Bellaghy on final stretch

Bellaghy survived a scare before beating Fermanagh champions Enniskillen Gaels at Omagh yesterday to reach the Ulster football final.

Leading by just a point (0-3 to 02) after playing with a strong breeze in the opening half, Bellaghy had to dig deep into their reserves of experience to survive. Early on there was a moment of controversy when Gavin Diamond appeared to have given Bellaghy the lead. The umpires differed on whether the ball had gone wide, referee Brendan Gorman allowed the point, but reversed his decision after being consulted, unusually, by a linesman.

Bellaghy, for all their star quality in attack, shot wide after wide, 11 in all to Enniskillen's two. But the Derry champions rediscovered their true from after the break, John Mulholland forcing Brendan Dooris into a great save in the opening seconds of the second half. Midway through the half, the Derry champions opened up a fourpoint lead through Benny Lee, Joe Cassidy and Gavin Diamond (two), and although Tom Brewster hit back with a long-range score, the Fermanagh men were finding the Bellaghy defence, particularly Paddy Downey, the man of the match, increasingly hard to breach.

They were forced to seek their scores from distance, and Tom Brewster did this magnificently twice to reduce the gap to just one with seven minutes to play. But Danny Quinn and Benny Lee hit the late points which saw Bellaghy through.

BELLAGHY: C Donnelly; P Downey, D O'Neill, C Diamond; K Diamond, C McNally, P Diamond; D Quinn (0-1), J Mulholland; G Diamond (0-3), B Lee (0-3), D Cassidy; E Cas sidy (0-1), C Scullion (0-2), J Cassidy (0-2). Sub: L McPeake for O Diamond.

ENNISKILLEN GAELS: B Dooris; C Murphy, M Farry, K Duffy; S Connolly, R Curran, R McCluskey; T Brewster (0-4), P Brewster (0- 1); A Burns, G McDermott, R Judge; R McCabe (0-2), S Bradley (0-1), C Bradley (0-1). Subs: N Keenan for G McDermott, C McEnhill for Duffy, R McEnhill for Burns.

Referee: B Gorman (Armagh).