BY DAMIEN CAMPBELL

FERMANAGH ..........................0-14

LIMERICK .................................1-7

It may have been just a four point winning margin at Emmet Park last Saturday afternoon but Fermanagh were in fact much the superior side in this rearranged fixture with visiting Limerick.

The Munster team who had been convincing winners in the corresponding game last season in Clones have slipped considerably since then. In this match they had precious little to offer indeed and Fermanagh were in command from the opening minutes, at no stage coming under any kind of pressure.

Limerick were a beaten docket long before the end and their goal arrived virtually in the closing seconds. The subsequent kick out signalled the end of a contest dominated by Fermanagh and the Erne side forge their way into the leadership of the division.

One target, an unspoken one, has been achieved. The team will be, at the very least, operating in this division next season.

But the bigger prize has always been promotion and now the team have put themselves in a tremendous position with just three games remaining. Nothing secured yet and those three ties left all are fraught with menace.

The bandwagon can be swiftly derailed so obviously caution is the watchword. But having said that the belief must be that a top two finish is now well within grasp.

DIFFICULT CONDITIONS

Blustery conditions at Lisnaskea made matters difficult for the players but Fermanagh were to overcome this to an admirable extent and on a regular basis over the seventy plus minutes they served up some spells of attractive football.

A tally of fourteen points in all, eleven of those were to come from open play, several players in the nimble forward line contributing to that satisfactory statistic.

Back in the defence there was to be another steady performance. The Limerick attack generally well contained and the Munster side were to have a mere five points on their scoreboard with the final whistle just a few minutes away.

They poached a late flourish of a goal and two points, the latter from Ian Ryan placed kicks which gave the final scoreline an appearance which disguised the true pattern of what had been a mostly one sided encounter.

That was down to a lot of factors. Among these was the unquestionable sharper approach and appetite of the Fermanagh players and their ability to string together passages of combination play.

Eamon Maguire, Mark Little and Ciaran McElroy were all that much quicker and decisive and the Limerick defence never really came to grips with the fleet-footed Erne forward line

For the Erne attack always looked vastly comfortable with itself, confident in what they were trying to achieve. In the middle of the park, another solid showing from the Fermanagh pairings which were on duty.

Initially this was the first half pairing of the returned James Sherry and Mark Murphy, after the interval Sherry and Liam McBarron were installed here while immediately behind them Ryan McCluskey was always an organising presence.

There was to be prompt indication that Fermanagh were up for the contest as they swooped their way in for a point literally within seconds of the throw in. It was a score which saw Eamon Maguire win an incoming ball, something he was to do on a regular basis all through the game, the lay off to Ciaran McElroy and the ball was lobbed over.

Limerick did answer with a point from Ian Ryan but for the rest of the half it was Fermanagh who essentially dictated matters.

The lead was regained with a Shaun Doherty point and it was never to be relinquished thereafter. Mark Murphy did exceptionally well to fist over an incoming free for the team's third point, this coming on ten minutes.

But there then followed a frustrating spell. The team, by and large, had the greater share of the attacking play, but the scoring dried up and the fluency of the game was disrupted by a number of stoppages for injuries.

So it was to take quite sometime before the scoring resumed but when it did Fermanagh breezed their way into a sound position with a four point haul, Mark Little with three and Mark Murphy with a fine solo effort, shooting the home side well ahead.

Fermanagh were by now clearly the much more assured side, the introduction of Paul Ward adding another seam of sharpness to the forward line.

SATISFACTORY

Limerick finally stalled the home team's run with a Seanie Buckley score but the final score of the half went to Fermanagh, another cleverly engineered opportunity, this one finished off by Ciaran McElroy and the team had established a highly satisfactory six point advantage.

The game was there to be won and won emphatically.

Limerick restarted with an immediate point from an Ian Ryan free but there was no suggestion that they would be able to construct a revival. Fermanagh doused the visitor's hopes with two scores in reply and that more or less signalled the end of the game as a contest.

Fed by Liam McBarron, Paul Ward nipped in behind the Limerick defence to knock over a score and another instance of polished approach work set up the shooting chance for Eamon Maguire.

Fermanagh's scores had been smartly crafted but the game itself had become exceptionally scrappy, a constant string of frees disrupting continuity.

Ryan had a token answer for an increasingly bedraggled Limerick before the visitors goalkeeper Mike Jones made a terrific stop in a one on one situation with Mark Little.

The Lisnaskea player had apparently done everything right, jinking his way into a shooting position and a decent enough shot but Jones was equal to the task.

In another, tighter fought contest it could have been a pivotal moment. But in this match it was of no consequence.

Fermanagh were running the show and Limerick were giving absolutely no indication that they would be able to mount a late rally.

As the game wound its way into the final quarter, the pattern of play was unaltered. Fermanagh doing most of the pressing, the home defence easily mopping up the sporadic Limerick raids and the gap between the teams steadily widening.

Further Fermanagh scores were to be supplied by Mark Little, Ciaran McElroy and Eamon Maguire, the latter two again the end result of good approach work from a cluster of supporting players.

By now the deficit had stretched to eight points before Limerick at last did manage a brief flurry. They notched two points both coming from Ian Ryan placed kicks.

Any tremor of anxiety that there might be a startling late burst was removed with Fermanagh's final point and the final whistle was about to be blown when Limerick grabbed a fisted goal from substitute Kieran O'Callaghan.

Some doubt about the legality of the score, O'Callaghan very close in to fist his goal, but it was irrelevant as the game end came with the kick out.

Fully merited victory for Fermanagh. It has been a busy few weeks, a game each weekend but clearly the sustained programme is not causing problems.

Long may it continue.