Ulster SFC Quarter-final - Derry 1-18 Fermanagh 1-10:THAT DERRY boss John Brennan had the demeanour more akin to a manager who had just seen his side defeated, rather than one who had just witnessed an eight-point victory, tells the tale of this match.
For 41 minutes of this game, Derry toyed with Fermanagh like a lion with a wounded antelope. Derry were dominant at midfield and with the wind at their backs, the first half made for painful viewing for anyone with Erneside sympathies.
Counties working off restricted resources like Fermanagh can ill-afford to be without 11 members of the previous year’s panel and their limitations were starkly revealed in the championship spotlight. However, it wasn’t all smiles and celebrations on the Derry bench as manager Brennan produced a scathing assessment of his side’s second-half performance.
“I was happy at half-time, but that was just rubbish football in the second half. It was shabby, we let the supporters down and to say Im disappointed is an understatement. We didnt perform for 70 minutes – I want my team to play for 70 minutes.
“When you see good players making elementary mistakes, it is not good enough for the fans. People will say we switched off because we were so far ahead, but you have to be ruthless, you can’t sit back and admire what you have done in the first half. I consider this as two games, we won the first game and Fermanagh won the second game,” he said.
Having notched the game’s first score through Terry O’Flanghan’s fifth-minute free, Fermanagh were virtual spectators for the next 25 minutes as Derry fired over an unanswered 1-10 to kill the contest by the half-hour mark.
With Joe Diver and Michael Friel lording it in the middle and Enda Muldoon spraying passes around, the Derry attack gorged themselves. Gerard O’Kane had already levelled matters when Eoin Bradley burst finished to the net to put Derry in front on nine minutes.
For the next 20 minutes the game resembled a Derry shooting drill as they shot nine successive points. Indeed, it could have been worse for John O’Neill’s side as a last-gasp intervention from Fermanagh’s best player Barry Mulrone deflected a Bradley effort over the bar.
Daniel Kille final broke Derry’s scoring streak with a 30th-minute point, but, with Michael Bateson and Conleth Gilligan resuming normal service at the other end, it was 1-12 to 0-2 at the end of an embarrassingly one-sided half.
Derry looked set to maintain that ruthless demeanour in the second period as Muldoon, Diver and Bradley stretched the lead out to 16 points. However, an inevitable reduction in the home team’s intensity allied with Fermanagh’s admirable show of pride, saw the Ernesiders fight back to claim a modicum of respectability.
John Woods’ superbly-finished goal provided a psychological boost while Ryan Jones eventually gained a foothold at midfield. With Derry’s intensity and concentration having dropped to challenge match levels, Fermanagh outscored them 1-6 to 0-2 in the final 25 minutes.
However, it was a cosmetic exercise on Fermanagh’s part.
DERRY: D Devlin; M Bateson (0-2), K McCloy, D McBride; G OKane (0-2), C Kielt (0-1), S L McGoldrick (0-1); J Diver (0-2), M Friel; M Lynch (0-1), C O’Boyle, E McGuckin; E Muldoon (0-2), E Bradley (1-4), C Gilligan (0-3). Subs: B Óg McAlary for O’Boyle (48 mins), P J McCloskey for Friel, C McGoldrick for Muldoon (both 52 mins), K McGuckin for Kielt (61 mins), D Mullholland for E McGuckin (64 mins).
FERMANAGH: J McGrath; J Woods (1-0), B Owens, M Jones; M O’Brien, H Brady, B Mulrone (0-1); K Cosgrove, R Jones (0-2); T Flanagan (0-1, free), B Óg Maguire, P Ward; T Coriggan, D Kille (0-5, three frees, 45), S Quigley. Subs: J O’Flanaghan for T O’Flanaghan (40 mins), C O’Brien 0-1 for Ward (41 mins), R O’Callaghan for Cosgrove (52 mins).
Referee: J McQuillan (Cavan).
