Irvinestown 3 Enniskillen Town 2

Irvinestown moved into the top half of the table with victory over Enniskillen Town. Conor McAuley, Stephen Sheridan and Joey Millar scored for the home side, and although Town netted twice through Seamus Quigley, Wanderers held on to take a deserved win.

Wanderer’s manager Ryan Beacom was delighted with the performance, but knows they still have a lot of hard work ahead to ensure their slow start to the campaign turns into a successful season. “I believe we were the better team and we could have scored more,” said the boss. “We were well drilled and well organised. I am getting more players back every week and we are starting to get a wee run of form together, but it still has the potential to go either way. We have known for years about the potential at the club and we have brought good quality into the club, but it’s difficult to try and get the full commitment. There is definitely potential there and the boys on Saturday from one to thirteen were excellent. I think it was a good performance and I think most clubs around the county now know that when Irvinestown are on song and have players available, they are a difficult team to beat.”

Town went into the match on the back of several good performances, but manager Rory Judge admitted they did not show the same quality this week. “They deserved it,” he admitted. “We could have scored after a few minutes and had a couple of decent chances but then conceded two. We had to change the formation and made a substitution to change it around, and we got one back. At that stage it looked as though we were going to go on and get something from the game, but then we conceded a third.”

Town made a good start to the match and Frank Wallace had a close range shot from an angle beaten away by goalkeeper Francie Ward. Stephen Clarke than had an opportunity to open the scoring, but his diving header from six yards was straight at the keeper. Ten minutes into the match wanderers took the lead when Conor McAuley turned in a corner kick. The home team then quickly added a second with Stephen Sheridan side footing home from Gary Maguire's cross.

Town pulled a goal back in spectacular style when Seamus Quigley hammered a free kick into the top corner, but their hopes of a fight back were short lived as Irvinestown responded within five minutes. Thomas Owens’ through ball released Joey Millar, and he slotted past the outrushing keeper to restore the two goal advantage, with the referee waving away Town’s offside appeals.

Wanderers had a late penalty claim turned down following a challenge on Millar, and Sheridan missed the target when well placed. Town did pull one back when Quigley took advantage of a defensive mix up in injury time, but there was no time to grab an equaliser as Wanderers held on.