Enniskillen Town 3-0 Enniskillen Rangers
Enniskillen Town took the derby honours with a 3-0 victory over local rivals Enniskillen Rangers, as Rangers suffered their fifth consecutive defeat.
Brendan Lilley’s first goal of the season had given Town a halftime lead, and they sealed the win thanks to a Jason Keenan own goal and a James Harrigan goal in the second half.
Town manager Ryan Hanna was delighted with his side’s performance, as they stayed level with Tummery and Kesh at the top of the division one table.
“I thought we were excellent from minute one right through to the end,” he said.
“We maybe could even have had a couple more, but I was really, really pleased.
"We knew the team Rangers were going to put out was going to be a lot different and a lot hungrier than last week, and that was the case.
"They had a few boys back and it was probably the strongest panel that they have had this season, but we were committed to that anyway and we knew it was a derby and there wasn’t going to be an inch given.
"The game was very fast-paced and there was a lot of things going on, but there was good quality played in the right manner.”
Rangers welcomed back several players for the game. Captain Ciaran Smith made his first appearance of the season, and Eoin McManus and Ronan Beattie were making their second starts.
Ben Arthurs returned in goal and Joel Byrne was back after missing out last week, but Mark Cutler, Stuart Rainey and Paul Coulter all dropped out of contention.
“It was a disappointing result, although I’m not sure if it was as bad as a 3-0 game,” said manager Michael Kerr.
“We could have been better on all three goals. For the first goal, we missed a tackle up the pitch and a cross came in and we could have dealt with that better.
"The second was a horrendous mistake, and the third the referee said afterwards he should have stopped play for a head injury. The goals were avoidable. I felt at 1-0 we were in the game, but the second goal really killed us.”
Despite the defeat, Kerr believes that the return of key players bodes well ahead of this Saturday’s match against Augher Stars.
“The boys are coming back, and it was definitely an improved performance,” he said.
“If we are in a bad run of form, then Augher are in the same position. They haven’t won yet in the first division.
"It’s tough at the minute but we are all confident that it will turn. We had a good meeting last Tuesday night to chat through everything, and we came out of that with a bit of a spring in our step and we went into Saturday’s game with a spring in our step.
"Not full of confidence - you can see in our play that the boys are probably lacking a bit of confidence after some negative results, but we will get a good weeks training this week and go to Augher in the hope of coming out with three points. We will not be going there looking anything less than that.
"The players know the quality is there and sometimes you just need a wee bit of luck to turn it around.
"Hopefully, that comes our way sooner rather than later.”
Town made a bright start and Darren Freeman had an early shot saved by Arthurs.
James Harrigan then robbed Jason Keenan of the ball and fired in a low cross that just evaded Freeman, before Arthurs was called into action again to save from Harrigan.
Rangers’ best chance of the first half came when Kyle Derry set Mark White away down the wing and his cross found Joel Byrne six yards out, but the striker failed to connect and the ball bounced to safety.
Town eventually took the lead after 27 minutes when they won the ball in midfield and worked it wide.
The cross made its way through the penalty area and Freeman picked it up and laid it back to Lilley, who found the bottom corner of the net with the aid of a slight deflection.
Town extended their lead in the second half when a cross from Ryan Hanna caused hesitation in the Rangers' defence, and a deflection off Keenan took the ball between the goalkeeper’s legs and into the net.
Town sealed the win with fifteen minutes remaining when McManus and Freeman challenged for Ben Thompson’s long kick out, with the ball falling into the path of Harrigan who slotted past Arthurs.
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