Hanna predicts F&W title race will go to the wire

TUMMERY Athletic boss Ryan Hanna believes this season’s Division One title race is going to go right down to the wire.

As the season nears the halfway point it’s Enniskillen Town United that leads the way on 37 points from 15 games with Enniskillen Rangers second with 30 points from 14 games completed.

Defending champions Tummery have completed 12 games and were the Dromore side to win their three games in hand would go level with Town.

NFC Kesh, Beragh Swifts and Dergview Reserves still remain very much in the mix and right now it’s hard to predict who will finish top of the pile

Town are probably slight favourites despite recent defeats to Rangers and Beragh and given they don’t have the distraction of the Junior Cup.

But Hanna insists it’s too hard to call at this point.

“You can never call it, God knows who’ll finish top come April or May.,” he said.

“It’s something that I had predicted, that some teams would be just as strong this season if not stronger.

“Dergview (Reserves) were never going to go away, Rangers with Mickey (Kerr) back at the helm, Town have shown their credentials, Beragh are strong and Kesh have been really good since Rocket (Ryan Campbell) has taken over.

“It’s going to go down to the wire and that keeps it good for the neutral.

“Town set the baseline early on both in terms of results and the way they were playing. They were scoring goals for fun and conceding very little.”

Those recent defeats for Town has allowed the rest of the expected challengers, including Tummery, to close the gap.

Hanna admits Athletic haven’t been firing on all cylinders thus far but all things considered is more than happy with his lot.

“We lost a number of players and given we are a team in transition, we are in a good position,” he continued.

“I’m really pleased. The ethos remains the same; we want to win everything we are in.

“When you lose four or five leaders and your trying to blood some younger players, I have to be happy. We’re a work in progress and we got some wins when didn’t perform particularly well. On the flip side of that we have played well and not got the desired result.

“We have made some mistakes in the first half of the season but hopefully as the season goes on we’ll make less of them. Hopefully we’ll get to know each other a bit better and play with a bit more style. We’ll be looking to push on.”