Fermanagh manager Pete McGrath says that this Saturday night’s game against Armagh in the Athletic Grounds is the type of challenge that teams want to be facing.

Armagh and Fermanagh lead the way in Division Three with both sides having secured maximum points from their opening three games and McGrath acknowledges that it is a crucial contest in terms of the push for promotion, but one that he is relishing.

“They have six points, we have six points so maybe those statistics speak for themselves,” he said. “It is going to be a critical game, and it is one we are looking forward to. It is the type of game you want to be challenging yourself to go into and really do well. Armagh will realise that we represent a challenge to them and we realise that they represent a challenge to us so it should be a very revealing game.” Kieran McGeeney’s Armagh side began the league as favourites to come out on top in Division Three and that remains the case after the opening three contests. Fermanagh though have aspirations of getting out of Division Three as well with McGrath targeting promotion at the start of the season. And the former Down All Ireland winning boss says that travelling to the Athletic Grounds will hold no fears for his side.

“I wouldn’t fear anyone, and that’s no disrespect to Armagh or anyone else,” he commented. “You must believe in your own team, they will believe in themselves, you respect the other team for what they are but there is no question of feeling in any way intimidated or going in as any kind of second class citizen, that’s not in our thinking at all.” Fermanagh’s got their league campaign off to the start they had aimed for with wins in their opening two games against Louth and Sligo. And last Sunday they got over a big challenge in the shape of Tipperary with Fermanagh over-coming a poor opening period to go on and clinch a four point win. McGrath admits that the slow start was possibly down to having focused too much on the improving Munster side in the lead up to the contest.

“We talked a lot about Tipperary this last number of weeks; I saw them playing against Armagh, they are a very big team and a very ambitious team, and quite possibly we talked a bit too much about them because in the first 10 or 15 minutes we were very tentative and uncertain. It was only when we started to impose ourselves and play our game that we really showed what we could do and maybe at half time we should have been going in ahead rather than level pegging. The second half was tit for tat but I always thought that we were maybe just a gear or two ahead of them and obviously our second goal, which was really well worked, came at the right moment as Tipperary didn’t have much time to recover from it.” As McGrath alluded to, the Premier County provided a big physical test for Fermanagh but he believes that it is one they dealt with well.

“The thing we emphasised during the week was that we had to be committed to getting to the ball first and if they get to the ball first, suffocate them and make it difficult for them to turn and I think we did that in exemplary fashion for most of the game,” he added.

The work Fermanagh put in on their fitness since the start of the season has stood them in good stead so far in 2015 and McGrath expected that it would tell as Sunday’s game drew to a close.

“I told the players at half time that we would finish the game stronger. I know physically that we are in very good shape and I suspected that going into the last 10 or 15 minutes our work-rate and our mobility would maybe tell a tale and I think it maybe did,” he said.

“They have worked very hard since early November. They are really committed and are determined to show what they are capable of doing, and of what this county can do. The character, the enthusiasm and the energy are coming through strongly in all the matches and it came through strongly in the last 10 or 15 minutes.” With the game in the melting pot with ten minutes to go Fermanagh swooped for what proved to be a decisive second goal which originated from a fine piece of fielding by Richard O’Callaghan in the middle and worked through Ruairi Corrigan, Paul McCusker and Sean Quigley before McCusker received a return pass from Quigley to palm to the net. O’Callaghan was a driving force in the latter stages of the game and earned praise from his manager.

“Richard’s fielding in the middle third was fantastic. They say it is a dying art but he had some top class, old fashioned high catches there that gave us critical possession and he was able then with his strength to absorb challenges and lay the ball off and that gave us the platform for going forward. There was much to admire and we kept another clean-sheet in terms of not conceding a goal. It was a very workmanlike display at times and at other times it was very fluent and they showed what they are capable of doing. I suppose the four point victory didn’t flatter us in the end.”