Fermanagh shake up the old order in Ulster
‘That’s what it’s all about, expressing your emotion. You have to embrace life and embrace football and there’s no joy if you don’t enjoy winning’
IN the end, after an afternoon of stilted, structured and sober football, madness found a way to break out. Sometimes, you have to go with a wing and a prayer and in the final few minutes, Fermanagh dismantled their tactical white board and went back to the very basics.
They stuck their towering midfielder and captain Eoin Donnelly on the edge of the square, where he jumped to meet Ryan Jones’ angled centre and flicked the ball to the net. Cue the pandanioum that only sport’s disenfranchised could empathise with, as the Fermanagh supporters in the 10,122 attendance streamed onto the pitch at the final whistle.
In truth, that wave of emotion could have been stymied had Conor McManus successfully replicated his wonder-point from roughly the same patch of Omagh grass he managed against Tyrone earlier this month, but the sporting gods decided that there was only so much madness they would allow for.
And Fermanagh, in reaching their first Ulster final in 10 years — and just their sixth ever — were deemed to have met the modest quota of craziness a tense Ulster afternoon had budgeted for.
Put like that, it is easily peddled that what we witnessed here was a classic sucker-punch — Monaghan were all but over the line when Drew Wylie, kicking his second point of the afternoon in the 70th minute, put the red-hot favourites into a twopoint lead.
Yes, we know that is a dangerous lead but Fermanagh’s lack of menace made it feel like anything but. They had managed just two points — both final-quarter frees from the nerveless boot of substitute Tomás Corrigan — from four kicks at the posts in 35 secondhalf minutes.
Not only did they spend most of the second half without the football, they also finished the game a man down after Ruairi Corrigan was black-carded in the 67th minute.
So only those with blind faith and Donnelly’s head for giddy heights saw the 4/1 no-hopers coming back to win this. But here’s the rub, park the mayhem at the finish and there could be no disputing they were as worthy of this win as they were fortunate in getting it.
Tactically, Fermanagh, in what was a coaching masterclass by Rory Gallagher and Ryan McMenamin were simply on the button all afternoon, slamming shut the running lines which Monaghan had exploited to such reward in their quarter-final.
Malachy O Rourke’s team racked up 1-18 in beating Tyrone, but here managed just five points from open play.
And when your full-back is your top-scorer from open play and your top forward is reduced to having two high percentage potshots from open play — both of which McManus missed — then it is fair to suggest your game-plan has worked.
Fermanagh’s blueprint is neither revolutionary nor evolutionary, but when you get 15 players behind the ball, armed with purpose and conviction, it does not have to be either.
It worked to such effect that it melted Monaghan heads here, as they kicked recklessly — after 29 minutes they had a solitary point from eight kicks at the posts. Fermanagh have operated this spring on an average concession rate of 11 points a game, but two games into the summer they have already cut that to less than nine points a match — the kind of numbers not seen since Gallagher started out on his management career as Jim McGuinness’ assistant in Donegal. He may well be heading for a reunion with his former players should Donegal see off Down next weekend, but they would want to tread warily here.
Gallagher sign-posted his intentions pre-match — albeit Seamus Quigley’s demotion from the team was due to a breach of discipline — by going for the superior legs and lungs of Ciaran Corrigan.
But it was also a decision which reeked of the kind of hard-nosed pragmatism that may make them a hard team to watch, but a much harder team to beat. A lack of cutting edge in attack is the obvious price which has to be paid for such a set-up but they can get by on far less than most teams.
Aidan Breen kicked two priceless, first-quarter points to help Fermanagh into a 0-3 to 0-0 lead inside 16 minutes, while Conall Jones kicked an absolute monster at the end of the half to ensure they led by 0-6 to 0-4.
Those were their only scores from open play until Donnelly’s late goal and yet somehow there was enough in that to keep them in the game.
Of course Monaghan, following that win over Tyrone, were flat, and had they been at it themselves, may have made Fermanagh pay for their lack of ambition.
However, with the exception of Karl O’Connell, whose hard running yielded three points from fouls, the reality is that they were spooked into kicking 14 wides over the course of the game.
Fermanagh can do that to you, and they may just haunt another grand house of Ulster football before this thing is done. FERMANAGH: P Cadden; K Connor, C Cullen, M Jones (R Lyons 44); B Mulrone, J McMahon, L Cullen; E Donnelly, R Jones; P McCusker (R Corrigan 51), D McCusker, A Breen (C McManus 65); Sean Quigley (T Corrigan 55), C Jones (R Lyons 63), C Corrigan (T Clarke 60). Scorers: E Donnelly 1-0, S Quigley 0-3 (3f), T Corrigan (2f), A Breen 0-2, C Jones 0-1. Wides: (5) 7. Frees: (6) 14. Black cards: R Corrigan 67. Yellow cards: R Jones 35+3, C Cullen 40, B Mulrone 44. MONAGHAN: R Beggan; K Duffy, D Wylie, R Wylie; F Kelly (C Walshe 52), V Corey (S Carey 70+2, BC), K O’Connell; K Hughes (O Duffy 55), D Hughes; D Mone (C Boyle 65) N Kearns, D Ward (D Malone 51); R McAnespie, J McCarron (C McCarthy 41) C McManus. Scorers: C McManus 0-5 (5f), D Wylie 0-2, R McAnespie, F Kelly, C Walshe 0-1. Wides: (7) 14. Frees: (7) 14. Black cards: V Corey (70+1) Yellow cards: N Kearns 35+3, C McManus 40, K Hughes 42. Referee: C Lane (Cork)