THERE were comfortable wins for both Fermanagh and Longford in the weekend's quarter finals of the All Ireland B Championship.

Four unanswered points by Steven King in the last seven minutes of the first half laid the foundation for Fermanagh's convincing five point win over Sligo in a mediocre encounter final at Markieviez Park on Saturday. Fermanagh won out 0-11 to 0-6.

Dessie Sloyane opened the scoring with the Sligo point after two minutes of the first half and the same player added a second before Liam McBarron struck Fermanagh's opening point in the ninth minute. Four well struck points by King, all from 14 metre frees, between the 25th and 31st minutes, put Fermanagh six points to three in front at half time.

Points by Philip Neary reduced the deficit to the minimum entering the final quarter, but in a carbon copy of their first half finish, Fermanagh took control between the 20th and 30th minutes, scoring five points without reply.

Longford made a winning start to their season when they had seven points to spare over Wexford (0-13 to 0-6) in a rather onesided tie played at a wet and windy Pearse Park on Saturday.

It was virtually all over as a contest at the break, at which stage the home side had built up a commanding 0-10 to 0-1 lead with their scores coming from Ciaran Fox, Padraig Davis, Brendan Donoghue and Dessie Barry.

While Wexford came a lot more into the game in the second half, in restricting Longford to just three more points, they never looked like snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Their slim hopes were eventually dashed six minutes from the finish when a Declan Davitt penalty was saved by home goalkeeper Gordon Hourican.