Tummery Athletic 3 Lisbellaw United 1
Tummery Athletic showed great resilience and determination and they picked up wins over NFC Kesh and Lisbellaw United to close the gap on league leaders Enniskillen Town to four points, the Dromore side having two game sin hand.
On Saturday Marty Hughes struck twice in the final ten minutes as they came from a goal down to beat Kesh and then on Tuesday night Paul McHugh and an own goal in the last 20 minutes saw them claim a 3-1 victory over Lisbellaw at Crawford's Lane.
"You don't get anything for nothing in this league and you don't want it either," said a delighted Tummery boss Ryan Hanna. "We had to dig in, especially on Saturday. I actually thought that was one of our better performances but we were 2-1 down. However, we didn't let the pressure get to us and it is great to win those games when the chips are down. That is something that we have shown we can do.
"Against Lisbellaw it was the same, it was helter skelter and credit to them they went at it hammer and tongs and we had to match the energy and aggression they brought to it but we built a lot of pressure and that told. I was very pleased with both wins."
Neither side created a lot in the way chances in the opening spell on Tuesday night but with 25 minutes on the clock Tummery swooped for the opener. A good move down the left saw Malachy McLoughlin play the ball into McHugh and he produced a deft touch to tee up Hughes who ran on to it and stroked the ball to the corner for 1-0.
It remained that way through to half time but against the run of play Lisbellaw hit back to level just after the hour mark as a flick on from a long throw was slotted home by Lewis Vance.
Faced with dropping points though Tummery dug in and player manager Hanna had a great chance to put them back ahead when he was put through but after rounding James McGrath in the Lisbellaw goal he hit the post as the visitors survived.
Tummery though continued to press forward and with 20 minutes to go they regained the lead as McHugh rose to sent a towering header to the back of McGrath's net from an Aidy McCaffrey corner.
And with four minutes to go the home side put the result beyond doubt as Philip Beacom turned the ball into his own net as it finished 3-1.
Hanna insists that it is still all about one game at a time and their focus is now on Saturday's game away to Enniskillen Athletic.
"It's a busy time but that's what you want, to be playing games. We have Athletic on Saturday and that is as far as we will look. We had a very tough game against them in the league when we won it late on and we're expecting another tough one on Saturday," he said.
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