The smile on captain Ryan Cathcart’s face shortly after the final whistle told the tale. An 82 year gap had been breached as Enniskillen finally got their hands on the Towns’ Cup for the first time since 1937 and to say he was delighted to have got over the line is an understatement.

“It really hasn’t hit home, it is unbelievable. It is just total euphoria at the minute. It is hard to put it into words because we had to fight so hard for that so to win it in that heat is unreal,” said Cathcart.

Cathcart had endured a couple of previous final defeats in the Towns’ Cup final and he acknowledges that the hunger to get over that hurdle was a driving factor for the side.

“The majority of the side have suffered a couple of disappointments in finals and Davy Buchanan has suffered three disappointments in finals so there was never any doubt that the hunger was going to be there.

“Our concern though was just controlling that desire on the day because there was obviously going to be a bit of desperation to finally take that cup home,” he stated.

And control it they did. Skins played the game on their terms, were patient when needed and made the right decisions at the right times in the contest.

“There is a tendency to go into games like this really emotional and rely on emotion and passion to get you through it and that in the past has maybe been our undoing, being too emotional and not playing the game. We knew coming into this final that was something different we would have to bring into it and we did that. We controlled things, we made good decisions throughout the game and we used territory well. We used our strength which is our set piece and we worked off it well. Look, you are not going to execute everything and you are tired in the heat but every second of the game the boys had to keep working and keep grinding and thankfully when the time was right we made the right decisions.”

Skins went into the game against Ballyclare, who were the holders, as underdogs but they were on the front foot from the off as they dominated the exchanges. Cathcart admits that they were slightly disappointed not to have been further ahead than 5-0 at half time.

“We had a lot of possession in the first half and maybe we should have came away with the points more times than we did but we kept them at bay and probably ground them down a bit which is always a plus and then we exploited that in the second half,” he explained.

The Skins captain stresses that they always remained wary of the threat of Ballyclare but a big defensive effort meant that they remained on top throughout the second half.

“We felt if we kept up that defensive effort and we moved the numbers around the corner in the right way we would keep them at bay but it just needed one slip.

“They are a very good attacking team and we always felt they could score at any time and all they needed was one break and a wee bit of space but thankfully our defence was rock solid. We were always organised and always making our tackles. It maybe looks comfortable on the scoreboard but it never felt comfortable,” he added.

And Ryan is now hoping that this win will drive on the the young players at the club.

“I think that success will hopefully spur the other young guys coming through to seek that again.

“We don’t want to leave it the guts of another century to lift the cup again, we want to move on and achieve other things as well.

“There is a lot of great young players that are coming through that have really boosted us this season and we want to keep building on that and try and keep building the club to further heights,” he said.