'We are still in the experimental stage' - Douglas

The County Fermanagh Super Cup Premier team claimed the runners-up spot at the Gary Bownes Memorial Cup tournament on Saturday.

The U16 squad defeated Lisnaskea Rovers in their first match to set up a title decider against County Armagh, but they lost out to the Orchard County for the second time in successive weeks, going down 2-0 to two second-half goals.

Fermanagh fired five past Rovers in the opener before the Armagh defeat, but despite the contrasting scorelines, manager Keith Douglas felt they played some of their best football in the loss to their county opponents.

“Both performances were chalk and cheese,” he said.

“In the game that they won, they were poor in it, and in the second game, they were a bit better. In the first game, we took our chances and that was pleasing.

"Lisnaskea are going to the Foyle Cup and they gave us the fill of it. I suppose the scoreline flattered us to be honest. The game against Armagh was more like what we would be expecting. The effort and the quality of our play was better.”

Fermanagh made a great start to the tournament with an early headed goal from Eoghan McArdle putting them one up against Lisnaskea, and a Jay Largo-Ellis free kick before half-time doubled their advantage.

Early in the second half Oscar Timlin pounced on a loose ball after a corner to blast in the third from eight yards out, and two Callum St. Ledger strikes completed a convincing win for Fermanagh.

The goals dried up in the second game however with Armagh scoring twice in the second half to win the tournament.

“We were limited in the amount of chances we created, but we are trying things out,” said Douglas.

“We played a different team shape for the Armagh game. We are still in the experimental stage, but we are definitely making progress.

"There are a few things we need the lads to work on. They need to communicate better, and we started to see a wee bit of that starting to come out with the boys at the weekend.

"Some of the lads are still a wee bit off the pace of what it is going to take to get up the road, but we are waiting for it all to click.”