Enniskillen 1st XV moved into third place in the league last weekend as they made it three wins from four games with victory over Portadown at Mullaghmeen.

This may have been a low scoring game but Skins head coach Stevie Welsh felt it was ore comfortable than the scoreline suggested with the home side creating a host of chances on the day.

“We left a lot of scores out there with a few mistakes in important areas of the pitch. I counted 12 errors on the line but the positive is that we are creating chances,” said Welsh, who was also delighted with the defensive aspect of his side’s performance.

“Defensively we were very good and apart from the penalty they never really looked like scoring. Portadown are a tricky side and they are aggressive so we’ll take the win and move on,” added Welsh.

And Welsh says that the side are now where they want to be.

“That’s us in the top four and we have played two of last year’s top four already so we have those games out of the way. We are where we want to be and we now have a batch of young boys who are just out of school who now have four games under their belt and they will only come on for that.”

Portadown came into the game without a win in the league and were certainly underdogs, but they pushed Skins hard for the entirety of the game, working hard to shut down some nifty Enniskillen back play and keep out the Enniskillen pack who were knocking on the try line often, but a Mark O’Shea try in the corner during the third quarter sealed the win.

Enniskillen tore through the visiting defence after re-gathering the restart through Michael Rooney, and looked to be on for an early score but for a knock-on, the resultant scrum yielded a Portadown penalty and an easy exit.

Play remained focused in the middle of the pitch for a while now with an arm wrestle ensuing before an exciting break from George Foster on the wing showing his pace, offloading to Stephen Balfour in support who was just forced into touch as he tried to score in the corner.

Skins continued to pressure the visitors but a turnover at the ruck let Portadown off the hook and the arm wrestle resumed, Neil Rutledge and Gavin Parke getting through a huge amount of work.

The back line continued to look lively, with the next significant break coming from a little chip over the top from Eddie Keys collected by Balfour and again almost going the distance but for the offload not finding Daire Hill in support.

Skins threatened again when Matty Dane sniped around the corner and offloaded to Jack Rutledge who crossed the five metre only to be brought down short, but a series of pick and go’s ended in disappointment with a try held up, opportunities missed as the half ended.

John Clarke injected some energy into the second half with some big carries and Portadown gave away a number of penalties which allowed Enniskillen to set up camp deep in the half.

But a penalty given away at the scrum let the visitors out yet again. The back line continued to show good movement of the ball, however, and off a scrum in midfield they shifted play out wide and made good ground before letting the pack go to work.

Eventually the ball found O’Shea out wide who crossed for a try, converted excellently by Keys from the sideline.

There was no real tipping of the scales for some time now until another Balfour break almost led to a try in the corner, ably supported by Carleton but a scrappy Portadown defence tracking back kept Skins out again.

The home side spent much of the final quarter in the Portadown half but couldn’t convert their scores despite the dominance. They had a nervy last few minutes as the visitors made ground out wide and a clever kick in behind had Skins camped on their own try line, thankfully cleared and the game ended shortly afterwards with James Carleton winning a penalty at the ruck.

Skins now have a week off before heading away to Instonians, a side who look to be in good league form.