Derrylin 0-10 Enniskillen 1-13

Enniskillen Gaels made a winning start to their SFL Division One campaign with a six-point victory over Derrylin last Friday night.

Simon Bradley’s side always held the upper hand in the contest, but missed goal chances in the first half meant they were never able to fully put a battling O’Connells side away.

But the away side did enough to seal the win which Bradley admits was the main target.

“The win was the key thing against a Derrylin side that were well set up and we are happy to put the points on the board, although we are not overly happy with our performance and the players weren’t happy with the performance either,” he said.

In a game that was slow to get going, Enniskillen opened the scoring through Conor Love with the attacker then doubling their advantage with his second point after ten minutes.

Mark Murphy frees kept the home side in touch in the first half with the former county man landing his first point in the 11th minute, although Enniskillen almost hit back with a goal as Conor McShea was put through but his effort was saved by Barry Murray in the Derrylin goal.

A Conor Watson point from play though did put two in it again to Enniskillen, but they were guilty of some rash tackling at the back, and Murphy punished this with two further frees to tie up matters at 0-03 apiece.

Enniskillen edged back in front as Brandon Horan knocked over after a good burst while Murray was called into action again as he got down low to save from Love.

Ross Bogue and James Dolan then traded points as Enniskillen remained in front by the minimum, but the Gaels finally did find the back of the net in the 30th minute as John Reihill cut in from the right and lashed a shot into the roof of the net to make it 1-05 to 0-04.

Indeed, Enniskillen should have had a second goal in added on time, with Conor Murphy this time put through, but Murray saved again to ensure the home side were just four points adrift at the interval.

Mark Murphy knocked over a point from play on the restart, but Enniskillen replied with three points in a row to open up a six-point advantage.

Ross Bogue converted a free before adding a point from play, while McShea also fired over a good score to make it 1-08 to 0-05.

Continued to battle

Derrylin though continued to battle and Ruairi McGoldrick fired over from play and Murphy tagged on a free to keep them in touch moving into the final quarter.

That was as close though as Derrylin managed to get as Enniskillen answered this with points from Watson and Ethan Beresford.

Murphy brought his total for the night to seven as he converted another two frees before Watson and Luke Flanagan exchanged points to leave Enniskillen in a 1-11 to 0-10 lead.

And the Gaels wrapped things up with a Reihill free and a Beresford point from play to leave six in it at the final whistle.

Next up for Derrylin is a big clash with a Belcoo side who started the league with victory over Ederney while Enniskillen host Kinawley at Brewster Park.

“We know what to expect from Kinawley. It will be a physical battle as it always is, and we will have to match that while with boys away we will need others to step up in terms of scoring,” said Bradley.