Fermanagh manager Pete McGrath is adamant that his side can go on secure their safety in Division Two over the final three games of the campaign.

Following last week’s defeat at the hands of Kildare, Fermanagh dropped to the bottom of the table with their only points coming in the opening night’s win over Down in Newry.

Since then there has been losses to Galway, Cork and Kildare but McGrath is confident that Fermanagh can turn things around with games against Clare, Meath and Derry to come.

“We have three matches left and we have two points but I am totally confident that we can finish this league with eight points.

“This game was always going to be very hard, as was last week’s against Cork but the three remaining matches in my view are certainly winnable and they have to be won. I have no doubt that we will win our last three matches,” he said.

Next up for Fermanagh is a game against high flying Clare at Brewster Park on Sunday week and McGrath is in no doubt about the importance of that contest, stating that they will be focusing all their efforts from now on the Banner.

“We have to get over the Kildare game and refocus and reset our attention towards the match in Brewster Park against Clare. It is so important that we stay in this division and that’s in our hands.

“We will now see the metal of this team in terms of how we are going to approach the next game, the game after that and then the last game. That will tell us a lot about where we really are and where we are going to be,” he commented.

Fermanagh’s usually tight defence has been very open throughout the league campaign to date and Kildare punished them to the maximum on Sunday as they plundered four goals. Galway and Cork also created a handful of goal scoring chances against Fermanagh as well as it is an area of concern for McGrath and his management team.

“It is a long time that we conceded four goals. The goals that we conceded against Kildare, with people coming through the middle, and the goals we could have conceded against Galway and Cork were similar type situations so it is worrying,” he said.

The Lilywhites racked up 3-06 in a 14 minute blitz that Fermanagh never recovered from and McGrath admits that sometimes you just have to admit that on the day the opposition were better.

“During that period in the first half when they scored 3-06, they pulverised us. Their power, pace, movement on the ball, their ability to get tackles in and be strong and forceful during that period and we were floundering. It was nobody’s fault that we were floundering, they just were out-gunning us, out-running us and you have got to take your hat off to them and say they are a very good powerful side. I saw them on the first day against Meath and I knew coming here was going to be potentially our hardest game in the league.”

While Kildare attacked with purpose and menace for long spells in the game, Fermanagh never carried that same threat, although again McGrath puts a lot of that down the performance of the home side.

“We would get so far with good football then we would be turned back when maybe we should have been trying to keep the move going. I thought Kildare defended well, they certainly defended their centre which was something we didn’t do in the first half. They got men back, they were big, they were imposing and they were making telling tackles.”

Despite the size of the defeat though, McGrath was encouraged by some aspects of his side’s play on the day.

“What I saw was the effort and energy and the endeavour and the honesty which we definitely didn’t see last week against Cork. We just didn’t start last week against Cork.

“We came here though against a very good team and we gave it our very best shot but we were beaten by a very good team. All you can do on days like that is battle and we did battle.

“A couple of the goals were preventable and we had a few wee things that didn’t go right but I couldn’t in any way be critical of the team,” stated McGrath.