Fermanagh hurling full-back Rory Porteous says his side can take plenty of encouragement from their Allianz League campaign despite a devastating loss to Warwickshire in the Division 3B final in Ederney on Sunday.

Despite a positive start to both halves from Fermanagh, Warwickshire would eventually take control and ran out winners by five points on Saturday with Luke Hands’ second-half goal cancelling out Dannan McKeogh’s earlier effort.

“Today we didn’t perform anywhere near the level we as a squad believe we are capable of, and in a final, you’ll always be punished for that,” Porteous said.

“We didn’t take our chances up front, we were a half step behind around the middle of the field and we showed Warwickshire too much respect when we were defending. Those are all things we can control, and that’s going to be the emphasis for us now in the coming weeks.

"It’s hugely disappointing to miss a chance to win silverware, but due to the upcoming restructure of the National Hurling Leagues, the result today had no impact on what division we’ll play in 2025.

"Maybe that is some sort of consolation, but the result today still hurts. We showed some positive aspects today as well, and if we can continue to develop, we’ll be a lot stronger in the games coming up.”

Fermanagh will be back in action in just over a week and having won all four of their division games this season, Porteous believes there are learnings to be taken for his teammates.

“Overall, we can take a lot of encouragement from our league campaign,” he added. “Winning four of our five games in the competition is an overall positive. We’ve also got competitive game time into most of the squad and a lot of the younger panel members have shown they can hold their own at inter-county level.

"That meant that every week, the management had massive headaches picking the team and the lads who start on the bench were all putting pressure on them to get on the field and get a chance.

"I believe we have depth in our panel that squads in 3A or 2B would love to have and that will be a strength for us going forward.”

Leitrim will be first up for Joe Baldwin’s side in the Lory Meagher Cup, before a home tie against Cavan and then a trip to Sunday’s opponents Warwickshire where Fermanagh will have a chance to right their wrongs.

“It’s always a dangerous game to play trying to motivate yourself using a defeat like today,” Porteous continued.

“We’ll go away and put the focus back on ourselves and learn some lessons from how we played today.

"The Lory Meagher games are going to be another level above today’s match, and we have to get ourselves ready for that.

"We have a few weeks to do that now, and during the round-robin, we’ll head over to Warwickshire and do battle again. Our goal at the start of the year was to get back to Croke Park and win a championship, and if we have to turn them over in their backyard to do that, which I think we will, so be it.”