Irvinestown Wanderers 1 Enniskillen Rangers 5

Enniskillen Rangers continued their goal-scoring streak, hitting five against Irvinestown to maintain their lead at the top of Division One.

Wanderers took a surprise lead through Stephen Sheridan, but Rangers hit back with two goals from top scorer Mark Cutler, two from substitute Willie Burleigh and one from Nathan Khan to make it 13 goals in their last three league games.

Despite trailing early in the game, Rangers’ manager Michael Kerr never had any doubts that his high-scoring side would get themselves out of trouble.

“We had a few early chances, and there were never any concerns after going 1-0 down,” he said.

“I knew the big pitch would suit us and I had confidence the boys would be able to pull it back. We missed a lot of chances, it was as bad as I have seen us in front of goal but we still got five.

"It is not a coincidence that we are scoring a lot of goals with the amount of work we have been doing on this since Christmas. It is something we have put a big emphasis on, and we will enjoy it while they are coming.”

Irvinestown were missing several regulars but despite being depleted they took an early lead after 13 minutes when striker Stephen Sheridan fired a low shot from the edge of the penalty area into the bottom corner.

Their advantage lasted eight minutes before the league leaders hit back. Irvinestown failed to clear a long ball and Jason Keenan picked up possession and whipped in a cross from the left that Mark Cutler met on the half volley and blasted into the roof of the net from six yards out.

Nathan Khan then struck the frame of the goal with a free kick from 30 yards, before Rangers went ahead for the first time.

A good team move saw Conor Rippey pick up possession at left-back, and he threaded a through ball between the Irvinestown defenders for Cutler to finish with a first-time shot.

The visitors were well on top and Cutler had two goals ruled out for offside before Khan netted the third, getting on the end of a cross at the back post and stabbing past Jerome Carleton.

Rangers added a fourth when Keenan held off a defender and slid the ball wide for Cutler, who fired the ball across the area for Burleigh to slide in at the back post.

Jordan McClure then had a goal ruled out for offside before substitute Burleigh added the fifth in the closing minutes.

Rangers have strung together 10 wins and one draw in their last 11 games, but despite coming into two high-profile cup games against Enniskillen Town in the Mulhern Cup on Saturday and Tummery in the Junior Cup semi-final four days later in a rich vein of form, the manager is refusing to take anything for granted.

“Yes we have confidence, but it’s about making sure our full focus is on the next game,” he said.

“You are always only one defeat away from going out of a cup, or in my opinion one defeat away from the league as well, so we don’t want complacency creeping in. Before Christmas, we had a bad run.

"We probably looked at that December period thinking we were targeting seven or nine points, and we got one, so we probably looked at it the wrong way.

"Over Christmas, we changed how we were looking at things and the perspective we were putting on games.

"A lot of people are already talking about the Tummery game, but we only spoke about it for five minutes after the draw was made. It was all about Irvinestown last week, and all our focus this week will be on Enniskillen Town and absolutely nothing else.”