‘We were just that bit better on the day’ says delighted Robinson

NFC Kesh edged out Enniskillen Town in a five goal thriller, with two goals from the league’s top scorer Ryan Campbell and one from Lee Walker enough to extend their unbeaten run to seven games.

Kesh looked to be cruising to victory as they eased into a three goal lead in the second half, and although Town provided some late drama with two goals in the final ten minutes, Kesh held on to move into third place in the Division One table.

Kesh manager Scott Robinson was delighted with the performance of his team, and felt they were worthy winners.

“Town are really good and it was two in-form teams, and thankfully we were just that wee bit better on the day, and I felt we got what we deserved,” he said.

“You always get a good game of football against Town because they want to play football the same way we do, and that is exactly the way it turned out, but I felt we were the better side on the day. We were hungrier and first to the ball, and our movement and fitness were really good. We showed our intent from early on and we carried that through right to the end.

“Defensively we were very solid, and Stefan in nets didn’t have to do a big pile. It was a really good game and I thought we more than deserved it. The Kesh support was amazing, and they take a lot of credit too. When you have that type of support following you it is the 12th man. They are class to have on the touchline.”

Town manager Rory Judge admitted that his side were second best on the day.

“I can’t really complain with the result,” he said. “We didn’t play badly but they took their chances and we didn’t. If you take the likes of Frank Wallace out of your team, you can’t replace goal scorers handily, so they had their goal scorer there and we didn’t, and they were more clinical. We probably had the majority of the ball in the first half hour and the last half hour, but in between was where they won the game.

“There wasn’t much between the teams but at 3-0 I thought it was very harsh. If we had another five minutes you don’t know where it could have gone, but I think overall they just deserved to win. We were beaten by a decent team, but we are not too despondent.”

Both sides went into the match missing key players, with Town unable to call upon Conall Quinn, Cathal Beacom and Frank Wallace, and Kesh missing Mark Jones, Kyle Malone and Niall McMenamin, but despite the absentees it was a lively opening to the contest with Eoin Beacom and Ryan Campbell firing over the crossbar at either end of the pitch inside the first 20 minutes.

Justin Palmer went off 12 minutes into the match with a recurrence of a hamstring injury, but Kesh continued to press forward and Doherty made a spectacular save, touching Cashel’s curling shot over the bar when it looked destined for the top corner.

From the corner, Ellis directed a header goalwards but Doherty was again equal to it. Town were getting into threatening positions without directly threatening McCusker in the Kesh goal, and they fell behind in the 34th minute when McCusker’s clearance was flicked on by Nathan Cashel, and Campbell slotted past Doherty.

Town finally worked the Kesh keeper in the closing minutes of the first half, but it was the visitors that held the advantage at the interval.

Kesh doubled their lead early in the second period when Campbell released Cashel down the left wing. He advanced to the by-line and picked out Walker at the far post, who made no mistake from six yards out.

The destination of the three points looked to be confirmed when Campbell raced clear of Town’s defence and rounded the keeper to make it 3-0, but Town staged a late revival.

Wilson and Flack both came close to adding a fourth for Kesh but with ten minutes left Town pulled a goal back when Freeman dispatched a disputed penalty. At the end of the 90 minutes a bullet header from Eoin Beacom gave Town hope of salvaging a point, but Kesh held firm to take a valuable win.

Despite the win lifting Kesh to third in the league table, Robinson admits that their early season slip ups have left them too far adrift of the leaders to challenge for the title.

“The Junior and the Mulhern is what we are looking for because at the moment we are just too far off,” he acknowledged.

“We lost silly games and threw away points at the start of the season and that is when the damage was done, but we are reversing that now. That is the progression I want to see for the rest of this season and next season. The boys are working really hard, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”