game drew to a close that looked as if it would be enough to secure the points for Roscommon.

However the switch of Carson to midfield with Sherry going to full forward as well as the introduction of the pacey Chris O'Brien was to be crucial in Fermanagh stealing the win.

Carson started to win possession in the middle third and O'Brien's explosive pace was to create the goal for Sherry right at the death.

With two points separating the sides, and the game in added on time, O'Brien put the Roscommon defence on the back foot with a burst forward on the right. He then laid the ball off to John Woods and the Lisnaskea man, who was making his league debut, played the ball across to Sherry with the captain squeezing his shot beyond Claffey into the corner of the net to leave the visitors heartbroken as Fermanagh snatched a narrow victory.

Fermanagh

C. Breen; M. Jones, N. McGovern, N. Bogue; R. Foy, B. Mulrone, T. McElroy; J. Sherry (1-00), P. Cosgrove; R. Jones (0-02, 1f), M. Keenan (0-01), C. McElroy; C. Flaherty (0-02), R. Carson (1-00), D. Keenan (0-01).

Subs - R. Keenan for C. McElroy, K. Cosgrove for P. Cosgrove, C. O'Brien for M. Keenan, J. Woods for R. Foy.

Roscommon

G. Claffey; S. McDermott, M. Killelea, S. Ormsby; P. Domican, C. Cregg (0-01), I. Kilbride; M. Finneran, M. O'Carroll (0-01); K. Higgins (0-02), C. McHugh, S. Purcell; J. Rogers (0-01), D. Shine (0-06, 4f, 1 '45), D. O'Gara.

Subs - J. Connaughton for McHugh, C. Garvey for Kilbride, G. Cox for Higgins.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 18 Feb 10

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