Erne Gaels surge to victory over lowly Lisnaskea

Donegal border boys, Erne Gaels surged to victory over lowly Lisnaskea in a good old fashioned score fest at Pairc na hEirne on Friday night

Erne Gaels 4-20

Lisnaskea  3-12

On paper, the Gaels have the most potent forward line in the county and it showed in the final score-line.

And they also have one of the finest midfielders in Brian Mullin who was simply superb and is clearly county standard.

But, Ballyshannon-based boss Maurice McLaughlin will be concerned at conceding 3-12, and two of those goals in the 5th and 17th minute came at a time when their full-backline was as wide open as Bundoran on a Twelfth Weekend.

Mullin gave the winners a strong platform in the first half, playing into the Corlea end, where you can almost kick the ball into Donegal.

The Gaels were well worth their 2-11 to 2-3 interval lead.

Their goals came from Martin Kilfedder from a quick Seamus Ryder free and Ryder then finished a flowing mood with a flashing left foot shot to the roof of the Skea net.

The first quarter was a bit hairier as Aidan Lynch and Sean Keenan capitalized on major indecision in the Gaels full-backline to tie matters at 2-2 to 0-8.

But the Gaels' surging runs through the centre yielded some fine points from Ryder, Luke Ryder, Gareth Deery, Tommy McCaffrey, Mullin and Paul Ward.

Mark McKenna and ex-county star Daniel Kille tried very hard to keep the Emmett’ in touch.

Bu this match was effectively sealed in an early second half blitz that saw the Gaels ram in two more goals from Jack McCann who started and finished a sweeping move.

And, the inevitable Seamus Ryder palmed home his second goal to leave the Gaels ahead by 4-13 to 2-4.

Although badly outgunned, Skea never yielded and Kille landed some fine points with Keenan grabbing a late goal.

Mark McKenna was also an influential figure for them in the middle of the field.

But this was a most comprehensive win for the Belleek who are in the SFL semi-final and have a big championship clash with Derrygonnelly Harps on August 27.

Erne Gaels scorers: S Ryder (2-42f), L Ryder (0-52f), J McCann (1-0), M Kilfedder (1-0), B Mullin (0-3), G Deery (0-2), T McCaffrey (0-2),  P Ward (0-2), R Cox (0-1), O Kelm (0-1)

Lisnaskea scorer: S Keenan (2-1), D Kille (0-64f), A Lynch (1-0), G McManus (0-2), K Curran (0-1), G McCabe (0-1), C McCabe (0-1)

Referee: E McDonagh (Ederney)