For Barry Mulrone it has to be a case of ‘back to basics’ for Fermanagh as they look to put a run of three defeats behind them and get back to winning ways.

Losses to Galway, Cork and Kildare have succeeded in taking the shine off what was a bright opening win over Down. The Erne men find themselves mired in a relegation battle and they will need to generate much better performances if they are to stay in division two.

Fermanagh face Clare, Meath and Derry in their last three games and will require at least two wins to hold any chance of escaping the drop.

At the weekend they suffered a big defeat at the hands of Kildare who struck for four goals over the course of the 70 minutes and Mulrone, who was one of the few bright sparks in an otherwise dim Fermanagh performance, was making no excuses for the way the team played.

“The funny thing was we had started the game well but then just switched off.

“To concede four goals is just not acceptable and at least two of those were avoidable by simply standing in front of the man taking the free. We were just completely caught and at any level that is just not good enough.”

The Devenish club man can’t find a reason for Fermanagh’s poor run of late but he knows the consequence is that teams are taking advantage of a dip in their performance.

“It is hard to put your finger on exactly what the problem is. Against physically strong sides they will expose you if you are a bit soft through the middle and we have been as a team lately. Kildare are a good team and they took advantage of our poor play. And I think that is what it has been, it hasn’t been so much brilliant play from the opposition but rather lots of mistakes and bad play from ourselves.”

Time is running out for Fermanagh to arrest the downward spiral but Mulrone believes that stripping things back has to be the first priority for Pete McGrath’s men.

“I think it is a case of us having to get back to basics. Just getting back to doing the things that have made us relatively successful over the past 18 months. Being strong defensively, forcing turnovers, breaking at pace and cutting down the mistakes,” the defender stated before adding; “Football is a simple game and the good teams do all of those things very well and we haven’t been lately.”

It is not all doom and gloom for Fermanagh although these three losses in a row do represent their worst run of results in three years.

They do however have control of their own destiny with three games left in the league to play, and Mulrone says there can be no excuses from this point.

“Yes, we have things in our hands and with two of those three games at home we need to take advantage of that. The trips to Cork and Kildare were tough, not that that is an excuse. But we have three games left now and it’s up to us how we respond to this.”

There is no doubt that Fermanagh are in a ‘backs to the wall’ situation at present and it is at times like these that squads need to come together even more than usual and Mulrone is certain that the collective unity is there to improve and see the wins flow back again; “Going to training after a loss is always more difficult than after a win and we have lost three on the trot now so it is difficult at the moment. We are questioning ourselves as individuals and as a team to see can we do more and I know that everyone is so close knit and we all have the same goals and we are all going to go at this together. It’s just going to have to be about a lot of hard work over the next few weeks before we play Clare.”

The Banner men stunned Cork in their last game and will be high on confidence but Fermanagh are back at home and have recent victories over Clare as positive memories to draw on.

A vital match looms for the men in green.