Fermanagh Premier manager Darren Higginbotham has vowed to go on the attack when the Super Cup kicks off on Monday. His side have been drawn against reigning champions Right to Dream, GPS Bayern from America and local rivals County Down, and despite the quality of the opposition Darren is planning to get on the front foot and utilise the strengths of his squad.

“We have plenty of pace and skill in the team and that is how we intend to play. I think it’s the only way we can play,” he said.

“If you go into these tournaments and you don’t attack teams then you can get caught out. We need to be smart, certainly in the first ten or 15 minutes of each game, to get our foothold and maybe be a bit more defensively minded, but there is going to be a time when we get to a stage when we are going to have to attack these teams.

“The best form of attack is defence and we are going to play to our strengths. I am very confident in our defensive players as well because they balance the squad out really well. I am very lucky that I have six or seven good defensive players and they give the attackers licence to go and be brave on the ball and try to create chances and try to score goals. We are going to attack teams, but we are going to attack them at the right time.”

Darren was the manager of the 2016 Super Cup team and while that experience has proved useful, he has structured his preparations slightly different this time around.

“It has been a different preparation in that we have been trying to get games against a lot of senior teams,” he explained.

“I wanted to see how the team reacted against teams who have a lot of the ball. In the Super Cup it tends to be the case that teams playing against Fermanagh have more possession and I wanted to see how the boys reacted to that. As the process has gone on the boys have become a lot more mature in the way they have played. They have realised that they can’t have the ball for 70 percent of the time and have ten shots at goal per game.

“The games against the likes of Enniskillen Rangers and the senior teams have proved when we don’t have the ball the players can be mature about it and it has left me more confident that when we go up to the tournament we can do something.”

The squad perhaps has more big game experience in its ranks than in previous times, with the likes of Niall Owens regularly turning out for Northern Ireland. There are also a few younger members of the squad, and Darren believes that mix is vital.

“I think it is important to have a couple of players who are a year young. Firstly they have to be good enough, and the players we have in this squad are certainly good enough, and that has applied to the likes of Niall and Alex and Jake Irvine from last year who are bringing that experience through to this year.

“It will be invaluable for the younger boys to feed off that this year.”

The side has been preparing for the tournament since January, and with the kick off finally within touching distance, Darren admits the past few months have been all consuming.

“It does take over your life,” he acknowledged.

“It is a lot of football in 6 months because it takes up three, four or five days a week and it does take over your life, but when you take the job on that is what you sign up for. You have to give it your absolute best and if I was able to look at myself after this and say I was able to give everything I could to the job then I can say yes that was a successful tournament.

“It is thoroughly enjoyable and it has been an absolute pleasure to work with these boys. We have been going since the last week in January and it’s quite a long process so it will be nice to get up there, get the parade done, and get to the business end of the tournament.”