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Flashback: Drawn 2008 Ulster SFC Final - Fermanagh v Armagh

By John Harrington

Fermanagh folk never enjoy being reminded of it, but they’re one of just two counties never to have won a senior inter-provincial title along with Wicklow in Leinster.

The Erne County came closest to breaking their duck when they drew with Armagh in the 2008 Ulster Final, and every year that has passed since has only heightened the sense that it was a glorious opportunity missed.

That Fermanagh side were competitive throughout the noughties, famously reaching the 2004 All-Ireland semi-final against the odds.

By the time 2008 swung around they were arguably an even better team than they had been in 2004 with the young guns of that memorable campaign now in their prime.

They also had one of the brightest young managers in Gaelic Football, Malachy O’Rourke, who made an instant impression on his players when he took charge in late 2007.

“Malachy was ultra-professional and very thorough,” recalls Shane McDermott who was a defensive lynchpin of that Fermanagh team.

“He brought a new focus to us all. We had been with Charlie (Mulgrew) and been to the heights with him in 2004.

“It's the same with every new manager who comes in, you get an initial boost when you start afresh and everyone gets a new impetus.

“He got that from everybody, and, as I say, he was supremely organised and had a great knowledge of the game. His attention to detail was very good.

“A couple of new faces came along with him as well and just brought a new freshness to the whole thing.”

Fermanagh had a successful League campaign in 2008 winning promotion from Division 3, but it was still regarded as a mild shock when they defeated Monaghan in the first round of the Ulster Championship because Monaghan were provincial finalists the previous year.

Captains Martin McGrath and Paul McGrane ahead of the 2008 Ulster SFC Final.

Captains Martin McGrath and Paul McGrane ahead of the 2008 Ulster SFC Final.

Fermanagh were even less fancied when playing Derry in the Ulster semi-final, but, once again, they upset the odds.

“Derry were Division 1 League champions that year and we had gotten to the Division 3 League Final where we were beaten by Wexford, so it was a tall order for us, but we're well familiar in Fermanagh with being pinned as the underdogs,” says McDermott.

“Malachy had managed up in Derry so knew his way around Derry football and we were very well prepared for that match.”

Ulster Final opponents Armagh were a familiar foe. Fermanagh had famously beaten them in the 2004 All-Ireland Quarter-Final, but Armagh then came out on top when the teams met again in the ’05 and ’06 Ulster Championships.

“We were very familiar with each other and we probably didn't come out on the better of all that. '04 was all we really won, but that Armagh team was an exceptional team.

“I've been watching some of their matches from that era recently and you'd forget just how good the likes Stevie McDonnell was.

“The guy could just turn and put it over the bar most times off either foot from any angle. They just had exceptional footballers.”

It looked like Armagh were going to sweep to a decisive victory in the 2008 Final when they went eight points ahead, but then Fermanagh summoned an incredible comeback.

Barry Owens, who had undergone heart surgery earlier in the year, was summoned from the bench to play at full-forward and gave his team a much needed attacking focal point.

Ryan McCluskey and Marty McGrath began to lord things in the middle third of the pitch, and when a booming long range point by McGrath was followed by a goal from Eamonn Maguire, Fermanagh suddenly had a strong breeze in their sails.

“The likes of Owens coming on was always a big boost,” says McDermott. “That was a key point in that game.

The parade before the 2008 Ulster SFC Final.

The parade before the 2008 Ulster SFC Final.

“He had scored a goal against Monaghan from the bench so when he came in you were thinking, 'here's Owens again, something could happen', because we had already seen what he was capable of.

“When you have someone like that to bring on you never know what might happen. He wouldn't have been renowned for his feet, but his presence on the field alone made a big difference.

“Then when Eamonn got that goal, that gave us real momentum as well.

“That's the way it can happen in football. You get a run on teams and everything suddenly seems to flow.

“Maybe Armagh thought they had the game in their pocket and would just keep on doing what they were doing, but we never gave up.

“We were all pushing forward, we were really going for it. But we kicked a savage amount of wides. It was very hard for us to get scores, that was a trait of both the drawn and replayed Ulster Finals that year.”

Fermanagh were utterly dominant in the final twenty minutes of the match but failed to make it count as much as they should have on the score-board. Two good goal-chances went abegging, and a ’45 came back off a post.

Armagh were so desperate that they brought Martin O’Rourke back on having earlier substituted him prematurely.

It looked like the Orchard County would hang on for the victory until Fermanagh substitute Shaun Doherty landed an injury-time equaliser.

He showed a lot of bottle to take it on, because minutes earlier he’d snatched badly at another chance so his confidence couldn’t have been sky-high.

“I was either behind him when he took the shot on or I played it to him,” recalls McDermott. “I was definitely in the vicinity when he kicked it.

Fermanagh and Armagh supporters in Clones.

Fermanagh and Armagh supporters in Clones.

“In fairness to him, it took a lot of balls to go for it again and he did it, fair play to him.”

With the remove of 12 years it’s easy to paint the picture that Fermanagh missed a glorious opportunity by not beating Armagh in that drawn Final, but that wasn’t the feeling in their dressing-room after the match.

“At the time though it didn't really feel like we had blown our opportunity.

“We had come from eight points down to drawn the game and that gave us belief more than anything else. We had created so many chances in the drawn game that we felt like we could create them again in the replay and this time we would really punish them.”

Fermanagh would create a lot of opportunities in the replay too, but, once again, they missed far too many of them and Armagh eventually overpowered them in the second-half.

That 2008 drawn Final would be as close as that talented generation of Fermanagh footballers would come to winning an elusive Ulster title, but when McDermott looks back on his career he does so with pride rather than regret.

“We were a very competitive team at the time and it's disappointing we never managed to win the Ulster title,” he says.

“I was lucky enough to be part of the team for all of those 10 years and the closest we ever came was that year in '08. We were there or there abouts.

“Ulster football was very strong in the noughties, though. Ulster teams were very dominant throughout Ireland with Tyrone and Armagh.

“It would have been nice to win an Ulster medal, but I still absolutely enjoyed the time I had playing for Fermanagh.

“You had to make a lot of sacrifices at the time, but they were well worth it. We had a lot of great days, you'd love to go back to them.”