Tomas Corrigan (0-9) gave an exhibition of shooting as Fermanagh beat Antrim by 1-12 to 0-9 at Enniskillen.

A crowd of 9,124 flocked to Brewster Park to take in the opening match of this year's Ulster championship and they were probably admiring the glorious weather more than the football during the first half as the visitors failed to raise any sort of challenge and fell into a 0-9 to 0-2 interval deficit.

Antrim failed to score from play during the opening period, with Brian Neeson strikes from placed balls their only successful strikes before the break.

By the time he opened the losers' account from a 23^rd-minute '45', Fermanagh already had six points on the board, four of them coming from Corrigan, while Declan McCusker and midfielder Aidan Breen also chipped in.

Sean Quigley added a free and Corrigan lofted over two stunning points from sideline kicks before Neeson's free brought a one-sided 35 minutes to a close, with a sense of inevitability hanging in the oven-warm air as the teams departed the pitch.

Twelve minutes of the second half were played before we saw another score - Antrim's first from play coming from Tomas McCann. Corrigan replied with a stunning point and another converted free before the visitors finally rallied with five successive points from Mark Sweeney, John Carron, McCann and substitutes Ryan Murray and Sean Burke to move within three with eight minutes left, 0-11 to 0-8.

It could have been even closer had not Neeson sent a goal effort into the side-netting.

A Corrigan free steadied Pete McGrath's men and Quigley slotted a sumptuous strike to the far corner of the net in the 69^th minute to settle the issue with the only goal of the game. McCann's injury-time score was too little, too late for Qualifier-bound Antrim.

Fermanagh - C Snow; M Jones, C Cullen, M O'Brien; D McCusker (0-1), J McMahon, B Mulrone; E Donnelly, A Breen (0-1); P McCusker, R Jones, R Lyons; R Corrigan, S Quigley (1-1, 0-1f), T Corrigan (0-9, 5f). Subs: C Flaherty for R Lyons, D Teague for R Corrigan, D Kelly for A Breen, P Cadden for P McCusker.

Antrim - C Kerr; K O'Boyle; R Johnston, N Delargy; P McBride, M Johnston, J Laverty; J Carron (0-1), M McCann; M Fitzpatrick, K Niblock, M Sweeney (0-1); B Neeson (0-2f), C Murray, T McCann (0-3, 1f). Subs: S McVeigh for C Murray, D McAleese for J Laverty, R Murray (0-1) for M Fitzpatrick, S Burke (0-1) for B Neeson.

Referee - S Hurson.

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