ERNE Gaels captain Ryan Lyons hailed the resilience of his teammates after the Belleek men won the Fermanagh Senior Football Championship for the second successive season.
A blistering opening 20 minutes was key for Erne Gaels as they overpowered Derrygonnelly to get their hands on their fourth New York Cup, in jubilant scenes in Brewster Park on Saturday evening.
Lyons, who captained the Erne Gaels side in both of their championship wins, feels winning back-to-back titles shows the huge character and desire within the Belleek squad.
“This is huge. The first time ever to go back-to-back is massive,” Lyons told the ‘Herald.
“We weren’t at our best at any stage during the championship, but the first 20 minutes on Saturday night was probably the best we have played.
“Resilience has been absolutely massive in the set-up for the past two months or so which ultimately got us over the line.”
Erne Gaels mounted a late comeback in the initial final, to force the replay against Derrygonnelly.
The Belleek side then made a stronger start to the rematch in Brewster Park and Lyons recognises they needed to be on top of their game against the Harps.
“They’re [Derrygonnelly] a fantastic team with fantastic players. They’ve a lot of experience there and we talked about it at half-time, that they were going to come out and throw the kitchen sink at us,” he said.
“We knew they had to come at us and they did. We got on okay and the minute before Tommy came back on, they got the goal.
“That was a bit of a kick in the teeth, but we reacted well and we got a stranglehold and the resilience in the group, when the pressure came on, we backed it up pretty well.”
Erne Gaels were without their manager, Declan Bonner, who missed the game due to family commitments in the States.
Lyons said that the management team gave the Erne Gaels players “the best chance to perform” over the past two seasons.
“They have their values as a management team and they try to instill that into the players. They put a huge emphasis on doing the basics to a really, really top level,” said the Erne Gaels captain.
“As a group of players, all you want is to be given the best chance to perform and that’s what they’ve given to us.
“There has been times when we haven’t performed in a lot of games and ultimately, they have given us that platform which has resulted in back to back championship wins.”
Celebrations were still ongoing in Belleek on Monday, but Lyons says that they’ll soon be getting focused on the next task at hand – an Ulster Club Championship game against Cavan winners Kingscourt Stars.
“We probably didn’t do ourselves justice last year against a very good Scotstown team,” Lyons said.
“On Saturday, we went 1-05 without reply and we know we have that in the locker against any team.”