Teemore were relegated to Division Two on Tuesday night as Newtownbutler’s Shane Leonard fired to the net with just 30 seconds of the game to go to give his side a one point victory in this must win game.

After the game Teemore manager Michael Wallace confirmed this will be his last season in charge and will now look towards next Sunday’s championship semi-final tussle with Devenish, with a last set of league fixtures down for this Saturday to be played first.

“Relegation has been hanging over the club for the past number of weeks and it has now been confirmed. We threw away leads to Donagh and Devenish in the past couple of weeks so we can blame nobody. We are an experienced side and it’s a worry that a good seven to eight players may not come out next year. For myself, it’s my last year and a new team will hopefully come back up from Division Two next year, but of course it won’t be easy. We are a small club and we are blessed to have players like Owens, O’Reilly, Curry, Quinlan and Martin all coming at once. The next few years will be crucial for Teemore, Derrylin joined us at minor level this year and that may be looked at again at a different level over the coming seasons. Injuries took its toll on us at the start of the year and when you go into big games with just 16 or 17 players you are always up against it. Big clubs like Derrygonnelly and Roslea might get away with injuries but we certainly can’t. It’s Devenish next week in the championship and I can promise we will be going all out to win that game.” Newtownbutler assistant manager Paul Johnston was thrilled to pick up a further two points, although last night’s result (Ederney v Belcoo) would determine if his side would still be in a relegation fight this weekend: “All we can concentrate on now is Ederney. It’s good to give ourselves a fighting chance but that’s all it is. I’m really pleased for the players to come back and get a win like that and it’s really morale boosting for the club. It’s just fingers crossed now that results can go our way.” Teemore were to start in a real blaze with an opening point coming after just 45 seconds through Eoin McManus but Newtownbutler soon went ahead when Frank Mulligan cut inside and fired his effort low into the net to make it 1-00 to 0-01 after three minutes.

A Ryan Maguire goal on eight minutes then gave Teemore the lead once again but for Ryan Carson to point for the away side as both sides attacked at real pace.

Declan Fitzpatrick (16 mins) and Gary Fitzpatrick (18 mins) then nudged Teemore 1-03 to 1-01 ahead only for Jason Flanagan, Jarlath Jackman, Ryan Carson and Frank Mulligan to all point as Newtownbutler finished the half strongly.

Right on the stroke of the half time whistle Eoin McManus, who was superb throughout, pointed to leave it 1-04 to 1-05 in favour of Newtownbutler at the break.

The first score of the second half did not arrive until the ninth minute when Declan Fitzpatrick raced clear to put his side two in front and when the same player fired over two well struck points the game seemed to be heading in the favour of Teemore.

Newtownbutler though pegged points back through Jason Flanagan, Conor Beggan and James Connolly to make it 2-06 to 1-08 with Teemore leading by one. Teemore then struck four scores in a row through Eoin McManus (2), Patrick McManus and substitute Declan O’Reilly as Teemore surged clear but as they have done time after time this season Newtownbutler hung on and scored 1-03 in the final five minutes of the game to win by a solitary point.

Conor Beggan, James Connolly and Colum Monahan all pointed before Shane Leonard tucked away a goal from 12 yards out as Newtownbutler came back from five down to win an amazing contest.