Tummery Athletic 2 Beragh Swifts 1
Tummery bounced back from a 5-4 weekend defeat to Enniskillen Town with a comeback win over Beragh Swifts on Tuesday evening.
After a dramatic nine-goal thriller against Town, there was more drama against Beragh Swifts as Swifts missed a penalty in the 87th minute before Paul McHugh struck for the reigning champions to snatch a 2-1 victory.
Prior to the win over Swifts, the league champions had tasted defeat twice in three games leaving them eight points behind league pace setters Enniskillen Rangers with three games in hand, but Hanna hopes the victory over Beragh will inspire a repeat of last season, which saw them win their last 10 games on their way to the title.
“We did it last year under adversity when we had to go on a run of games, and we won all 10,” he recalled.
“With our backs against the wall, we can show what kind of character we have, so we have to do it again. We just need to get back to focusing on one game at a time and not thinking too far ahead.
"We had a bad run earlier in the year where we had three draws, and we went on a good run after that. This time is something similar, but it comes at a time when we are trying to bounce back from the Junior and balancing the squad between all other commitments.”
Beragh Swifts began the evening only two points outside the relegation zone and in danger of getting sucked into a five-way battle at the foot of the table, but they started the match well and Cameron Crook found the net midway through the first half to give them the advantage.
Blain Campbell hit back on the hour mark, levelling the match from the penalty spot, but Beragh looked set for the points when they won their own penalty with three minutes remaining.
Stephen Browne missed his spot kick however, and Tummery took full advantage with McHugh scoring a 90th-minute winner.
Against Enniskillen Town on Saturday Tummery took an early lead when Shea Devlin converted Hanna’s cross, but they failed to convert chances to extend their advantage and Town hit back to take a 3-1 lead early in the second half.
Martin Hughes reduced the deficit to one before Lee Brennan made it 4-2. Tummery looked to have salvaged a point when Blain Campbell and Paudie Dillon scored to level the match, but Town snatched victory with an injury-time winner from Brennan.
“I was very disappointed at the end of the game,” admitted Hanna. “We had enough chances, particularly in the first half. We had four or five really good chances, but it is a summary of the last few weeks.
"We had good chances and then got punished at the other end. In the second half, Town sat in and made it difficult for us. When we got back to 4-4 I thought the momentum was with us, but we got sucker punched again.
"It was disappointing given the chances we had but on the day it was a master class in finishing compared to us. Clinical finishing was the difference.”
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