Fermanagh manager Pete McGrath expects both Ruairi Corrigan and Declan McCusker to play a part on Sunday in the Athletic Grounds when his side take on Armagh in the All Ireland Qualifiers.

And McGrath reveals that captain Eoin Donnelly is in better shape heading into this encounter than he was for the Ulster Championship clash against Monaghan although he expects both Ryan Jones and Daryl Keenan to miss the game against Kieran McGeeney’s Orchard County.

“Daryl Keenan hasn’t trained since the Monaghan match with a foot problem so I can’t see Daryl playing any part and Ryan Jones hasn’t trained since the Monaghan match so he won’t play any part on Sunday. However, Ruairi Corrigan and Declan McCusker are both back. Ruairi will certainly play a chunk of the game on Sunday it is just a case of whether that is starting or whether we decide to hold him and take him into the game. Declan is good to go, he has done all the training and he is in the frame to start,” he said.

And he believes that his captain is in a better place going into this game than the Farney encounter. Donnelly struggled in the lead up to the Monaghan game with a hamstring problem that restricted his training prior to that game.

“Eoin Donnelly has done a significant bit more training going into this match than he did prior to the Monaghan match. His hamstring was very problematic for a couple of weeks prior to the Monaghan match and he did virtually no training at all but over the last couple of weeks he has done most of the training and I’m sure in his own mind he is in a much healthier place going into this game than he was the Monaghan game,” he added.

There has been little between Fermanagh and Armagh in recent league meetings with the sides having met three times in the past three years. Armagh won the Division Three final in Croke Park in 2015 when the two sides met while they have also clashed twice in the Athletic Grounds, Armagh nicking a win with the last kick of the game in 2016 while the sides drew in 2015.

Taking that into account then a tight game will be expected and McGrath knows that his side need to produce a big performance.

“It is an away game in the Qualifiers against a team that has beaten us the last couple of times that we met them although in those recent games there has been nothing but the kick of a ball between us. Like ourselves they are coming in on the back of a first round defeat so they will feel that they have something to prove, as we do and like all matches of this nature you are going to need big performances from your players right across the whole team and anything less than that I think we will be in bother,” said McGrath.

The Down native stresses that it is crucial that, like the Monaghan game, his side stay in the game early on, but they must also maintain that level for the full 70 plus minutes of action if they are to succeed.

“Like every championship match you would like to think that after ten or 15 minutes you will still be in the game. That’s the way we went in against Monaghan and up to ten minutes into the second half that was the way that it worked out. If we bring all the good qualities that we showed in that first 45 minutes against Monaghan into the game and try and sustain them over the duration of the game then that will go a long way towards winning the match,” he commented.

Armagh bagged a couple of goals in their defeat to Down and also missed a couple of other goal chances and that goal threat is something that the Fermanagh management team will have noted but McGrath states that Fermanagh’s main focus will be on their own game.

“Armagh were quite forward thinking against Down and the fact that they scored a couple of goals and missed a couple as well would indicate that. They also had a fair bit of possession in the second half but maybe their shot selection and decision making didn’t work out for them.

“However, it is about us, it is about our performance and we want to put our fingerprints on the game. We know what we have to do, we don’t want our season to end on Sunday so we’ll be doing our best to ensure that our season keeps on going.”

Indeed, McGrath knows that a win would change the whole dynamic moving into the next round.

“If you win your first Qualifier game then all kinds of possibilities open up. It makes a big difference to the whole mindset and mood of the group. It puts a spring into the step.”

And McGrath believes that if his side can perform on Sunday then they will be in the draw for the next round.

“I would be very confident that if we play somewhere close to our maximum then we will win the game,” he concluded