Enniskillen Rangers 1Tummery Athletic 0

Enniskillen Rangers blew open the title race with a narrow one goal victory over league leaders Tummery.

The win leaves Dergview Reserves only three points behind the front runners with two games remaining, but despite the recent set back, Tummery manager Ryan Hanna is still upbeat about his side’s chances ahead of their penultimate game against Kesh.

“The run in has been tight and we knew it was going to be difficult given the quality of teams we were playing, but if someone said in August that you had two games to win to win the league, then you would have bitten their hand off,” he said.

“We are fortunate to be here, and we have worked hard to be here, and now we have to finish the job.”

He added: “Thankfully, we have no injury concerns. We have a full squad and have had that for the last number of weeks, so are fortunate that way.

“Our form has been good as well, we just haven’t taken our chances. We need the big players to step up in the big moments, and we have to go again on Saturday and do that. ”

The match was evenly contested in the first half, with neither side able to carve out many goal scoring opportunities.

Matty Callaghan fired over the bar from a Sludden corner, but the best chance of the opening 45 minutes fell to Aidy McCaffrey, who collected a pass from Sludden and raced through on goal only to blast over the bar.

Rangers started the second half well and Mark Cutler saw his effort saved after Ciaran Brough and Ciaran Smith had combined well in the middle of the pitch.

Two minutes later Tummery had a great opening of their own when Sludden burst through, but Peden saved well.

Off the bar

The game had turned into an end to end encounter, with Cutler the next to test the keeper for Rangers before Paul McHugh crashed a header off the underside of the crossbar from inside the six yard box.

Tummery then had appeals for a penalty waved away by the referee before the game swung decisively in favour of Rangers in the 82nd minute when Jason Keenan advanced down the left and drilled a cross across the penalty area for Cutler to convert at the far post.

Tummery piled forward in search of an equaliser in the closing stages, but they could not find the goal that would have earned them a share of the points.

“I was delighted with the performance,” admitted Rangers’ manager Neil Coulter.

“It was a tight game, but I thought we had the clear cut chances, although they had a wee bit more possession.

“One goal was always going to win that game the way it panned out, so I’m absolutely delighted with the win.

“We are taking it game by game and building up to the semi-final of the Mulhern. It’s nice to get a win over the league leaders and make it interesting up there.”

For Tummery boss Hanna it was a defeat that he put down to their lack of a cutting edge up front.

“I was frustrated and disappointed,” he admitted.

“We had a number of good chances and hit the bar, but it was one of those days where we didn’t take our chances and then we were punished.

“We played fairly well, particularly in the first half, but we had two glaring chances that we didn’t dispatch. Rangers had some good spells in the first half but didn’t really threaten. In the second half they were sitting a bit deeper and looking for the counter, and they could have scored only for a good save by our keeper.

“They took their chance and we didn’t, and they deserved to win on that basis.”