SOUTH DOWN.........................6-18

FERMANAGH............................0-8

Division 4 table toppers, Fermanagh had a rare bad day at the office at Ballela on Sunday afternoon, losing by a 28-point margin to South Down and, in the process, seriously denting their chances of a place in the divisional final.

However, there was one heroic tale in their defeat, the decision by full-forward, Ollie McShea to play for the 70-plus minutes, just hours after the death of his father, Jim.

Fermanagh manager, Tom Walsh told the 'Herald' that the decision was left entirely up to the player himself: "In fact, he played well enough, as well as anyone. It was just one of those days when nothing went right for us, so it's back to the drawing-board for a rethink. I was very disappointed, and so were the players, but they got an unbelievable start, three goals in the first 6-8 minutes and it's very hard to come back from that".

There were a number of features from this encounter, some of a pre-match nature. Fermanagh's midfielder, Declan McGarry fell vitim to flu, Barry Smyth felt well enough to play despite a calf injury, but had to come off, corner-back, Matthew Teague sustained a broken finger in the opening half and, according to his manager, 'he was one of our best players when he had to come off' and, finally, the most controversial injury of all, a suspected broken wrist sustained by Colm Rice which Tom Walsh felt should have been accorded sharper punishment by the referee.

In any event, Fermanagh were soon on the receiving end, scoring-wise, with Down full-forward, Ciaran Sloan going on to bag 2-10, their other goals coming from Jennings, Maxwell and Kane. Bu halftime, Down had gone into a 4-12 to 0-3 lead, having been favoured by a strong gale that died before the second-half started.

It meant that when Down had Alan Higgins dismissed for a second yellow card 5 minutes into the second-half, it had little bearing on the outcome.

The other outcome of the game, Fermanagh still on top, with 6 points from 4 games and, with South Down and Monaghan in joint second spot on 4 points, means that Fermanagh's fate now hangs on the result of next Sunday's Leitrim v South Down and Cavan v Monaghan games.

Tom Walsh is only too well aware of the ifs and buts: "The top two teams play for the Division 4 trophy, so we're hoping that Leitrim take something from South Down, although I cannot see that happening, or Cavan taking something from Monaghan, otherwise we are out".

It was obvious that he would relish another tilt at South Down, and he had nothing but sympathy for goalkeeper, Cathal McGarry and those four first-half goals (he was replaced at halftime by regular goalkeeper, Peter McEvoy).

"He put his hand up when we were looking for a goalkeeper at the start of the League, and he had played very well in earlier matches. In fact, you couldn't fault him against Leitrim or Cavan, so we had to give him a chance. Things didn't go right for him on Sunday, but there again, they didn't go right for anybody.

"The scoreline certainly does not reflect the efforts that the boys put in. I can tell you, they were very, very disappointed afterwards. OK, they didn't perform to their full potential, between one thing and another. It was just a bad day at the office".

But, as indicated, Fermanagh could yet be in the league final. As Tom put it, 'we only need a sniff of a result next Sunday'.

"Hats off to Ollie and all the players. As I said to them afterwards in the dressing-room, we all have bad days, but we all have to get up the next morning, we still have to live and there'll be another day. We will bounce back. We did that last year after taking a hiding from Roscommon.

"I am only hoping we will get another chance to rectify the bad day we had. And, I only hope we don't have to wait till the Championship to do that".

Fermanagh - Cathal McGarry; Michael Beggan, Fergus Bannon, capt., Matthew Teague; Barry Smyth,

Mark Slevin, David Slevin; Karl Kehoe (0-1) and Brendan McGarry; Ryan Bogue (0-5), Jason McManus (0-1), Dermot Curran; John Duffy (0-1), Ollie McShea and Sean Corrigan. Subs -

Peter McEvoy for C. McGarry, Colm Rice for B. Smyth inj; Andrew Breslin for Rice, inj; Malachy Gunn for Teague, inj.