Fermanagh manager Rory Gallagher says that his squad will be relishing the next week and half as they get ready to face Monaghan in the Ulster Championship semi-final in Omagh.
Fermanagh deservedly booked their place in the last four with a five point victory over Armagh on Saturday night and Gallagher then travelled to Omagh on Sunday to watch Malachy O’Rourke’s Farneymen defeat Tyrone.
“We are really looking forward to the next ten days or so and getting ourselves right and familiarising ourselves with Monaghan. 
“It’s a real test but that is what football is all about and you sign up for it in November, December and January to try and be in periods like we are now in the Ulster Championship,” said Gallagher.
Monaghan impressed Gallagher not only on Sunday but throughout the league as well and he is full of praise for the job that Malachy O’Rourke has done in re-invigorating his side. 
“I have been impressed with them all year to be honest. 
“They would have been disappointed about how last year and probably the previous year worked out for them but Malachy has re-energised them and has built a really competitive squad and during the league this year he gave new players a lot of time. They are a really good side but as I say, we are looking forward to it.”
Gallagher had said since taking the Fermanagh job that the goal was to win Ulster Championship games and he delivered that on Sunday as Fermanagh claimed their first win in the provincial championship over a team other than Antrim since beating Cavan in 2010.
“I’m delighted for these players. 
“There was one thing sticking out at the start of the year, they hadn’t beaten a team ranked above them, as such. There is a lot of these players who have been playing a long time and hadn’t an Ulster Championship victory except against Antrim. They would feel that they haven’t been successful in the Ulster Championship and that is one thing we said at the start of the year, that we need to beat Armagh in the Ulster Championship and whatever happens after that we move on,” he stated.
And one of the things that delighted Gallagher the most on Saturday evening was the controlled display that they produced.
“That’s probably one of the most pleasing things along with the huge effort, the control we had with the ball. I thought we were smarter that we have been at any stage during the year, we didn’t hand the initiative to Armagh by being silly with the ball. But, it’s a fine line, you have to control the ball but you have to try and probe as well.”
The home side had gone in two points ahead at the break despite playing against the breeze and they were firmly in the driving seat two minutes into the second half when Armagh were reduced to 14 men after Niall Grimley’s red card.
“When you lose a man in a game like this it is huge and it allowed us to get extra cover, particularly when you have a wee bit of a lead,” said Gallagher. 
“I thought we played really well for a couple of minutes after the sending off but then we were very casual and I would be very disappointed with a couple of the mistakes made that led to frees,” he added.
This was the sides third meeting this season after they had drawn in an earlier league game in Brewster Park before Armagh came out on top in the league final in Croke Park.
Gallagher feels though that hie side learnt the lessons from those games.
“We felt there was huge scope for learning from the league final. 
“It wasn’t the be all and end all for us, we went out and had a free hit at it and if we won we won but I thought Armagh played really well. We learnt huge lessons though from it, as we did the last day in Brewster Park when we rode our luck with a couple of high balls,” he explained.
And moving forward Gallagher is hopeful that he will have a full squad available as they prepare for the challenge that Monaghan will provide with no injuries reported following Saturday evening’s game.
“We are relatively unscathed coming out of it. 
“Barry Mulrone went into it as a doubt but we would hope he is alright. Eoin got through the full game and we had Tomás who would have been available to come on but when we were in a reasonably good position we held him off. 
Hopefully he will be back flying for the next day,” he said.