Enniskillen Rangers 4 NFC Kesh 3

An injury-time goal from Conor Rippey inflicted Kesh’s first defeat of the season and kept Enniskillen Rangers at the top of the Division One table.

Both sides held the lead in a roller-coaster first half that ended two apiece before Campbell put Kesh ahead again on the hour mark. Joel Byrne levelled the game at three all before Rangers took advantage of Josh Fleck’s sending off to grab a last-gasp winner.

Rangers’ boss Michael Kerr admitted it was a game that could have gone either way.

“When you break it down, a draw would probably have been a fair result, but I am more than delighted to get the three points,” he said. “Their first goal was well offside. I feel sorry for the referees having to give offside decisions and some of them are very tight, but this was the most obvious one I have ever seen in my life. When you take that out of it, I felt in a way we did deserve the three points, but at the same time, we could have easily come out with nothing.”

Kesh manager Ryan Campbell felt his side were at least a match for Rangers, and he was frustrated to come away with nothing to show for their efforts.

“Looking back on it, we definitely didn’t deserve to get beaten,” he said.

“Their equaliser before half time was so simple. Our keeper just misread it. If we had come in at 2-1 at half time it would have been a different game, but they came in with their tails up. We knew in the second half it was going to be a tight affair. We did go ahead again, and then their equaliser comes from our corner. Josh Fleck being sent off changed everything. We were pinned in then and they were looking to get the winner.”

It took only six minutes for Rangers to net the first goal of the match. Mark Cutler burst down the right wing and exchanged passes with Jason Keenan before crossing to the back post for Jordan McClure to finish past TJ McMulkin.

However, Rangers’ lead lasted for 10 minutes as Ryan Campbell levelled the scores and Grant Ellis put Kesh ahead for the first time on 39 minutes. With one minute left until half time, the home team scored a fortuitous equaliser when Jamie Robinson’s hopeful cross was misjudged by McMulkin and found the top corner of the net from 40 yards out.

Campbell scored his second of the game with an individual effort to restore Kesh’s lead, and they came within inches of extending their advantage only for the ball to come off the post and then be hooked clear off the goal line.

Rangers, though, hit back with Joel Byrne making a massive impact off the bench.

Byrne burst past three defenders and fired into the bottom corner to level the game again at 3-3, before Fleck’s foul on Byrne was deemed to be worthy of a straight red card.

That gave Rangers 10 minutes to try to take advantage of their numerical advantage, and they grabbed the winner in the first minute of added time when Jake Browne lofted a cross to the back post and full back Conor Rippey took a touch before driving a low shot across the goalkeeper and into the far corner of the net.