Fermanagh achieved a perfect ten when they defeated Meath at the weekend as they racked up another win at Brewster Park.
You have to go all the way back to Antrim in the championship in 2014 to their last defeat at home and reflecting on another victory Ryan Jones paid tribute to a vibrant home support;
“Brewster Park is a really hard place for teams to come and win,” he said. “I think the home crowd is a massive factor for us, especially in the last 20 minutes when the game is hanging in the balance and they really help get us over the line,” he said.
Jones was introduced not long after half time and played a major role in securing the win and the Harps man revealed how important it was to get the two points on the board;
“It was a good win and a good response to the disappointment of the Derry game. There was a fair bit of hurt and a bit of soul-searching in the squad after that defeat and it was good to bounce back and get the win,” Jones explained before observing how the team had shown resolve to ensure that there was no repeat of what happened in Celtic Park against Derry;
“We could have saw Meath score three points in a row at the start of the second half, and looked at the conditions and started to make our excuses but we were not going to do that. We wanted to dig deep and make sure we got the win and I thought the reaction was excellent.”
Jones accepted that at times the side struggled to break down a dogged Meath defence but the Derrygonnelly forward was keen to stress that it was important that the team maintained their pattern of play despite the lack of penetration at times;
“It was important we just kept to the game plan and just kept playing. 
“We know what we do well and sometimes you can drift away from that in a game but I thought we stuck to the task and kept doing the things that we know work for us and we were able to run at them and while we didn’t get a lot of scores from play we were able to get frees and that was the winning of the game.”
Meath were reduced to 14 men in the first half and Jones believed this played a part in Fermanagh being able to turn the screw in the last quarter.
“I think in the last 15 minutes we had all the momentum and to be fair the extra man probably began to show but we had to be patient too as Meath were putting up a serious effort out there.”
The Harps clubman is nursing his way back to a full time role on the Fermanagh team with a groin injury causing him to miss pre season and Jones explained that the injury itself is not something that is going to go clear up just yet;
“To be honest I had not done any training before the Derry game.
“ I am back training now though and that half against Derry and the 30 minutes today should really help me and it is just a case of managing the injury from this point on.”
The win over Meath sets Fermanagh up nicely for the two week break in league action and there is an opportunity now for the squad to kick on and build on this positive result.
“I would hope that the win brings a real buzz around the squad and around training now. That was a very big win for us. 
“We can get down to some more hard work now and hopefully be better again for the Armagh game,” Jones said although he was keen to stress that it was going to be a case of one game at a time for the squad;
“I think you can set yourself long term goals as a team but you always have to keep the next game in mind so in that respect all focus turns to Armagh now and they are going to be very hungry for that game as they haven’t picked up any points so far,” he said before concluding;
“It will be a Saturday night under lights in the Athletic Grounds and there will be a big crowd there and they will be really up for it so we will have to meet all of that and make sure we improve again from what we produced against Meath.”