National Football League Division One A/Mayo 0-19 Fermanagh 1-13: Mayo had an eight-point lead pared back to a dangerous two after two minutes of injury-time brought a sigh of relief to Mickey Moran's men who remain unbeaten in Division One A of the National Football League.
Near perfect conditions at McHale Park, Castlebar, helped both sides to produce a game of high quality, 17 of Mayo's scores coming from play as Fermanagh played the role of onlookers for the opening 20 minutes.
However, they were willing participants in the second period, clawing their way back into the game having trailed by seven points at half-time, 0-13 to 0-6.
The catalyst for the Fermanagh fightback came within a minute of the restart when Eamon McGuire got a touch to Mark Little's centre to score the only goal of the match.
Mayo showed their own battling qualities, Ger Brady easing the pressure with a fine score and Mayo maintaining a five-point cushion until five minutes from the end when Fermanagh found a second wind.
The impetus for a final throw of the dice came from Shane McDermott who was moved from defence to midfield and it was his score, five minutes from time, which reduced the margin to two points, Hugh Bradley and Eamon Maguire having scored back-to-back points as Mayo began to wilt under increasing Fermanagh pressure.
However, Ger Brady once again stepped into the breach with a superb score and although McDermott nailed yet another to cut the lead back to two again, Peadar Gardiner had the final say for Mayo, Jonathan McGurn's injury-time score coming far too late to inspire a further Fermanagh challenge.
However, Mayo will be glad to have this one behind them but will look back on an impressive first half when they put eight points together without reply.
Conor Mortimer (two frees and one from play), Brady, newcomer Alan Costello, who also hit two from play, Billie Joe Padden, and Gardiner hit a rich vein of scoring form as Fermanagh insisted on giving away possession but were also out of it at midfield where Ronan McGarrity and James Gill held sway.
A neck injury to St Gerald's student Enda Lavelle forced the abandonment of the Connacht Colleges A football final between St Gerald's and St Mary's at Ballyhaunis on Saturday.
Lavelle went down with what appeared to be a serious neck injury five minutes from the end of a game played in testing conditions. He was detained in hospital overnight but was released yesterday. Connacht Council secretary John Prenty said the match would be replayed at a date and venue to be fixed.
MAYO: J Healy; D Geraghty, L O'Malley, K Higgins; P Kelly (0-2), J Nallen, P Gardiner (0-1); J Gill (0-1), R McGarrity; BJ Padden (0-2), G Brady (0-4), A Costello (0-3), C Mortimer (0-5, free, '45), A O'Malley, A Dillon. Subs: D Heaney for Geraghty (41mins), K O'Neill (0-1) for A O'Malley (50 mins), P Casey for Costello (55 mins), B Ruane for Nallen (69 mins).
FERMANAGH: C Breen; N Bogue, B Owens, S Goan; R Johnston, S McDermott (0-2), P Sherry; M Murphy, J Sherry (0-1); D Kelly (0-1), M Little, T Brewster (0-3), E McGuire (1-2), J McGurn (0-3), R Keenan. Subs: L McBarron (0-1) for Murphy (half-time), H Brady (0-1) for J Sherry (46 mins), S Doherty for Little (58 mins), C Bradley for Kelly (60 mins).
Referee: S McCormack (Meath).
