Fermanagh joint manager Seamus McCusker was honest in his appraisal of his side’s performance after he had watched Monaghan crash home five goals on their way to victory at Brewster Park in the opening fixture of the Nicky Rackard Cup. 
“We leaked goals and to be fairness their attackers were very good and they were more efficient as a forward unit than we were,” McCusker revealed.
Fermanagh lost the services of talisman Daniel Teague to a straight red card in the first quarter of the game and the Erne boss admitted it was a blow but stopped short of saying it was the decisive factor in the outcome of the game: “We didn’t get off to an ideal start losing Danny after ten minutes and it was a psychological blow to us there is no doubt, but having said that I don’t think it had a bearing on the game; Monaghan were the better side all over and deserved their victory.”
Fermanagh found the Monaghan tactics difficult to handle, especially when the Farney men had a numerical advantage and this was a point that was conceded by McCusker at the final whistle: “Their full forward line was very dangerous and took their chances while at the other end we were not getting the same chances because they were playing with a sweeper in front of our men. They handled having the extra man very well and sometimes teams find that very difficult.”
Despite the finals score however there were spells when Fermanagh played some very good hurling and the Fermanagh joint manager revealed that the mood in the dressing room at half time was certainly not one of despair: “Going in at half time we were saying to ourselves that we were in with a fair chance because we had rattled off five or six points and we were playing well but straight after half time they got a goal inside the first minute and all the hard work we had done to get it down to five points was just undone.”
That Monaghan goal all but decided the tie and Fermanagh will now face Donegal, who lost to Armagh, with the winners qualifying for the quarter-finals.
McCusker knows that this standard of hurling represents a step up from what his side has been used to and in Monaghan, Fermanagh had crossed hurls with one of the better teams from 3A: “It is a higher standard than what we have been playing. They were playing in the 3A final and they were smarting after their defeat to Roscommon. It shows the importance for us to get out of 3b because it means you will be playing a better standard.” Fermanagh of course lost out on automatic promotion to Division 3A despite winning 3B due to an anomaly in this year’s competition.
“I think maybe that league play off with the extra time took a little bit more out of us than we thought. But look, we are here now and we are still optimistic and we are still going out to win this competition,” McCusker concluded.