Fermanagh manager Pete McGrath has said that he has been encouraged by the reaction of the players at training following the defeat to Donegal in the Ulster Championship.
The Ernemen have a chance to prolong their championship campaign this Saturday when they take on Wexford at Innovate Wexford Park in the All Ireland Qualifiers and McGrath states that he has seen a determination in his squad to get back to winning ways and try and put a run of wins together again this summer.
“The response of the players in the aftermath of the Donegal game in training last week was very positive, everyone is fully focussed to ensure that this campaign does not end on Saturday,” he said. 
“I would have been very encouraged, as I would have expected to be, by the attitude of the players. 
“We talked about the Donegal game, we talked about the things we did well in it and we will talk about the things that weren’t so good so come Saturday we will be ready to do battle and get the result we know we are capable of getting down there.
“At the end of the day a lot of effort has gone in since last November and of course the Ulster Championship was and still has to remain a big, big priority for us. 
“But it is gone for this year and what you have to do is ensure that you get the maximum number of games out of this season to put you in a very, very solid place for next season. You want to be playing as much football in the summer as you possibly can and that’s our target,” he stated.
Wexford currently play in Division Four and although Fermanagh are two divisions above their opponents, McGrath believes that the home side will be very competitive on Saturday.
“Wexford put Down out of it last year in Wexford Park, they are always a competitive team and Kildare only beat them by a point in the Leinster Championship in Croke Park.
“I know that they played Armagh a couple of weeks ago in a challenge match so they were getting ready to play a northern team as they knew it would be either ourselves or Donegal. I’m sure they will be well prepared, they will be fiesty and up for the game as you would expect them to be. It is going to be a battle and we are going to have to be ready for that,” he said.
However, McGrath feels that if Fermanagh play to their potential then this is a game they should be winning.
“We are also going to demand high standards of ourselves and the game that we bring into Wexford on Saturday has to be our best game,” he commented.
 “We know what we are capable of doing and we know the progress that has been made over the last two seasons and we are determined that progress is not going to stall or receive a hammer blow in Wexford. I’m confident that if we play the way we are capable of playing, with the energy and the confidence that has been the hallmark of most of our games over the last two seasons, then I think we will certainly win the game. 
“The big thing is that we are determined to take the game to Wexford. We are the team that play in Division Two, we are the team that has made a lot of progress over the last couple of years and we have to put that all on the table on Saturday, and we have to do that right from the very start. We have to go there and impose our style of play on the game and we have to get Wexford on the backfoot and keep them there for as long as we can. That has to be the way we approach the game.”
McGrath accepts though that Fermanagh need to find greater consistency to their game by sustaining their good passages of play for longer periods.
“If you look at the Donegal game and the Antrim game, we played very well against Antrim in the first half and we played poorly enough in the second half. Against Donegal we had chunks of the game when we were the better team and the analysis of the game showed that we had more shots and more possession than Donegal. However, in terms of shot selection, decision making and sustaining a consistent input into the game, particularly those critical stages in the game, those are the things that we have to ensure are up to the mark on Saturday,” he added.
The manager also admits that he may make changes to the side that lost to Donegal for the Wexford game as he attempts to freshen things up.
“Management have looked carefully at what happened in Donegal and we are looking at potential options that might freshen it up and give it a new dynamic. Like every squad we are limited by numbers and what’s there, but there are still options that we can take and it is up to us that, if those options are there, to put them in place and get the best possible team on the field to get the job done.”