After the game Derrygonnelly boss Martin Greene called him ‘a freak of nature’ and described his play as ‘total grace on the pitch’ but you get the impression talking to Kevin Cassidy after the game that he doesn’t see what all the fuss is about.
The fuss, of course, is because he is 42 years old. The fuss is because at 39 he suffered a cruciate knee injury and decided to make the long arduous rehab journey back to full fitness. The fuss is that over a 22 year period he has won six senior championship medals with his club. The fact he refuses to acknowledge that he has six medals is perhaps a good place to start.
“I only have five, well that’s what I say anyway. I missed 2015 with the cruciate and I think you have to earn them to be honest,” he revealed after the game.
Cassidy seems to have taken a deep swig from the elixir of life such is his strength, speed and general condition in his early 40’s. 
He doesn’t look one step out of place on the he pitch and indeed when in possession the expectation is still that something positive is going to happen; although he did admit that he is not quite as fresh as he was in his 20’s;
“I don’t feel maybe as good as ever,” he quipped before adding;
“But seriously, I just wanted to give it a very good go this year. I still feel OK and I still feel like I can contribute which is important. We have a job to do now in the league and also we have a chance in the Ulster club to go out and really go for it so that is what I will be looking at now.”
When Cassidy and his team-mates won the New York Gold Cup in 1995 it was the club’s first title. Five more has been added since then and Cassidy is asked what is the secret to the Harps success;
“It’s all down to the basics of Sunday morning football and bringing the youth on. We won championships in 04 and in 09 and the boys who were youth players then you can see them playing senior now,” he said before adding;
“And I suppose we have always had good management teams and we have pushed on now and in recent years we have become very good at seeing games out and closing games out.”
On Sunday the Derrygonnelly management made a crucial switch around the ten minute mark when they moved Cassidy from his berth in the full forward line to the half forward line with Paul Ward going in the opposite direction. It had the desired effect with both players getting on more ball and making things happen.
The Harps kicked six of the next seven points with Cassidy hammering over a beauty just before half time to give his side a four point advantage.
“We were a bit more direct during that period. We had the likes of Mickey Jones and Garvan McGinley coming through from defence and we pushed things on and were getting more freedom in attack and thankfully started to get a few more scores and we probably could have taken a few more to be fair,” the evergreen forward explained.
For Cassidy the challenge now is to make an impact in Ulster;
“We used 21 men today and it takes them all and we have a really good squad. We have fallen short a few times in the Ulster Club and we always say that we want to acquit ourselves better the next year if we get there. 
“This year we have a home draw and I remember it took Enniskillen a few years to make a real impression.” he said before concluding;
“We are going to be positive and go in to Ulster and represent Fermanagh in the right way and have belief in ourselves and go and try and win it.