Six minutes on the clock and Fermanagh are somehow still hanging on.
They’ve been up against it for the best part of half an hour at this stage. The elements are blowing in their faces, Mayo are coming in droves and there looks to be no end to it.
The crowd are baying for blood. The referee, Fermanagh players, anyone will do. They’re jumping manically, waving their fists, eyes bulging and nostrils flaring and they’re screaming at their county men, demanding them to get over the line.
Another ball goes in, Che Cullen and Aidan O’Shea set off after it. O’Shea goes down.
Never, you think. Joe McQuillan didn’t give Cillian O’Connor a penalty just moments earlier when it looked for all the world that Marty O’Brien had bundled him over. But the referee blows his whistle and continues running towards the box.
No-one’s sure if he’s going to punish O’Shea for simulation or punish Fermanagh for a foul.
There’s silence all around MacHale Park. All eyes on the ref. 1-12 to 1-11 to the Erne County and McQuillan’s decision about to be crucial.
The official bends his run slightly as he draws closer and, eventually, he stretches his arms to either side and signals a penalty. O’Connor puts it away. The rest is history.
“I thought it was, in my opinion, a very harsh penalty,” Fermanagh goalscorer Sean Quigley spoke with SportsJOE after the game. “Being honest, they probably could’ve had a penalty a couple of minutes before that. I think Joe [McQuillan] was kind of covering himself by giving that penalty.
“We knew we were going to be in for a massive onslaught when Mayo came out because we didn’t let them play in the first half and obviously with that strong wind and the type of players they have, they were going to punish us.
“We played well, we were up against it in the second half because of the wind, and a very big call from Joe McQuillan went against us. I didn’t have a clear view of the penalty but it looked very harsh. For a big man like Aidan O’Shea to go down like that…
“That’s football. That’s life. Unfortunately we’re out of the championship.
“Mayo are still there. We gave them a right good rattle but giving Mayo a rattle and not winning is not good enough.”
It’s hard not to feel for Fermanagh.
Your season shouldn’t be determined on such decisions and you shouldn’t have to accept it with ‘that’s life’.
You could definitely still argue that Mayo would’ve made back the one-point deficit anyway but the green flag gifted by the Cavan whistler took the tie out of the melting pot and ended it prematurely.
“A penalty is awarded which is not a penalty. It’s a dive,” Fermanagh manager Pete McGrath didn’t mince his words afterwards when he spoke with Newstalk.
“The way the referee was doing the game, there were times when I thought our players were fouled and there were times we were fouling them, but he wasn’t giving it unless it was stonewall. This is a game-defining decision. He gives it. They score it and that was the key moment in the game.
“They had the momentum, they had the breeze, they had the crowd and the experience and we have a mountain to climb.”
The Erne County didn’t help themselves either.
They managed just two scores in 35 second half minutes. They didn’t get their hands on the ball, give themselves more of a buffer and give their defenders any kind of a respite.
Sean Quigley was tearing it up in the first period but he hardly got a sniff of a ball after the break. No-one hit it in.
“It’s easy to say that but that was a very tough wind,” he sympathised with the rest of his team. “Mayo are very strong in the middle of the field, very physical players.
“It’s easy to say we should’ve got more ball in but our half back line and midfield were completely out on their feet. They gave everything they could there.”
But the full forward isn’t looking for a pat on the back and, after a successful run to the All-Ireland quarter-final last season, glorious failures are not what Fermanagh are after. They’re no use to anyone.
“At the end of the day, there’s no point pushing these teams, there’s no point pushing them,” Quigley told us. “Because you can push them so far and, if they still beat you… like, really and truly, we might as well have gotten beat by a hundred points out there. We still got beat. We’re still out of the championship.”
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