Irvinestown 0-05 Derrygonnelly 5-19

Derrygonnelly Harps returned to winning ways on Sunday with a resounding 5-19 to 0-05 win away to a heavily depleted Irvinestown side.

The Harps had suffered their first loss of the season in going down to Kinawley in their previous outing but they put that behind them with an extremely comfortable victory against an Irvinestown side without a host of key players.

Goals from Gary McKenna and Ryan Jones had fired Derrygonnelly into a 2-09 to 0-04 half time lead and they continued to build on that in the second half as Rian McGovern, Conall Jones and Gavin McGovern added further goals.

The attention now switches away from the league and on to the championship for all sides and for Derrygonnelly they will begin the quest for a sixth New York Cup success on the trot.

However, Harps manager Sean Flanagan is not looking any further ahead than their quarter-final encounter against last season’s beaten finalists, Roslea.

“We now have two weeks of good, focused preparation and trying to make sure that we are properly organised and ready for the difficult challenges that Roslea bring. They have certain strengths and style of play that we have to be ready for while at the same time we want to try and impose our game on them as well,” he said.

Irvinestown will face a fancied Enniskillen side in the quarter-final of the Intermediate Championship and manager Paddy O’Brien will be looking for his side to put a tough opening five league games behind them and regroup for that clash.

The St. Molaise side sit bottom of the table with just one point from the five games and the high volume of games in recent weeks has taken its toll on their squad although with no relegation this season they can rest any injury worries without having that fear of facing the drop.

On Sunday they were without a string of regular performers and with Derrygonnelly getting into championship mode and keen to bounce back after the Kinawley game it was always going to be difficult.

Right from the outset Derrygonnelly controlled the game with Irvinestown struggling to make any inroads.

McKenna and Ryan Jones raised green flags for the away side in the first half while Ryan Jones, Garvan Jones and Stephen McGullion were among the points as they eased into an unattainable lead.

Stephen Sheridan accounted for the most of Irvinestown’s points on the day while Josh Largo Elis also chipped in with one in the first half.

The Harps continued to boss things after the interval and Rian McGovern, Gavin McGovern and Conall Jones all hit the back of the net while Garvan Jones, McKenna and Ronan McHugh tagged on points as they ran out convincing victors.