Enniskillen 1-11 Belcoo 0-07

Enniskillen Gaels made it three wins in a row in SFL Division One with a seven point victory over Belcoo O’Rahillys in Brewster Park on Tuesday night.

The home side had started brightly as they raced into a 1-03 to no score advantage but by the early stages of the second half Belcoo had cut the deficit back to three points.

However, Enniskillen then rattled off six points on the bounce to move into a commanding lead and although the visitors landed two late scores they were only consolation efforts as the Gaels finished up 1-11 to 0-07 winners.

The game rounded off a hectic few days for the Gaels who beat Irvinestown on Friday night before competing at the Kilmacud 7s on Saturday.

“It has been a very busy schedule,” said Gaels boss Simon Bradley. “Unfortunately, we had to play on Friday night which impacted us at the 7s but it was enjoyable and it was good to go to it.

“The important thing though was the two league wins and the four points and it puts us back in the hunt in the league.

“Hopefully now we will have a few boys back from holidays to bolster the squad,” he said.

On Tuesday night’s win, he added: “We started well but didn’t kick on.I thought though that we applied ourselves well in the second half and the boys put in a big shift.”

On the back of hitting five goals on Friday night, Enniskillen were quickly out of the blocks as John Reihill slotted over the opening score before he then teed up brother Paddy for a goal as the home side led 1-01 to 0-00 after only two minutes.

A flowing effort then saw John Reihill add to the Enniskillen advantage before the same player converted a free to make it 1-03 to 0-00 with 10 minutes on the clock.

It went from bad to worse for Belcoo who had Philip Leonard black carded as they were reduced to 14 men but the away side did finally begin to settle into the game with Ciarán Flaherty firing over from distance to open their account.

This was followed by a good score from Laurence McKeown although Conor Love answered from a free to make it 1-04 to 0-02.

Belcoo though were growing into the contest and a McAloon point in added on time left it 1-04 to 0-03 at the break.

Indeed, the gap was back to a goal when McKeown arrowed over a terrific point on the resumption although Enniskillen responded through a Paddy Reihill mark.

A Philip Leonard ‘45 left three between them once more and the O’Rahillys had chances to close that gap further only for a number of efforts dropping into goalkeeper Ross Bogue’s hands.

At the other end Enniskillen had a goal chance that Love clipped wide but they went on to take control of matters as John Reihill knocked over before Bogue stepped forward to rifle over a fine point from play.

Love then capitalised on a mistake at the back to stretch the lead out to six points and Enniskillen continued to dictate things as Love converted a free and Beattie and Watson fired over from play to make it 1-11 to 0-05. In fairness to Belcoo they kept battling and McKeown and Flaherty rattled off points in added on time but these had no affect on the outcome as the Gaels finished up seven point winners. to jont second in the table.