Marty O’Brien trips over Niall McNamee
Fermanagh 3-10
Offaly 2-13
Fermanagh pickpocketed a draw in their final NFL game of the season, a goal with the last action of the game at Brewster Park, earning the Erne side a scarcely deserved draw with visiting Offaly.
Fermanagh had produced an indifferent performance over the bulk of the seventy minutes and had only sporadically held the lead.
They trailed by a point at the break, the first of what were to be two excellent goals from Ryan Jones keeping the team in the hunt as Offaly with full forward Niall McNamee proving a very difficult customer, looked the more consistently enterprising side.
A second Jones power strike a few minutes after the changeover was to momentarily give the hope that a sluggish Fermanagh could shake off their lethargy and press on for a victory but the malaise which had afflicted the side continued.
So much so that with the contest entering the final five minutes, Offaly who had come into the game on the back of a depressing six straight defeats, were apparently going to end that dismal sequence.
The Midlanders had moved out four points in front but unhappily for them they were to find themselves reeled back in.
If Fermanagh were fortunate in one sense to pinch the last gasp draw, in another sense the home side were deserving enough of their late reward, for they showed commendable resolution over the increasingly hectic run in.
They didn’t throw in the towel and a point from Ryan Jones left it a goal difference and then at the death, a Jones free hoisted into the Offaly goalmouth was touched on, full forward Barry Owens certainly getting one of the crucial touches in a cluster of outstretched hands.
Not the most satisfying of days for Fermanagh but excuses can be put forward for the lacklustre effort overall.
The team had secured their divisional status and it was always going to be extremely difficult to have the motivation at a suitably high level. And there was to be the absence of quite a number of key personnel, Ryan McCluskey, Tomás Corrigan, Tommy McElroy, Richard O’Callaghan and John Woods among the absentees.
But team manager Pete McGrath would have wanted an appropriately snappy finish to the league regardless of the circumstances and he didn’t get the required performance.
So there will be disappointment there especially since there was another example of the side disappearing from view for a sizeable portion of the second half.
A day when there was again some enterprising football played, a day when a raft of fine scores were taken, but also a day when the distinctly moderate was too often in evidence.
As for Offaly, despite the fact that they had already been relegated they came into the game with a sharper sense of purpose. They would have been exceptionally keen not to end without at least collecting one win from seven.
They came within a whisker achieving a much needed victory and they were understandably deflated by being denied so late in the day.
It was a deflation matched by Fermanagh for despite avoiding defeat there was little euphoria in the home camp.
They had definitely got out of gaol last Sunday.
Mc Namee who was to finish the day with a splendid eight points personal tally, five of these coming from open play, had the opening score with Fermanagh then responding with two scores, first an Eddie Courtney placed kick and then a score from play by Ryan Jones.
The score however had been created by some persistent hunting down Paul McCusker and in these early minutes Fermanagh were looking comfortable enough.
But gradually it began to slip away from them. There was to be a well taken point from Barry Owens but Offaly were very much in the game, none more so than McNamee in the front line of the attack.
He was being supplied with accurate diagonal ball and he kept knocking over the scores, a few of them of the top order.
Not that Fermanagh were being totally outgunned, they also had their moments in attack and were denied a Courtney goal with their keeper Alan Mulhall pulling off a good stop .
Conal Jones hoofed over a point for Fermanagh before the faltering home side got a massive boost with their opening goal on thirty minutes.
Eoin Donnelly made progress down into the heart of the Offaly defence and then off loaded to the supporting Ryan Jones who duly ran on in before smashing home a thundering shot, a goal which levelled the sides.
But Offaly’s response was immediate a point each from Joe Maher and Pauric Sullivan inside sixty seconds before Jones landed a distance placed kick for Fermanagh to leave an interval scoreline of 0-9 to 1-5.
There was to be an explosive opening five minutes on the resumption, a prompt Offaly point and an equally prompt Fermanagh riposte, points from Ryan Jones and Declan McCusker, these followed by a well crafted second Fermanagh goal.
Again the energetic Ryan Jones involved and a swift one-two with corner forward Courtney had him swooping in for his second cracking goal of the afternoon.
A score which jumped Fermanagh three ahead and over the next three minutes three more goals could easily have popped up.
Offaly had two clear opportunities while Barry Owens saw his shot whizz past the upright.
It didn’t signal the onset of a fiery tussle, instead for the next ten minutes the game sagged badly with a lot of scrappy play from both sides, but over the final fifteen minutes the quality did improve.
And it was an increasingly confident Offaly who were edging matters.
They had a crucial equalising goal David Hanlon steering home a penalty kick and Niall Geraghty added a second and the game was now in real danger of swinging away from a listless Fermanagh. Offaly had the scent of a long overdue victory and when Maher slotted a free to put them four in front things were looking decidedly ominous for Fermanagh.
Back to three points with Conal Jones landing a Fermanagh score and the home side weren’t giving up without a struggle but again they slipped four adrift McNamee chipping a routine free from close in with just a couple of minutes left.
Still Fermanagh battled to salvage something from an out of sorts team display.
Two scores required to earn a draw and Ryan Jones sensibly took one of them from a straightforward free.
But it was getting desperately close to the final whistle and Offaly were now fully in defensive mode as they fought to hold out.
One last attack from Fermanagh, a shot fired in and goes wide but the new advantage rule comes into play and a free is awarded from distance.
Just a question of tossing the ball into the goalmouth jungle and hope for the best.
And on this occasion fortune favours Fermanagh, a vital touch or two and the ball ends up in the Offaly net.