Limerick 3-11 Fermanagh 0-08

Fermanagh minors crashed out of the All-Ireland Tier 3 competition with a defeat to Limerick ending their 2024 campaign.

Niall McElroy’s side were missing a few key players heading into Saturday’s fixture but gained a 0-04 to 0-00 lead with just over 15 minutes played at the Connacht GAA centre, however, a goal before halftime and two more in the second-half would see them eventually fall to a 12-point defeat.

Manager McElroy said after the game: “It was probably a game of two halves with the breeze really. We had the breeze in the first-half but we probably didn’t make the most of it, we only got six points, we did play some lovely attacking football and created plenty of scoring opportunities, just kicked too many wides and then Limerick got a goal just against the run of play.

"We went into halftime two points ahead and Limerick were very dominant in the second-half and deserved their win.”

Fermanagh were missing key men from their starting line-up including captain Conor Mulligan, Daire Chapman, Conrad Reihill and Niall Flynn but took the lead through points from Ryan Hannigan and Daniel McGovern.

Limerick’s first score came via goal from Cian Costello but Fermanagh added further points from Conall Rasdale and Odhran McGovern.

Limerick’s Rian McNamara pointed to make it 0-06 to 1-01 at the break.

A Shane Dolan point and another Costello goal early in the second-half gave Limerick the lead.

Dolan missed a penalty as his effort came off the post before Rory Mullins grabbed a third goal from a poor Fermanagh kick-out.

Points from Robbie Widger, Rian McNamara, Shane Dolan, Michael Mulcahy and Evan O'Connor led Limerick to a comfortable win in the end as Fermanagh tagged on two points from substitute Chapman and Dan O’Connor.

Speaking on the minor season as a whole, McElroy said: “It was a challenging season, especially in the Ulster Championship, it was extremely tough but a lot of challenges as well.

"We won the Garda Cup before the start of the Ulster league and had a good run of victories in challenge games but once the defeats came it took it out of the lads.

"Defeats are hard to take but to be fair to them they kept coming back for more and I’m proud of them for that. They’ve built great resilience over the course of the season and that will stand to them.”

Limerick: S Kearney, D McCarthy, D Dawson, S Hanley, H McDermott, D O'Connell, C Ó Longaigh, C Costello (2-00), C Casey, S Dolan (0-04,2f), R Mullins (1-00), B Ryan, R McNamara (0-03), E Fitzgerald, D Murphy. 

Subs used: M Mulcahy (0-01), S O'Dea, R Widger (0-01), E O'Connor (0-02), G Fitzgibbon.

Fermanagh: D Treacy, R McCann, J Tierney, T O'Brien, D Mohan, C Casey, A McCaffrey, D O'Connor (0-01,1f), C MacInnes, O McGovern (0-01), C Rasdale (0-01), R Hannigan (0-02,1f), M Duffy, D McGovern (0-02), N Beattie. 

Subs used: D Chapman (0-01,1f), T Cathcart, C Mulligan, C Reihill, J Hamill.