Ulster Senior Championship

quarter-final

Fermanagh v Down

Sunday, Brewster Park, 1.30pm

FERMANAGH have had more than their fair share of rotten luck since the intercounty season revved back into gear but their Ulster Championship quarter-final opponents Down have had the opposite experience with things falling neatly in their favour.

Ryan McMenamin’s team requested a postponement of their penultimate league clash against Clare after an outbreak of Covid-19 in the camp, but a dismissive ‘no’ from the big wigs at Croke Park paved the way for their relegation from Division Two as they lost out in Ennis despite a spirited performance in the circumstances.

Down, by contrast, cruised past Fermanagh on the way as they achieved automatic promotion from Division Three when Longford decided not to field against Cork.

That gave Paddy Tally the opportunity to field an experimental line-up in their final group stage clash against Louth, but it must be said that they already did a lot of the dirty work in the early rounds of the league.

Perhaps, in terms of the psychology hasn’t changed much as far as Fermanagh are concerned; when the finance for Games Development and coaching grants were tallied from 2007 to 2018, Fermanagh received the least of all 32 counties, which doesn’t exactly suggest that they’re taken particularly seriously by Croke Park.

It is eminently possible to park the league as well– just ask Cavan, who were also dumped out of Division Two yet produced a totally unexpected victory over Monaghan at Clones on Saturday – and Fermanagh were always going to be underdogs for this match even if they had managed to pull off a great escape and stay up.

Luck only gets a team so far and it’s fair to say that Down probably earned it after showing considerable grit and determination back in the spring.

They came from behind to get a draw with Tipperary and did it the hard way as they secured a comeback victory over Longford.

Most impressive of all was the manner of their win over their promotion rivals Derry. With ten minutes remaining, and at a numerical disadvantage after Mark Poland was black-carded, they hit four of the five last points to claim a 0-14 to 0-12 victory.

They have a fairly settled team at the present as well. Defender Brendan McArdle put a frustrating 2019 behind him with some very solid performances. Gerard Collins – another defender –fell out of favour during the Eamon Burns years but is back and going well, and there are some big names like Caolan Mooney, Donal O’Hare and Kevin McKernan further up the park.

That’s without mentioning emerging talent including Johnny Flynn, Daniel Guinness, Corry Quinn, Liam Kerr and Shane Anett, and if they reach the pitch of championship battle then it could be a long afternoon for Ryan McMenamin’s team. On the flipside, losing Darren O’Hagan and Connaire Harrison is a blow, but they do have decent strength-in-depth at the moment.

While you could almost pick the Fermanagh team yourself in recent years – Donnelly, Jones, Quigley and co – there has been an influx of some younger faces this year which should really freshen things up.

Hogan Cup winners Sean McNally (goalkeeper), Josh Largo-Elis and Luke Flanagan (both defenders) made their league debuts against Clare and were also rewarded with starting berths in their final match against Laois.

All three players have made a positive impact, while 21-year-old defender Johnny Cassidy earned rave reviews from his manager in a pre-match online press conference late last week.

There’s no Quigley brother on the panel this year – Seamus returned to Erne County colours in 2018 and finished as the team’s top scorer but hasn’t been back, while Sean has opted to take time out.

The good form of Tomas Corrigan has gone a long way to compensate for Sean Quigley’s loss, but there are a number of other players unavailable including Cullen brothers Lee and Che, as well as Shane McGullion who got injured earlier in the season.

Part of the problem for Fermanagh is that, in contrast to Down, they haven’t been able to dig out victories in close games.

Their only match of the year where they were a distinct second best was against Armagh, yet they were still relegated, and they had a short championship campaign last year as they were defeated by Monaghan and Donegal.

With that in mind, their confidence is probably low compared to Down’s, and it’d take a serious performance to get the win this weekend.

It could be closer than anticipated though, particularly if weather conditions come into play, and if they frustrate Down early on then who knows what could happen. The smart money is on Paddy Tally’s men, but don’t rule out a shock.