There was one moment in the first half that could have put an entirely different complexion on this preliminary round clash. Antrim hadn’t manage to register a score while at the other end Fermanagh were chipping over points at regular intervals.
Things were looking grim for the Saffrons but a long ball into the Fermanagh defence was expertly taken by Brian Neeson and the diminutive Antrim forward turned on knife edge before blasting a shot goal bound.
It looked to be destined for the corner of the net but Chris Snow expertly turned the ball behind for a 45. It was the only save the Ederney man had to make over the course of the 70 minutes but he was equal to the task.
“I wasn’t expecting it really. He (Brian Neeson) just turned and hit it and thankfully I got to it but other than that I did not have a lot to do. We had stamped our authority on the game at that stage, and I don’t think they had even scored. It was important I saved it but that is your job,” Fermanagh’s goalkeeper revealed after the game.
He also reflected on the clash with Antrim in the championship two years ago where Fermanagh had lost and been ripped apart by a rampant Antrim attack;
“Two years ago, they scored 2-18, but it is a different defence to play behind now. I think that what happened to us that day was a big turning point for us. It was not good and this certainly was a lot better than two years ago.”
Snow was quick to point out however that there is massive room for improvement and the St Joseph’s man knows that if Fermanagh are to beat Donegal there will need to be a huge raising of the bar;
“We know that performance will not be good enough, it would not get us over the line. It would be just no where good enough,” he stated before adding that there will be no sense of being overawed by facing the 2012 All Ireland champions on their home patch;
“This team can go into any game believing that it can do a job. We will believe that the next day too and if we did not believe that, there would be no point in going to Ballybofey.”
Returning to the victory over Antrim, Snow conceded that Sean Quigley’s goal put a gloss on proceedings;
“It put a gloss on things surely. They had brought it back to three points and we managed to win a turnover there when they had a chance to cut it to two points, but those wee things went for us today, but overall that second half performance was not good enough.”
Since the start of the league Fermanagh have kept five clean sheets from eight games and while Snow knows that the defensive system Fermanagh are adopting is reaping its reward he says that the hard work starts a lot further up the pitch than many people might think;
“It is not just the defensive system, this comes right from Tomás Corrigan and Sean Quigley and the pressure they are putting on high up the pitch is affecting the quality of ball that opposing teams would like to have. The whole country is putting that system in place, though. We knew we had to do it to move on. You look at the likes of Dublin and Kerry and they have done it. We just had to follow suit.”
Snow and his Fermanagh team-mates know that they have to improve if they are going to live with the heavyweights of Ulster football but the Erne net minder is adamant that the whole squad has bought into Pete McGrath’s dream of an Anglo Celt;
“Pete has come and said it. Our goal is to win an Ulster championship and the 30 players inside in our dressing room believe that too. There is no point being on our panel if you don’t believe that."