National Football League Division Three
Fermanagh v Louth~
Sunday, Brewster Park, 3,30pm

By Niall Gartland

FERMANAGH stalwart Ryan Jones took a sabbatical in 2021, but he’s back in county colours and loving the challenge of playing regular games in what’s been a fruitful league campaign for the Ernesiders.

It’s all going swimmingly for the Erne County following back-to-back wins over Longford and Laois, and if they do the business against Louth this Sunday, they’ll be well and truly in the promotion mix ahead of the final rounds in Division Three.

Jones played his part in their impressive 3-15 to 3-9 victory over Laois, and it’s fair to say the batteries are recharged after taking a break last year.

“I’d been playing county football since 2010 and decided to take a year out for a few reasons, including opening my own business.

“I’m delighted to be back involved this year, I’m really enjoying it and feel like I’m playing good football. Put it this way, I’ve been definitely looking forward to playing matches every weekend as well, you can’t beat league football in that respect.”

A key player with Derrygonnelly, lining out for his county has helped him set aside their desperately disappointing defeat to Kilcoo in the Ulster final.

Jones was one of a few men who played to their potential on the day, and he admits it took a few weeks to come to terms with the nature of their loss.

“I’m not going to lie, it was very disappointing. We put so much into it and yet produced such a flat performance, so it was gut-wrenching.

“It did take a couple of weeks. It plays on your mind, even when I came back to the county it was initially at the back of my mind. But once you get involved with another team and start playing games you have to switch your focus.”

Kilcoo went on to win the All-Ireland, but Jones says that wasn’t much consolation for himself personally.

“Some people have said to me but I’m not sure that it helps that much. Sometimes you just have to put your hand up and commend all they did, their commitment levels and focus. That’s what the rest of us are striving for.

“They do a lot of things right on and off the pitch and they have to be commended for that.”

Back with Fermanagh, their total of 3-15 against Laois was their highest in seven years. They aren’t really renowned as a scoring force, but Jones says they’ve been creating plenty of chances right from the outset of this year’s league.

“Even going back to our first league game against Antrim, a game they deservedly won, we created three or four very good goal chances in the first half and didn’t take them.

“We looked at things and realised we weren’t putting the scores on the board but we were creating chances, so we had to improve our shot-to-score ration.

“In the first-half against Laois we were very efficient, I’m not sure we’d any wides at all. They came at us and that opened up space in their rearguard, naturally enough, and any time you score something like 3-15 is good going.”

This weekend’s opponents Louth are fourth in the table having won recent matches against Westmeath and Limerick. Fermanagh are third, so the outcome could have important repercussions in the fight for promotion.

“This is a massive game for us, Louth tore up the script with wins of Limerick and Westmeath, who were tipped as the two teams who were going to be dominant in the division.

“We haven’t really talked about promotion yet because everything is so finely edged, one week you’re looking up and the next you could be looking towards the relegation zone.”

READ MORE…Feature on Daniel Kille. Click here…