As I made my way through the streets of Armagh towards the Athletic Grounds I got chatting to a reporter from one of the national papers. His comments were similar to those echoing around the county this year; Fermanagh are simply missing too many players.

In last year’s Championship, as we headed for the gates in Castlebar, there was a sense of frustration but also a sense of pride after a somewhat unlucky defeat. I’ve stated before that moral victories count for nothing but that game certainly inspired a fair amount of hope and expectation. However, with so many retirements, injuries and players heading off travelling, this year it was back to square one in the rebuilding process.

Pete McGrath may take his time on deciding his future but he faced a lot of setbacks this year, especially as he clearly had so much faith and confidence in his team. He was evidently very disheartened after the Armagh game stating, “This year has been just horrible. You are relegated and lose two Championship matches, each by a margin of nine points, it doesn’t get much worse than that.”

I can empathise with how McGrath and the team are feeling now having been involved with Fermanagh for many difficult years when our performances were not up to scratch; and I can assure you, it certainly wasn’t for want of trying! But during those years, nothing seem to go right and it felt like the harder you trained the worse it got. When Armagh knocked us out of the Championship in 2010, it was almost a relief to be able to return to the club after a frustrating year with the county. After last Sunday, I expect some of the current players may be feeling that same sense of reprieve.

Call me naïve, but even with all the injuries and players missing, I still travelled to Armagh expecting a victory for Fermanagh. Armagh weren’t too hot against Down and I was at least expecting a good, close encounter with both teams in the last chance saloon. Alas, it was not to be and after the first 20 minutes, it was clear that Armagh were on a different level. In fact, only for some wayward shooting, they should have been more than two points ahead at half time such was their dominance with 17 shots at the posts – Fermanagh contributing to many of these with some very risky passing coming out of defence.

At five points to two up, Fermanagh were well in the game but three mistakes coming out of defence quickly turned the score in Armagh’s favour and once in front, they never looked like surrendering the lead. Armagh pushed up and forced Chris Snow to kick the ball long to a midfield area that was completely dominated by Armagh who secured six clean catches to one in the first half.

In the physical exchanges, Armagh set the tone early on with two big hits on Ryan McCluskey and the energetic, Paul McCusker; both coming on the back of passes that can only be described as ‘hospital passes’. So often Armagh were able to turn the ball over from hand passes that either weren’t correctly executed or were passed in close quarters to a static man. The final pass to Tomás Corrigan when he was through on goal, was at least a foot off being where it should have been which meant he had to check his run to retain possession and led to the space being closed in around him.

There is no question that the speed of the game has increased dramatically over the last few years. Players are encouraged to move the ball out of their hands as quickly as possible both from play and frees. It works fine when the team is on top and in control but when under the cosh and down in personnel as Fermanagh were on Sunday, it is better to slow the game down and get players to settle when under pressure. How often do you see a player going down injured after conceding a few scores? It’s all about momentum and Armagh maintained that throughout the game because Fermanagh looked to play every ball quick and short.

Too many times, quick free kicks were hit backwards and created absolutely nothing in terms of attacking play. Why not slow the game down and take the momentum away from Armagh?

At the beginning of the second half, just before the game got away from them, Fermanagh needed someone to take control and settle the game down.

It has been a disappointing year which I know is certainly not through lack of effort and endeavour but even Dublin couldn’t sustain losing up to 20 players over two years!

Fermanagh can compete with the best of them on their day but a full team is a must and everything needs to be done to ensure that the right players are available and ready and able to play.