Following back to back defeats to Galway and Cork, Fermanagh manager Pete McGrath admits that survival in Division Two is now the main goal for his side.

Fermanagh travelled to Cork hoping to get back to winning ways but a disappointing performance saw them return home empty handed and they face another big test this weekend when they go to Newbridge to take on Kildare.

“It was very disappointing and I think now we are really in a battle to stay in this division. We now have to be looking at survival,” said McGrath, who knows that his side will have to show a big improvement if they are to take anything from this Sunday’s encounter.

“We can look no further than our next game against Kildare which is going to be exceptionally tough. They are the same type of team as Cork in that they are big, they are athletic and they play good football and we’ll have to improve significantly if we are to get anything out of that game. It is going to be a big challenge for us on Sunday.”

McGrath accepts that the two defeats have proven to be big reality checks for the players and management and he insists that they all have to take to take responsibility for it.

“We have to look at things as they are,” he said. “We have to look at that performance and we all have to take accountability for it. We have to accept that the level of performance was well below what we would see is our acceptable standards. What we do about it and how we approach it going forward is something we will talk about this week. The Galway game we said was a bit of a reality check and put us back to looking at ourselves in more detail and this game did that to an even greater extent,” he added.

On Sunday, Fermanagh never really got going and McGrath felt that his side lacked energy at times during the game while he also thought that Cork simply wanted it more than his side.

“Cork’s tackling was very good, their work rate was much better than ours, their energy levels were much higher than ours, they played with much more desire than we did and that came through. We had so many players who were very tentative and they weren’t prepared to let the energy flow.

“We were very sluggish at times and in the first half when maybe we had possession in attacks our shot selection was poor, we were snatching at the ball and we gave the ball away in our forward line on a number of critical occasions which we were punished for big time at the other end of the field,” he commented.

Fermanagh were also sliced open on a number of occasions by Cork, as they were against Galway, for goal chances which along with the fact that his side are not creating many goal opportunities at the other end is a worry for McGrath.

“We were very porous,” he stated. “We seem unable to stop teams getting up a head of steam in their own half back line and when they get that momentum coming forward and they are doing one-twos then we are very open at the back and Cork could have had maybe two or three more goals. We are not creating much in terms of goalscoring opportunities and the opposition are.”

One of the few positives to come out of Sunday’s game was a return to action for Derrygonnelly’s Ryan Jones for the first time this season although for McGrath the over-riding emotion after the game was one of disappointment.

“We got Ryan Jones back on the pitch and he got 35 minutes under his belt which is good as he’s a big, strong, physical player. I also thought Ryan Hyde did well in patches of the game and he is another big, strong player so there were some positives. Generally though the mood is disappointment that we just didn’t perform near to what we are capable of against a big team on an excellent, fast pitch.”