Fermanagh’s 2024 Tailteann Cup campaign will begin with a home game against Wicklow on Saturday in the first of three group games that also includes a trip to Carlow and a meeting with Laois.

Like Fermanagh, Wicklow suffered relegation with a seventh-placed finish in the league, but a division below Kieran Donnelly’s side.

Captain Declan McCusker is hoping for an improved outing in this year’s competition, describing Fermanagh’s performances in the Tailteann Cup as “underwhelming” since the competition began in 2022.

“We’ve been poor in it, to be honest,” he said.

“The first year we beat Longford, and then we got beat by Cavan who would have been one of the favourites last year. With the first year of the group stages, I think we underperformed in every game we played in.

"We got beat by Laois in the play-off (last year) which was actually probably a better performance than the other games only Ryan Jones got sent off in the first half. 

"We actually played well for a lot of the second half, with a man down, and then they got a goal and killed us off.

"But look, all of our performances in the Tailteann Cup have been underwhelming and we haven’t performed to our potential so that’s something we’re looking to put right this year.”

The Erne side will take confidence knowing that they have played a higher level of football than all three teams in their group this year.

However, Saturday’s opponents recorded an extra championship win this campaign after beating Westmeath 2-09 to 1-11 in the first round of the Leinster Championship before losing out by a point to Kildare, who were relegated alongside Fermanagh in Division Two.

Meanwhile, Fermanagh suffered a quarter-final exit at the hands of Armagh in the Ulster Championship.

“I suppose there’s no easy games in it,” McCusker said when asked about the other teams in Group Three.

“We probably got the best team out of pot four and maybe the best team in pot three.

"Wicklow had very good games in the Leinster Championship, they beat Westmeath and should have beat Kildare but at the same time, if we want to be serious about winning the competition, we have to beat those teams.

"It’s a good draw in that we’ll be taking nothing for granted but there’ll be some tough games in it.”

Fermanagh’s 11-point defeat to the Orchard County in Brewster Park left a sour taste in camp admitted McCusker, but this weekend’s competition was established to allow the country's smaller teams an improved chance of silverware.

The Ederney man is hoping Saturday can mark the beginning of a memorable summer for Fermanagh.

“After any defeat in the championship, it kind of lingers around for a week or so but we were back in the training on Thursday and got it out of our system,” he added.

“It’s definitely a tournament we are setting our sights on to win. It’s a great opportunity to do something for football in the county so there’s no doubt we’ll be going all out to win it.”