Fermanagh manager Pete McGrath is under no illusions, he knows that his team will have to show a vast improvement if they are to overcome Donegal in just over three weeks time in Ballybofey.
Fermanagh saw off Antrim on Sunday in the Ulster Championship opener at Brewster Park but it was a far from perfect performance from McGrath’s charges, particularly in the second half when they struggled to get going after reaching half time with a seven point advantage.
The important thing though was that they won the game and it gives McGrath and his side plenty to work on over the next few weeks.
“Every championship match is about winning, the result is so important and other thing of course is the performance and I think on Sunday to an extent it was a bit Jekyll and Hyde,” said McGrath. 
“We did play quite well in the first half and by and large we controlled the important elements in the game. We went in seven ahead and probably deep down we all thought the game was one and we just had to tick over in the second half. I think as a consequence of that our performance did slip quite dramatically and we put ourselves into a dangerous enough position when Antrim pulled it back to three points. We responded then with a bit of pressure and got the goal that made the game safe. When you look at it in it’s totality, it’s a six point win, at times playing well and a lot of the times not playing as well as we are capable of playing, so it is not a bad place to be providing we all, management and players alike, realise there has to be improvement in key aspects of our game going forward over the next couple of weeks.”
He does though accept that they cannot afford to let teams hit five points in a row against them.
“ You wouldn’t like to think though that you would go through that again where a team scores five unanswered scores. Generally if that happens, you lose the match and we have to look at why that happened,” said the former Down All Ireland winning manager.
McGrath feels though that to have a run in the championship you have to improve from one game to the next as the opposition gets tougher.
“The performance on Sunday will not suffice against Donegal. I think in championship generally though you have to improve from game to game, that’s what it’s all about because the teams you meet in the next round are possibly better prepared. We all know Donegal’s pedigree over this last six years so it’s a big challenge but we have met big challenges in the past and responded to those challenges and I think that has to be our target for June 12,” he added.
The Fermanagh manager is also very aware that Fermanagh won’t get away with the errors they made on Sunday when they take on Rory Gallagher’s outfit and he likens the step up to that they faced in moving up to Division Two in the league.
“We talked about going from Division Three in the league to Division Two and that mistakes made in Division Three would be punished in Division Two and the game would be faster and there would be more intensity. Something similar applies to the match against Donegal. Whatever mistakes we made on Sunday wasn’t sufficiently punished by Antrim but any sloppiness and any mistakes will be punished by Donegal. We have to ensure that our game is more clinical and efficient and we are looking at the things that weren’t good against Antrim and making a big effort to eradicate those. The whole performance has to step up quite considerably and it will, we are capable of it, to win against Donegal.”
While Donegal will provide a massive challenge for the Ernemen, McGrath believes that these are the type of games that the players have to relish.
“You have to relish it. People will say it is a tough game but all the quarter finals are tough matches and if you want to be a force and serious team in this competition then you have to look at these games in a very positive way. Yes it is a big challenge and it is a challenge that more or less speaks out to you and says that to win in Ballybofey you will have to play really well, individually and collectively. 
"That’s the challenge and that’s the challenge we will relish undertaking and I know that players will work very hard over the next couple of weeks,” he commented.