Fermanagh manager Rory Gallagher says that his side have “to look after business” this Sunday when they take on Armagh in their penultimate league game.
A disappointing second half saw Fermanagh lose their 100 per cent league record when they went down to Westmeath in Mullingar last Sunday and Gallagher acknowledges that another half of football like that will not be good enough against the Orchard.
“I think no matter what, at the start of the year this was always going to be a big game against Armagh. I think our destiny is still in our own hands but it is going to take a better performance than that second half.
“We have to look after business next week. We have to look at ourselves and understand that we weren’t good enough (against Westmeath),” he said.
Fermanagh looked to be on their way to the points at half time in Mullingar as they led by five points but they never really got going in the second half and Westmeath finished strongly to claim the win in additional time.
“It was very disappointing especially to be caught at the death. We were under pressure in the second half, there was a bit of a deceptive breeze, but we got the goal at the right time. Listen we didn’t defend well and I personally didn’t think that we deserved to win the game. We didn’t bring enough to the table in the second half,” he commented.
Fermanagh had enjoyed the better of the contest in the opening 35 minutes but Gallagher felt that they didn’t put enough scores on the board during that period.
“We defended quite well in the first half and it was a breeze that we felt we could kick from that bit further out. We felt though that we didn’t do enough, seven points was very average with the amount of possession we had, we should have been at least nine or ten points up and Breeno had the sniff of a goal chance as well.”
Fermanagh came out without captain Eoin Donnelly for the second half after the Coa man picked up a knock and his absence was sorely felt by the Ernemen after the break.
“Eoin got a couple of bad bangs and he was a massive loss. He was playing well and controlling the middle of the field and unfortunately when he went, we suffered badly in the second half. When Eoin went off we lost our competitiveness around the middle third.” added Rory.
An Eamon Maguire goal though put Fermanagh four ahead with 11 minutes to go but Gallagher felt that they didn’t manage the game well after that as Westmeath went on to grab the final six points of the encounter to snatch the points and move level with Fermanagh in the Division Three table.
“That (goal) should have been enough, it was a well worked goal but we were very naive, we were caught out on the next kick out and then it is back to three. I didn’t think we managed the game well at all from that position. I thought we were very naive and our basic skills were very poor, our support play and the amount of ball we gave away.”
And the pressure increased further on Fermanagh when corner back Cian McManus was sent off after he picked up a black card having already been booked.
“It was a massive turning point in the game as it allowed them to really squeeze us. They were able to take the fight to us further up the field and we struggled to break out of defence,” he added.
Fermanagh were then punished when they gifted possession to Luke Loughlin who fired over to put Westmeath ahead in added on time.
“We got the wee break when Heslin’s free dropped short and there is no way in the world that you should be handing the ball straight to them and you lose the game because of it,” he stated.