“We are not at crisis point yet,” says Fermanagh and Western Football League chairman Neil Jardine as last weekend’s blanket cancellation of fixtures means that the local league has only played 63 per cent of its scheduled fixtures so far this season. 
That is 12 per cent less than this time last year and means that many clubs will now have a busy end of season rush perhaps playing up to three times per week with May 31 the deadline by which all games must be played. 
Indeed, league secretary Gerry Connolly provided figures highlighting that the 63 per cent figure of scheduled games is the lowest in four years. 
The league chairman Neil Jardine commented: “We are behind but we are not at crisis point yet. We lost last weekend’s games and if you look at a club such as Enniskillen Rangers, they have could have a possible 17 games left if they were to get to the final of the Irish Junior Cup and Mulhern Cup. As it is, they have 11 league games to play, they have the Junior this week, no games on St. Patrick’s Day and then the Mulhern Cup on the 24th. So their earliest next league game will be March 31. If they were to win their cup games then the picture would complicate further again.” 
Enniskillen Galaxy in Division Three have 10 league games left and have played only one home league game all season at the Lakeland Forum which was on the 3G pitch. The problem with the water encroaching on the left hand pitches across the bridge is a major issue as are the number of council pitch postponements in both the Enniskillen and Omagh area. 
Neil Jardine adds: “We will look to get the midweek games going on Tuesday, April 3 and this may mean teams close to each other playing to get the games played due to early kick off times. The Mulhern Cup final is pencilled in for May 11 but we can’t do the full end of season fixtures until we know who the Mulhern Cup semi-finalists will be. Realistically that will be early to middle April before we get to that stage and then we will be able to see where we are and if we can get all the games scheduled. We definitely do not need any more hold ups and if there are we may have to consider going to the IFA to see what can be done but we are not at that point yet,” concluded the chairman.