19 years ago Shane McDermott made his championship debut for Fermanagh, coming off the bench in 1999 to help seal a victory over Monaghan in the preliminary round of the Ulster Championship. He remained a mainstay in the team for a decade, famously captaining the Erne men when they reached the All Ireland semi final in 2004. 
He was also there in 2008 when current Monaghan manager, Malachy O’Rourke, guided Fermanagh to an Ulster championship final, with Monaghan once again put to the sword in their opening game of the campaign. 
Football has changed a lot since McDermott pulled on the green of Fermanagh but one thing he thinks has remained is the ability of the Erne men to pull off a shock, and he says this fact will be a positive for Rory Gallagher’s men on Sunday when they meet Monaghan in the Ulster semi final;
“If the match was played on paper Fermanagh should not really turn up for the game. That is what the experts are saying. Fermanagh though, handles the underdog tag well, particularly when the team is in a good place and I think it is set up nicely for them.”
Reflecting on the opening round victory over Armagh the former centre half back explains that it was a case of mission accomplished for Fermanagh;
“They did the job. People say it is not pretty football nowadays but it is about winning football matches, championship matches, and they did that. And they were very good value for that win over Armagh. Fermanagh made them look very ordinary and I would imagine Armagh will look a lot better in the qualifiers,” he said, before adding;
“There was pressure on Fermanagh. But they dealt with it, and I thought a very encouraging aspect of the performance was that everyone did their job well, and that will give them confidence going into this game.”
Monaghan were hugely impressive in their win over Tyrone in the first round and McDermott believes that they have been improving for a number of years now;
“Monaghan has been building for the past couple of years. Obviously, McManus in attack and Beggan in goal was excellent the last day; everything went perfectly for him and he is a huge asset to them, but it all comes down to the day and no two days are the same.”
Looking ahead to the tactical battle on Sunday the former championship winner with St Patrick’s Donagh contends that there is one area of their play that Fermanagh will simply have to improve if they are to emerge victoriously;
“I think we will have to find more scores to beat Monaghan. I think everyone accepts that and we have been finding them hard to come by. The thing about Monaghan against Tyrone was that when Tyrone really pushed on in the last number of minutes and went looking for the game Monaghan were able to pick them apart a little bit. McManus suddenly got more space and they were pretty ruthless,” he said, revealing that a fast start is something he considers vital to Erne hopes. 
“I think the perfect script for Fermanagh would be to get an early goal and have Monaghan really having to come out. Because I think Fermanagh will be best suited to sitting back and soaking up the pressure and then hitting on the break. I think scoring a goal is going to be vital, to be honest,” McDermott stated. 
A strong start is going to be so important for Fermanagh on Sunday as they can ill afford to allow Monaghan build any sort of substantial lead and the 2004 skipper also thinks that the game could be eventually decided on what the players sprung from the bench bring to proceedings;
“I think both teams when you look at the bench, there is plenty of quality there. You saw what impact the Monaghan subs had against Tyrone and then Fermanagh have lots of quality too so there is no doubt that the benches are going to play a big part, and could have the final say.”
Every Fermanagh fan will be hoping that the game is well in the melting pot when Gallagher and O’Rourke start to empty their benches. If it is then another shock in Ulster for Fermanagh might just be on the cards.