Lory Meagher Cup round one Leitrim 1-9 Fermanagh 0-19
DESPITE finishing with 13 men, Fermanagh eased to an opening win over Leitrim in a scrappy affair in blustery Carrick-On-Shannon.
Impressive full-forward Danny Teague was sent off midway through the first half in an off-the-ball incident, while midfielder Dylan Bannon was given a late red, as was Leitrim’s Michael O’Brien.
The home side, who played into the breeze, were held scoreless in the first half as a much fitter and focused Erne side chalked up nine points.
Leitrim did manage to get a goal from Stephen Goldrick which brought them to within four but late points from Brian Teehan, John Paul McGarry and Danann McKeogh sealed the deal.
Teague opened the scoring for the winners with a fine effort and he doubled that score when he converted a free. Aidan Flanagan and Teague made it 0-4 to 0-0 against a sluggish Leitrim side who were struggling to get to the pace of the game.
Teehan and the excellent Caolan Duffy made it 0-6 to 0-0 before Teague’s dismissal, which had very little effect on the Ernesiders as they continued to tap over the points.
John Duffy and Sean Corrigan completed the first-half scoring.
Luca McCusker extended that lead on the restart, but wind-assisted Leitrim got off the mark in the 38th minute through Conor Hackett.
Odhran Johnson and Tom Keenan stretched the Erne lead but Joe Murray (two) and Gavin O’Hagan reduced it to eight by the 57th minute.
A Stephen Goldrick goal and a Joe Murray point halved that with some eight minutes of normal time left, but in the closing minutes of the game Fermanagh snuffed out the fightback with two John Paul McGarry points and one each from Caolan Duffy, Brian Teehan and Dannan McKeogh.
Fermanagh’s Dylan Bannon and Leitrim’s Michael O’Brien received late straight red cards after two separate incidents.
A deserved win for Fermanagh who were the better side throughout and they came back well when Leitrim struck for a late goal.
And their superior fitness told in those final moments as they eased clear to a merited victory.
Scorers
Leitrim J Murray 0-6f; S Goldrick 1-0; G O’Hagan 0-2f; C Hackett 0-1
Fermanagh D Teague (1f), C Duffy &
B Teehan 0-3 each; JP McGarry 0-2; T Keenan, S Corrigan, D McKeogh, A Flanagan, R Bogue (f), O Johnson (f), L McCusker & J Duffy 0-1 each
Round one Roscommon 1-20 Louth 1-14; Armagh 1-12 Donegal 0-22; Mayo 4-24 Monaghan 2-8
Round two
Saturday, April 20 (2pm) Donegal v Mayo (O’Donnell Park); Monaghan v Roscommon (Inniskeen)
Sunday, April 21 Louth v Armagh (Dowdallshill, 2pm)
