St Pauls Ulster Club Minor Football Tournament Quarter-final
Enniskillen Gaels (Fermanagh) 3-9 St Enda’s (Antrim) 3-7
Trailing by 11 points at half time Enniskillen Gaels made a sensational second half comeback with a fully deserved 2 point victory against St Enda’s Glengormley on Saturday past at the St Pauls venue in Belfast.
The Enniskillen side who had not played a competitive game since July 2nd went into the game knowing that the past record by Fermanagh clubs in the Competition were poor of late but they put that to bed with a resolute performance and even had the luxury of missing a last minute penalty when two behind.
Enniskillen trailed the Antrim champions 3-5 to 0-2 at the break with the Gaels points coming from Brendan Lilly and Timmy Boyd.
1 minute into the second half Man of the Match Conall Quinn blasted his shot to the net and from the resulting goal kick Conor Goodwin had reduced the St Enda’s lead to 7.
Lively Antrim attacker Odhran Eastwood planted two fine scores over for his side but it was Enniskillen who would push on in the final 18 minutes of the game.
Brendan Lilley (2), Michael Dooris and Conall Quinn all pointed to leave it 3-7 to 1-8, while Timmy Boyd added his sides second goal and the talented Quinn then pointed from a free to leave it 3-7 to 2-9 with 4 minutes remaining.
With 58 minutes played the game was to see Ronan Quinn took down and from the resulting spot kick Conall Quinn seen his effort go agonisingly wide.
Fair play to the Enniskillen side though, instead of throwing the arms up and giving in they went for one final attack deep into injury time and as the ball dropped to Ronan Quinn he was to score a sublime goal to amazingly win the game and send Enniskillen through to the Semi Finals.
The Enniskillen side will now face St Eunan’s Letterkenny who a bit like the Gaels have won everything in front of them this year at County level.
The game is set for Sunday December 27th at 1.30pm, with the other Semi Final seeing Crossmaglen face off with Moortown the day before, both games once again at the St Pauls venue.
Enniskillen Gaels scorers: C Quinn 1-2, B Lilley 0-4, T Boyd 1-1, R Quinn 1-0, M Dooris 0-1, C Goodwin 0-1.
By Tom
Mon 21st Dec
Enniskillen Gaels scorers: C Quinn 1-2, B Lilley 0-4, T Boyd 1-1, R Quinn 1-0, M Dooris 0-1, C Goodwin 0-1.
St Enda’s scorers: E Nagle 2-0, O Eastwood 0-5, G Morgan 1-0, C Little 0-2
Referee: E McHugh (Tyrone).
