“No-one will begrudge us this,” exclaimed St Pat’s captain Fergal O’Reilly after holding aloft the Fermanagh Senior Championship cup for this time in his club’s 37 year history.

Hence it was an historic day at Brewster Park as St Pat’s won their first ever title by the narrowest of margins, defeating Derrygonnelly in an entertaining tussle that was right in the balance until the final minutes of six minutes of injury time.

Indeed, St Pat’s were deserving winners and should have had the game dead and buried in a first half in which they dominated for long periods, missed an early penalty and kicked 10 wide.

Still, they led by 0-07 to 0-03 at the break and increased that advantage to six within five minutes of the restart only for Derrygonnelly to hit five points without reply to leave only one between the teams going into the final 10 minutes.

However, it was St Pat’s that found the resolve to edge home with points from substitutes Paul McCaffrey and Michael McGrade seeing them across the line depsite a Paul Ward point for Derrygonnelly ensuring a nervous final six minutes of injury time for St Pat’s.

It could have all been so different had St Pat’s taken their chances in the first half as Gary Maguire and Cadden gave them an early lead but Cadden then missed a penalty and St Pat’s hit a series of wide as they struggled to hammer home their advantage.

However, Michael McGrade pointed from play to give St Pat’s a two point lead in injury time and while Jones made it a one point game deep in stoppage time, Cassidy and Johnny McGurn missed long range attempts to tie the game.

The final whistle was a signal for delirious scenes of celebration as St Pat’s and their fans savoured an historic success, and deservedly so.

St. Pat’s: Patrick Quaile, Martin Collins, Ronan McCaffrey, Brendan O’Reilly, Pat Grue, Joseph McGovern, Colm O’Reilly, Shane McDermott, Paul Cosgrove, Patrick Cadden (0-03), Eamonn McDermott, Gary Maguire (0-02), Jason Cadden (0-01), Eamonn Maguire (0-02) abd Fergal O’Reilly . Subs: Paul McCaffrey (0-01) for Cosgrove, Micahel McGrade (0-01) for J. Cadden

Derrygonnelly: Dermot Feely, Dermot Carroll, Michael Jones, Eamonn McHugh, Aidan Gallagher, Stephen Burns, Neil Gallagher, Martin Greene, Ryan Jones (0-02), Daniel Ward, Francis McKenna, Declan Cassidy, Kevin McGrath, Kevin Cassidy (0-06), Jonny McGurn. Subs: Paul Green for A. Gallagher, Paul Ward (0-02) for N. Gallagher.