ULSTER SFC FIRST ROUND: Fermanagh 0-13 Down 0-10:THE NEW hierarchies of Ulster football were in evidence at a cold and rainy Brewster Park yesterday when Fermanagh outlasted provincial aristocrats Down to ease into the quarter-finals.
The home side proved the reservations of a relegation season in Division Two baseless, as their established patterns of work and hard running pressurised the fault-lines in a brittle Down team until they cracked.
Tactically the match was chaotic with team line-ups changed, personnel switched around and both sides at times favouring a two-two-two attack and rush-hour packing of the middle third. The problem for the visitors is Fermanagh thrive in such an environment whereas Down frequently looked as baffled by it all as the casual observer.
Having been promoted into Fermanagh’s place in the league and with an apparently more menacing attack, Down were favourites but the home side has been carefully assembling a good championship track record in recent seasons and exhibited greater composure when the match was there to be won.
The critical third quarter could have seen the losers take control but they stalled. After re-opening a two-point lead in the 46th minute with a well-taken point by Daniel Hughes after a sweeping movement, Down simply stalled and during the remaining 25 minutes or so didn’t score again.
Their strategy of deploying a less-than-fully-fit Benny Coulter in a two-man full-forward line backfired. Coulter’s restricted mobility meant he couldn’t run around the half forwards but it also made him easy pickings for a sticky, industrious Fermanagh full-back line, where Shane Lyons had a powerful match, fastening onto breaking ball and running it out into open space. Apart from a virtuoso point, squeezed over from tight on the left the leading Down forward wasn’t able to gain a foothold from where he could really hurt the opposition.
Hugh Brady and Niall Bogue gave good support and after a promising 10 minutes on the restart Down’s menace faded. It must have been frustrating for the travelling supporters, as in the first half they had looked well in contention and the original two-man full-forward line of under-21 danger men Paul McCumiskey and Peter Fitzpatrick gave Fermanagh plenty of problems.
Given the winners’ greater experience – beaten Ulster finalists last year only after a replay – the longer the match remained in the balance the better it would have looked to the home crowd. And that’s how it turned out.
Fermanagh will be particularly pleased with the scoring effort. For a side that for all their heroics last year couldn’t break 12 scores in a match, yesterday they kicked 13 points and kept the wides’ count in single figures.
Built into that was a five-point haul in frees from debutant Ryan Carson, whose nascent county career is complicated by having to work in England but who yesterday was 100 per cent from the dead ball, an area that had been a problem for the side last season.
None of the awards, all of which came in the second half, were that difficult but they were all the result of determined running and poor defending that too often settled for the foul as the most reliable means of thwarting an attack.
Carson had an excellent debut showing well for the ball, holding possession and drawing fouls, including for two of the converted frees and another that led to Ciarán McElroy’s point.
As was often the case in last year’s championship run Fermanagh’s half backs provided the steadiest of platforms with Shane McDermott’s hard work in breaking up attacks – which settled in earnest once an uneasy opening, ironically on Coulter, passed – and Tommy McElroy delivering a great 70-minute display of tireless running, support play and contesting of the breaks.
Down’s frustrations could also be seen at centrefield where Dan Gordon was first to a lot of ball but couldn’t always complete the possession and as soon as it spilled Fermanagh were well on top of the ground skirmishes.
Martin McGrath didn’t get too much high ball but his work rate was tremendous and even at the end he was back around his square tidying up and offering an option for the defender in possession.
The drift of the first half indicated the match would be tight with the lead changing hands several times up until the teams went in level at 0-7 each for the break. Down bounced out for the second half whereas Fermanagh had to replace Ryan McCloskey, who had been an unannounced starter but who pulled a hamstring just before the interval.
McCumiskey and Coulter pushed Down in front but just as the match appeared to be there for the plucking, they began to kick wides and their challenge atrophied. Encouraged by this, Fermanagh continued to probe and the frees came their way.
By the 59th minute Carson had equalised, at 0-10 each, and as the match ran into its final minutes Down displayed curiously little urgency while Fermanagh drove for home. Ciarán McElroy kicked their only point from play in the second half and Carson added two more frees.
Changed times in the province, as Fermanagh calmly put away a dispirited Down.
As a further indignity manager Ross Carr’s son Aidan was red-carded for a foul on McGrath at the very end.
FERMANAGH:1 C Breen; 17 N Bogue, 3 S Lyons, 4 H Brady; 19 R McCloskey, 6 S McDermott, 7 T McElroy (0-1); 8 M McGrath (0-1), 9 J Sherry (0-2); 13 D Keenan (0-1), 11 C McElroy (0-1), 12 M Little (0-1); 10 R Keenan, 14 R Carson (0-6, five frees), 15 E Maguire. Subs: 2 P Sherry for McCloskey (half-time), 25 S O'Brien for Little (46 mins), 24 R Foy for C McElroy (72 mins). Yellow card: C McElroy (57 mins).
DOWN:1 B McVeigh; 22 K Duffin, 21 P Turley, 4 D Raffery; 6 C Garvey, 7 D Rooney, 2 L Howard; 8 D Gordon, 12 S Kearney (0-1); 14 R Murtagh, 10 B Coulter (0-2), 13 D Hughes (0-2); 5 A Carr (0-2, frees), 9 P Fitzpatrick (0-1), 15 P McCumiskey (0-2, one free). Subs: 29 J O'Reilly for Murtagh (54 mins), 11 J Boyle for Kearney (63 mins), 26 C McGinn for Fitzpatrick (68 mins). Yellow cards: P McCumiskey (1 min), S Kearney (33 mins). Red card: A Carr (71 mins).
Attendance:10,723.
Referee:J Bannon (Longford).
