Moortown 3-12 Erne Gaels 2-05

Erne Gaels made their exit from the Ulster Club Intermediate Football Championship in Carrickmore on Sunday, going down 3-12 to 2-05 to a strong Moortown side.

The Belleek men had made a bright start to the game as they landed the opening two scores but in truth they were second best after Moortown swooped for their first goal in the tenth minute and by the break eight points divided the sides.

Gareth Deery did bag two goals for Erne Gaels in the second half but they never looked like threatening the Tyrone team’s advantage with Moortown going on to ease into the last four of the competition.

Erne Gaels manager Seamus Ryder accepted that his side were simply beaten by a better team on the day.

”When you are beaten that comprehensively it is easier to take, they were by far the better team and we didn’t show up.

“If you were beaten by a point or two you are thinking about every wee decision but when you lose like that you just hold your hands up and say that we were beaten by the better team on the day.

And he admits that bar a couple of players, no-one else played to their potential.

“We had a good start, we went two points up and we had half a goal chance for Barry McCann and we missed a few other chances so we could have had more of a foothold but after that they took over and we struggled all over the field.

“I would say that Jack McCann and Paul McCaffrey were the only two players who played any way well so that’s what you were up against, no one else showed up and when you are like that all over the field there was nothing you could do. We were switching men but nothing was working.”

Moortown caused a lot of problems for Erne Gaels with their runners from deep, something the Belleek outfit struggled to deal with throughout.

“The two young lads in the middle are big lads and they are fast and then they had a couple of half backs who caused us problems as well.

“I think we maybe focused on their full forward too much because he had done damage in Tyrone and he was their top scorer, we nullified him but there was others that then done the damage,” commented Ryder.

However, with a quick return to the senior championship, Ryder feels that the year has been a success.

“The main objective this year was always to get back up to senior, this was always a bonus but when you are there you still want to compete and we had ambitions of doing well in the competition so it was disappointing,” he added.

The Fermanagh side though started the game on the front foot and they opened up an early 0-02 to 0-00 lead through converted frees by Barry McCann and Shane Rooney.

Moortown though slowly started to work their way into the game and a 1-02 blast in a two minute spell swung the game in their favour.

Peter Devlin got them off the mark from a free in the ninth minute before they then bagged their first goal of the day moments later.

A great run by half back Brian McLernon resulted in the ball being fed across the goal and midfielder Blaine Ryan was on hand to tuck to the net from close range.

Another Devlin mark followed and by the 11th minute they led 1-02 to 0-02.

Barry McCann replied with a point for Erne Gaels after he exchanged passes with Rooney but Moortown were starting to dominate matters and Ryan Kelly fired over from play while Devlin converted two frees before the Red Hand’s side swooped for goal number two. Lee Kelly got on the end of a high ball close to goal and he spun and shot low to the back of the net to put them into a 2-05 to 0-03 lead.

Rooney did knock over a free for Erne Gaels but a Kelly mark left eight between the sides at half time.

A point from Christopher McGuigan extended the advantage further on the restart although Erne Gaels answered with a goal in the 34th minute, substitute Deery bundling home after Michael Og McGarrigle’s initial effort was blocked.

It was not the start of a comeback though from Erne Gaels as Moortown quickly reasserted themselves on the contest as McLernon lobbed over two scores while Devlin tapped over a free to make it 2-10 to 1-04.

Erne Gaels also lost Jack McCann to a black card and although Deery landed a lovely point, Moortown answered with a Karl Hagan point to leave it 2-11 to 1-05 at the water-break.

Corner forward Kelly plundered his second and Moortown’s third while Erne Gaels picked up a second black card, this time Ryan Lyons the guilty party.

The Fermanagh side though did continue to battle and Deery thundered a 25 yard quickly taken free kick to the top corner but this was merely a consolation strike as the game finished 3-12 to 2-05 in Moortown’s favour.