Mountjoy United 1 Tummery Athletic 10

Martin Hughes bagged a hat-trick as Tummery Athletic hit double figures against Mountjoy United to maintain their chase of Enniskillen Town at the top of the league table. Athletic took the lead ten minutes into the match and never looked like letting their advantage slip, racing into a 5-0 lead at half time before adding another five in the second half.

Tummery remain undefeated in the league since the start of November, and the convincing nature of their latest win was no surprise to manager Ryan Hanna.

“That performance was coming,” he said. “In previous games we created as many chances if not more, but on Saturday most of them went in. You get days like that and unfortunately for Mountjoy they were on the end of it on Saturday.

“It was great to have so many goal scorers. We were clinical and a bit ruthless as well, which we haven’t always been in the past. It’s maybe a bit of a turning point for ourselves, and we can hopefully kick on and finish the season strongly.”

The three points leaves them 14 points adrift of Enniskillen Town with four games in hand, and Hanna has not given up of closing the gap during the run-in.

“It’s tunnel vision now,” he admitted. “At the start of the year we said we would try to win everything we were in, but we are out of both cup competitions unfortunately so we will fully attack the rest of the league campaign.

“It is all or nothing now. Town have done well to get their games played and get their points on the board, but this squad and group know what it takes to win leagues, and they know the feeling. That is something we will try to focus on moving forward, but although we have ten games left we will only focus on who is next.

“If you look too far ahead you can get caught by what is in front of you, so we will take it one team at a time. We have Athletic on Saturday and they are a team in good form, so we will be taking nothing for granted.”

Mountjoy remain perilously positioned in the bottom two, five points adrift of Mountfield having played two games more. They never looked like closing that gap on Saturday, as they were on the receiving end of a finishing masterclass from Tummery.

The away team’s early strike from Hughes was added to midway through the first half by Emmet McNabb. Two minutes later Hughes added his second of the day, before Andrew Phair put past his own goalkeeper to extend the lead to 4-0.

Colm Garrity added a fifth two minutes before half time, and Hughes completed his hat-trick just before the hour mark.

McNabb added a seventh, with Aidy McCaffrey and Garrity making it nine before Mountjoy scored a consolation through Gareth David.

Paudi Dillion completed the rout with a tenth goal six minutes from time.