A delighted Pete McGrath was in ebullient mood after watching his side collect a hard fought win over Meath at Brewster Park.
“We could have played Dublin here today and we were not going to get beaten,” he said smiling, describing the grit and determination of his side as they hit the last five points of the game to secure the two points on offer.
“We needed to take the game by the throat in the last 15 minutes and thankfully we did that and the scores eventually came. There was a marvellous atmosphere here today and the crowd were enthralled and I hope they went home happy with the victory,” McGrath stated.
The Erne boss revealed that the team were keen to make a statement of their intent against Meath.
“I said to the players in the hotel before we came over here; this is division two and we are playing Meath today, and I said to them do you want to be playing the Meaths of this world, the Galways of this world, the Tyrones of this world or do you want to be back playing in division three. These are the choices that we have to make and if we were going to make a statement then today against Meath was the time to make it and I thought we made that statement emphatically today,” McGrath stated.
At one stage of the second half it looked like there may have been a repeat of the previous week’s encounter with Derry where a positive first half was not fully capitalised on;
“We probably had 60 to 65 percent of possession and perhaps did not make it count. Then Meath scored three points without reply and we were a point down but that is when I thought the quality really shone through, our character and energy and desire,” the Down man revealed before expanding on the responsibility shown by his players;
“Our hunger and desire were key. After the Derry game we were bitterly disappointed at our second half performance and we just said that the same thing was not going to happen today. 
“So when the call came for players to step up and take responsibility and get on the ball we had plenty of men wanting to do that.”
The two time All Ireland winning manager was pleased with a lot of individual performances as well as the collective effort shown by his team and he had a special word for his under 21 debutant;
“Paddy Reihill was one of our best players, but he was on a yellow and then he committed a foul that I thought perhaps he was lucky to get away with not getting a black card so we showed a bit of caution and replaced him with Paddy McGovern who is strong player,” McGrath explained before elaborating on further Fermanagh players who really caught the eye;
“In that middle third it was a battle field, it was a jungle and we had leaders there, Eoin Donnelly and when he came in Ryan Jones, Ciaran Flaherty too, Aidan Breen from wing half back and Barry Mulrone as well; they all played very well when it was needed.”
Turning his attention to what the win means for the league campaign as a whole McGrath commented: 
“For us it puts a different complexion on the league table. A loss and you are rooted to the bottom but now we are quite close to the top so we are going to enjoy it,” he said, before looking ahead to the next game against Armagh.
“You look at games and obviously every game there are two points at stake but in some games the two points can be a bigger leverage than two points further down the line and this next game has that look about it.  
“Armagh will see the game against us as a game they need to win to avoid being in serious trouble.”