Fermanagh Premier Manager Keith Douglas admitted that everything ‘clicked’ at just the right time for his team, as the 2022 squad created history by winning the Northern Ireland Super Cup Globe.

“We didn’t set out to make history,” admitted Douglas. “We just set out on a journey to do the best that we could do, and have a bit of fun along the way with the lads. Hopefully, the lads had fun in making history!

“There have probably been better teams that have gone up from Fermanagh, but everything just clicked for us during the whole week.

“It was a truly remarkable experience that the lads will always take with them for the rest of their lives.

“In my eyes, from day one it was all about building a bond with each other. I’m a firm believer that friends in football are friends for life, and everything clicked for us and went well.”

Standards

In addition to winning the Globe, the squad also received the award for the Premier Section’s most sporting team, and Douglas reckons that trophy is a reflection of the standards the players implemented from day one.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the boys. The way they conducted themselves on and off the field was impeccable and they were a true credit to their families. They did everything we asked of them, and they didn’t let anybody down.

“We had built a good bond at training, and we could not have asked for anything more than the way it panned out.”

The Premier squad’s tournament culminated with a 1-0 victory over Tyrone in the final, and the Manager admits that by that stage of the week it was more about the result than the performance.

“Anybody that was at the final will know that it was maybe our worst performance, but finals aren’t about looking pretty – they are there to be won,” he stated.

“It was like a local derby and our lads did not want to get beaten by Tyrone. We felt that every day we went out and we played, and the longer we got with the boys, the better the boys got.

“Every day, they kept getting better and better, and they showed they had a great will never to get beaten.”

That will to win was never more evident than in the semi-final when they recovered instantly after falling behind to County Down, but the Manager was in no doubt about the resilience of his squad right from their narrow opening day defeat to County Antrim.

“We feel that after that match it gave our lads a massive boost to their morale,” he said.

“They had played Antrim previously in the Junior section, and Antrim had beaten them quite well, and they maybe had that hanging over their heads, but knowing they could have got something in that game set them up well for the week.

“We were delighted to take a point off Ipswich given where they were coming from, and then when we went 1-0 down in the semi-final against Down, the heads could have gone down, but we equalised straight away.

‘Character’

“Maybe if it rolled out to five or ten minutes behind, you might have struggled to push them back, but the way we responded showed the kind of character the lads had.”

Keith was also quick to praise the quality in the depth of his squad, with even those who did not start regularly showing their quality when they got a chance.

“Against Ipswich, Kyle [Deery] scored a screamer of a goal, and that goal kick-started the rest of the journey,” he recalled.

“If he hadn’t scored that goal, we would not have got where we were. It was the same on the Wednesday against Armagh. Daniel [Farrell] pulled off a brilliant save that would have made it two-all, and who knows what would have happened then?

“We had wee moments like that throughout the whole week.”

The Manager was also delighted with the team effort of those behind the scenes that enabled the success to follow on the pitch.

“The work my backroom team did, and the relationship with the committee, could not have been better,” he said. “It was plain sailing the whole way for us, and we had a good relationship built up.

“It was great to see Ernie [Conlon], who has been going to the Super Cup for nearly as long as its inception, and for him to be on the field with us and in the photographs with us at the end of the match. It meant everything to him.”

Congratulated

Keith concluded by thanking the supporters who travelled to back the teams on behalf of the players and management, while he congratulated Junior Manager Chris McDowell and his players for their acheivements and thanked McDowell for his great support in sharing his wonderful knowledge of the tournament.