Fermanagh will open their Tailteann Cup campaign at home to Wicklow this Saturday as they look to begin with a victory in their third year of competing in the competition since it began in 2022.

Fermanagh’s Group Three draw includes a home tie with Wicklow before travelling to Netwatch Cullen Park to face Carlow and will conclude with a final game against Laois at a neutral venue.

After defeat to Armagh in the Ulster Championship, Fermanagh wasted little time in getting back to action with a number of challenge games including a meeting with Monaghan last Saturday leaving manager Kieran Donnelly pleased with his side’s preparations.

“Yeah, it has been good and positive, the players have responded well and been training over these past three or four weeks,” Donnelly said.

“We’ve filled our time with challenge games and that has helped us, gave us a focus, and gave players a chance, who have been returning from injury to get a bit of game time.

"We have used this time well we feel, and the players have trained well, and we’ve approached the challenge games with the right method.”

Donnelly will stand across from a familiar face in the Wicklow dugout as Armagh native Oisin McConville takes charge of the Garden County.

McConville also suffered relegation this year as Wicklow joined Limerick in the drop from Division Three but they narrowly missed out on a Leinster Championship semi-final with a one-point defeat to Kildare after seeing off 2022 Tailteann Cup champions Westmeath in the opening round.

“We know Wicklow well enough, you have access to all videos and tapes of each team, so, we’re very aware they had a good Leinster Championship, they beat Westmeath and they should have beat Kildare, they were defeated by a last-minute score,” Donnelly added.

“They have two Ulster coaches in Oisin McConville and Mark Doran so they’re well-organised and they’re a physical team, so, they’re going to pose plenty of challenges to us.”

Despite going into the Tailteann Cup as one of the highest-ranked teams from the league season, Donnelly says his side will be taking things slowly in terms of expectation with all focus solely on Wicklow in Brewster Park at the weekend: “We take it game by game, we’re a young team and I think you just have to take every game on its merit and never get too far ahead of yourself.

"We’re very determined to start off the campaign with a win against Wicklow, we know it’s going to be tough and every team in the Tailteann feels they’re in it with a chance to beat each other.

"We’re very determined, focused and positive that we can start our campaign well on Saturday and we’re looking forward to it.”

Fermanagh’s quarter-final defeat to Armagh, four weeks ago, felt like an abrupt end to their Ulster Championship and even with Saturday beginning with the first of three group games, Donnelly has drilled into his players that it is championship football with the Brookeborough man keen for his players to soak up every bit of championship experience they can.

“They feel different in that you have an unfamiliarity with teams that you’ll be playing,” he said when talking about the Tailteann Cup games.

“Obviously, with the Ulster teams you have boys that would have been to college together, and they’ll have played each other over the past number of years and sometimes there’s a freshness to playing different teams but again, in my eyes, and the players eyes, it’s a championship game.

"No matter what competition it’s in, you always want to win championship games. So that’s our focus and I think the Tailteann is a perfect opportunity for us, as a squad, to get more championship games under our belt.”