Fermanagh Senior Football Championship final: Derrygonnelly Harps 0-10 Roslea Shamrocks 1-3
IT isn’t as glamourous, nor is it at the same level but Derrygonnelly Harps’ five in-a-row triumph in Fermanagh yesterday meant as much to their players and supporters as Dublin’s had the previous weekend.
In atrocious conditions at Brewster Park the Harps saw off a determined challenge from Roslea Shamrocks to come out on top by four points and move to within two of the Erne County record, Teemore’s seven in-a-row set between 1911 and 1917.
Amid joyous scenes in Enniskillen, manager Sean Flanagan (architect of the fourth and fifth titles) reflected on a memorable achievement for his club.
“It’s a very proud day,” he said.
“It’s about keeping this run going now. With all this talk about ‘drive for five’ it wasn’t easy keeping a lid on it at training and keeping boys’ head’s right for the final.
“But in fairness they stepped up there in the second half and there was some very good performances. We have the Antrim champions now but we have a league semi-final next weekend and that’s the next challenge.”
Flanagan’s side fell behind briefly after Sean Quigley’s first half goal but they were two points up at the break and although Roslea levelled it early in the second half, the Shamrocks failed to score again and Derrygonnelly kicked on to seal a deserved win.
“It was tough going,” said Flanagan.
“Conditions probably levelled things out, there was a lot of balls slipping and men slipping and giving bad passes. I thought we should have had a few more scores in the second half that would have left it a bit more comfortable.
“As long as there was only three points in it Roslea were in the game but we probably had a bit more quality all over the field.”
Meanwhile, Roslea manager Peter McGinnity had regrets but no complaints with the result.
“We probably made more small mistakes than they did and we missed a few chances here and there,” he said.
“You certainly couldn’t fault our boys for effort, Derrygonnelly are the established team in the county and we put it up to them for long enough but we needed a second goal and it didn’t look like it was going to come.
“I take my hat off to Derrygonnelly, winning five championships in-a-row in any county is a serious achievement and they deserve great credit for that. The rest of us will just have to pull our socks up, it’s not good for the county to have one team dominating and there should be more of us contesting.”
