Enniskillen captain Ryan Cathcart’s delight at lifting Ulster Towns’ Cup

The hooker led the side that beat Ballyclare 19-0 in Easter Monday’s Kingspan Stadium final and bring the cup back to Fermanagh for the first time since 1937.

“It means everything to be honest, it is unbelievable, you don’t really plan for days like this the boys keep putting the effort in and everything just clicks a few times and you end up here,” said Cathcart.

“We had the belief it was possible we could do it but until the job it was done it hasn’t really hit me yet.

Enniskillen lost back to back finals in 2016 and 2017 as well as their previous two other appearances since 1937.

“I suppose they was a sense of things missing the last times and reasons why it didn’t happen this time I think there was a feeling that we did everything we absolutely we could and we prepared in every way possible and that definitely gave us a wee bit of belief.”

“It definitely helped that we had been here a couple of times before always being the bridesmaid it can get into your psyche a wee bit just because you have fell at the last hurdle so many times it doesn’t mean it is going to happen right up to the end we had to put everything into it to get the result.”

Cathcart was delighted how Enniskillen executed their game plan.

“Possibly because we don’t have a massive player depth, Cup rugby suits us well. We focus on one game at a time, we can get everyone fit for it, the league is a long hog and they have become very good at the league but the cup structure has always suited us better.”

“We have been preparing for one game for six weeks and it means we can throw so much into the 80 minutes and we did that, it can go the other way you could be emotionally drained coming into a day like this after looking forward to it for so long but luckily it went the right for us and everybody just emptied everything into it.”

“Ballyclare were the favourites and rightly so but we knew if the attitude was right they were there for the taking.”

Enniskillen scored three tries while their defence gave nothing away.

“It was really pleasing but until you actually see the score board it really doesn’t feel like it.

“It felt like we just had to fight for everything and we know they had a really dangerous back line and we stopped them from operating as well as they would have liked by putting a lot of pressure on defensively.

“Right up to the end we were attacking hard but there was always a fear that they could easily go away and get a try because we know how dangerous they were,” added Cathcart.

Enniskillen had the first chance to put points on the board after they forced a penalty in midfield but scrum half Nicky Finlay’s kick was wide off the target.

Stevie Welsh’s side thought they’d broke the deadlock on 16 minutes when prop Gavin Warrington rumbled over from close range but was prevented from grounding the ball.

However from the resulting five metre scrum the Enniskillen forwards drove again and this time Warrington was able to dot down but Finlay failed to convert.

Enniskillen had centre James Ferguson yellow carded for deliberately slowing the ball down on 39 minutes that allowed Ballyclare to have their first sustained period of attacking pressure but they failed to make their numerical advantage count.

Having missed a couple of further chances to increase their lead, the Skins finally went 12-0 ahead when No8 Richard Lee barged under the posts, Finlay slotting over the simple conversion and then missing a penalty soon after.

Ballyclare had flanker Aaron Fairplay yellow carded on 78 minutes for pulling a strong Enniskillen maul down.

At the third scrum attempt, the Skins got their reward and closed the game off when Warrington crashed over for his second try of the game and Finlay landed the conversion with the final kick of the game.