Published: Thursday, 11th June, 2009 9:00am

Poor first half costs hurlers

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Fermanagh 0-14; Leitrim 1-12;

Lory Meagher Cup; A poor first half performance cost Fermanagh as they slipped to a one point defeat to Leitrim in the Lory Meagher Cup at Brewster Park on Saturday afternoon.

Rory O"Donnell"s side found themselves six points adrift at the break and although they showed character and fight in the second half they had just left themselves too big a mountain to climb with Leitrim hanging on to win by the narrowest of margins. It means that Fermanagh must now beat Cavan in Breffni Park this Saturday if they are to have any chance of progressing in the competition.

O"Donnell acknowledged that his side"s first half display was not good enough although he felt there was a marked improvement after the interval.

'I was disappointed,' said O"Donnell. 'Our first half performance was just not acceptable and I thought that it was the work of our defence, and especially our half back line that kept us in the game in the first half. In the second half we showed character to comeback but we had just too much to do. If we had another couple of minutes we may have gone on to win the game but six points was too much to claw back.'

O"Donnell also felt that he did not get enough out of his forward line on Saturday with only one point coming from the attack over the course of the contest while midfielder Ryan Bogue chipped in with 12 points.

'You can"t expect to win a game when you are relying on one player to get you scores and only one point coming from the forward line. We needed a lot more from the forwards and unfortunately we didn"t get it,' he said.

Bogue was one Fermanagh player who was on top of his game on Saturday and he opened his and Fermanagh"s account with the first score of the game, a point from play.

However, it was the Shannonsiders who were to go and grab control of the contest as they rattled over a succession of unanswered scores.

Six points in all arrived from Leitrim during a fruitful spell for the away side which left Fermanagh with it all to do even at this early stage.

Midfielder Clement Cunliffe, who registered seven points in all, got Leitrim up and running from a free before James Clancy nudged them in front.

This was followed by further points from both Cunliffe and Clancy while Colm Hayes and Dave McGovern also fired over scores as Leitrim raced into a 0-06 to 0-01 advantage.

Following this Leitrim purple patch, Fermanagh finally added a second point, Bogue converting a free but Leitrim remained in charge of proceedings with McGovern and Cunliffe tagging on points. Bogue was to keep Fermanagh in touch with two more points before half time while John Duffy contributed the only score from a Fermanagh forward but Cunliffe"s continued his scoring spree with another three points to leave six dividing the sides at the break, 0-11 to 0-05.

Fermanagh made a couple of changes at the interval and this did bring about a better performance in the second half as Fermanagh started to chip away at the Leitrim advantage.

Bogue got Fermanagh off to a good start to the second half as he launched over two points to bring the deficit back to four but Leitrim then hit Fermanagh with a sucker punch as they struck for the only goal of the game, full forward Conor Burns blasting to the back of the net to increase the gap to seven points.

Fermanagh battled away bravely for the remainder of the game with Bogue adding to his significant personal total and Declan McGarry also getting on the scoresheet but Fermanagh had left themselves too much to do and Cunliffe rattled over another point for Leitrim which was enough for them to hang on for a one point victory at the finish.

It"s do or die for Fermanagh now on Saturday as defeat will put an end to their Lory Meagher Cup aspirations.

'This is our last bite at the cherry and it"s a must win game if we are to get into the quarter-finals,' said O"Donnell. 'It is not going to be easy as Cavan are very difficult to beat in Breffni Park but if we can get a wee bit more work out of our forwards then we are capable of getting a result.'