Enniskillen Rangers 0 Strathroy Harps 1

Enniskillen Rangers’ poor form continued with a 1-0 defeat at home to Strathroy Harps. After climbing to the top of the Division One table a month ago, Rangers have only taken one point from a possible nine and have now slipped down to fourth.

Manager Michael Kerr acknowledged their current run of results was not the form of title challengers, but said he was happier with the team’s performance against Harps despite their lack of cutting edge in attack.

“It’s more like relegation form rather than someone who wants to be pushing up towards the top end of the table,” he conceded.

“It was a really disappointing defeat. The performance was good, and we played quite well in patches and created a lot of chances, but we just didn’t put the ball in the net and that killed us. The only real chance they had in the second half was their goal.

“It was a tough one to take because I feel not even that we did enough to get a point, I felt we did enough to win the game. We created an awful lot of chances but some erratic shooting, some bad shooting and some bad decisions in the final third ultimately cost us the game.”

Kerr is hoping the three weeks break over Christmas will help rejuvenate his team. “The break has maybe come at a good time for us,” he conceded.

“We need to regroup, reset and put in the hard yards over Christmas and hit the ground running in the New Year. It has been an intense few months and the breather will do no harm. These last three games we have struggled. We have had a couple of injuries but that is not an excuse. The boys that have come in have done well, so we have no excuses why. We have to get back to basics and start putting the hard yards in on the training ground, and probably focus on the shooting side of things.”

Rangers had the better of the first half, but could not convert that superiority into a lead. Stuart Rainey had a shot fumbled by the goalkeeper and hacked off the line.

From the resulting corner Eoin McManus rose highest to head goalwards but again the effort was cleared off the line.

Jason Keenan then got in down the right side of the penalty area, but his effort was wide of the post.

The striker then had a shot deflected past the post, and Joel Byrne fired wide of the upright moments later.

The decisive moment of the game came in midway through the second half when a free kick into the Rangers penalty area spun up into the air and landed kindly for Benny Boyle at the back post, and the player manager volleyed into the roof of the net to earn Strathroy all three points.