Fiery Fermanagh stun 14-man Armagh
Fermanagh 0-12
Armagh
0-11
Tom Brewster is the toast of Fermanagh after his last-gasp point
gave them a famous and sensational victory over Ulster champions Armagh in a
gripping All-Ireland football quarter-final at Croke Park.
It was an
historic win for the Ernesiders who can now start preparing for their first ever
appearance in an All-Ireland semi-final. Scenes of unbridled joy and excitement
were witnessed at the final whistle as hundreds of Fermanagh supporters managed
to evade the attention of the match stewards to celebrate with their heroes on
the pitch.
Despite having corner back Enda McNulty sent off for a bad
challenge on Marty McGrath just before half-time, it looked as though the 14-men
of Armagh would live to fight another day as the game ticked into injury-time.
Fermanagh's inexperience was evident as they kick wide after wide in a
tension-filled second half, but in fairness to them, they never lost their
composure and with less than one of the four minutes of injury-time allotted by
referee John Bannon left to play, they worked the ball downfield to Brewster who
showed a cool head to slot over a dramatic winner.
Fermanagh's victory
was fully deserved as they had looked the better team from the 20th minute
onwards. A rout appeared to be on cards after Armagh built up an early
four-point lead, but Charlie Mulgrew's young side gradually got to grips with
the All-Ireland favourites and even before McNulty's dismissal, they had taken
control of the game, taking a 0-8 to 0-6 lead into the interval.
Armagh
started in whirlwind fashion with Diarmuid Marsden scoring a point inside the
first minute and Steven McDonnell following up with three more (one free) to
give them a 0-4 to 0-1 lead after just five minutes. Colm Bradley opened
Fermanagh's account in the ninth minute before McDonnell restored the Orchard
County's four-point advantage after latching onto a Ronan Clarke
knockdown.
All the signs pointed to an easy win for the Ulster champions
at this early stage, but Fermanagh refused to buckle and had reduced the deficit
to the minimum by the 17th minute courtesy of three pointed frees from Stephen
Maguire.
A McDonnell free made it 0-6 to 0-4 after 19 minutes, but the
remainder of the half belonged to Fermanagh whose quick and direct brand of
football yielded four unanswered points.
Efforts from James Sherry and
Bradley ('45') had levelled the scoring before another Maguire free in the 26th
minute gave the Ernesiders the lead for the first time. Maguire followed up with
his first point from play two minutes later for what proved to be the last score
of the half.
Marsden came desperately close to giving Armagh the lead
once again when his instinctive flick struck the Fermanagh crossbar in the 33rd
minute before rebounding to safety. Then, in first half injury-time, Joe
Kernan's side were reduced to 14 men following a reckless challenge by Enda
McNulty which left Fermanagh midfielder Marty McGrath with blood streaming from
his mouth.
The Ulster champions came out fighting at the start of the
second half and within four minutes of the restart, had wiped out Fermanagh's
lead courtesy of points from Paddy McKeever (free) and McDonnell's sixth.
Inspirational captain Kieran McGeeney then gave them a 0-9 to 0-8 lead before
Brewster levelled from a free in the 44th minute.
McDonnell (from a free)
and Eamon Maguire then exchanged points before the former was fortunate to stay
on the pitch after he appeared to punch his marker Ryan McCloskey.
With
centre back Shane McDermott excelling in the 'spare man' role, Fermanagh
continued to take the game to the illustrious opponents, but more often than
not, their finishing let them down and by the end, they had increased their
wides tally from five to 12.
When Oisin McConville, who had been unable
to start the game due to a hamstring injury, edged Armagh back in front with a
brilliant point on the run after 60 minutes, Fermanagh looked set to pay for
their wastefulness. But they refused to let things get to them and after
Brewster had restored parity in the 62nd minute, they had to wait a further 11
minutes for the Enniskillen Gaels man to give them a remarkable win.
Fermanagh - N Tinney, N
Bogue, B Owens, R McCluskey, R Johnson, S McDermott, P Sherry, M McGrath, L
McBarron, E Maguire 0-1, J Sherry 0-1, M Little, C O’Reilly, S Maguire 0-5, C
Bradley 0-2. Subs: T Brewster 0-3 for O’Reilly, H Brady for McBarron, D McGrath
for J Sherry
Armagh - P Hearty, E McNulty, F Bellew, A Mallon, K Hughes,
K McGeeney 0-1, A O’Rourke, P Loughran, P McGrane, P McKeever 0-1, J Toal, T
McEntee, S McDonnell 0-7, R Clarke, D Marsden 0-1. Subs: B Mallon for Toal, A
McCann for B Mallon, K McElvanna for O’Rourke, O McConville 0-1 for McKeever, B
Mallon for Clarke
Referee - John Bannon (Longford)