Published: Thursday, 4th February, 2010 3:32pm

Captain James urges everyone to pull together

James Sherry who has been named Fermanagh captain for the year.

Last Sunday Malachy O'Rourke awarded the senior captaincy to Roslea's James Sherry, for the forthcoming year. Sherry, who made his debut for Fermanagh back in the 2003 championship against Donegal, acknowledges what an honour it is but feels that it is a small part in a much bigger picture.

"For any player to be named captain of their county is a great honour but you just have to take it in your stride. The main thing for Fermanagh this year is that everyone is leading by example and that everyone is standing up and being a leader. I don't think it's necessary to pinpoint a couple of players it's important to get everyone improving and developing as one," said James.

With promotion from Division Three high on the priority list for Fermanagh, James knows that this is a stern challenge.

"It's going to be a big task, it's massive for us as a squad," he admits. "This squad is in its infancy at the minute. There's a lot of hard work required if we're going to achieve that and from what we've seen this year already there are a number of teams going quite well. We're not under any illusions, it will be a dog fight to get out of the division but maybe those are the type of games we need as a team for us to improve."

Sherry also points to the need for Fermanagh to gel together as a team.

"We need to get the squad working together and heading in the right direction. What we've learned from the past is that if everyone is pulling in the right direction, it's a good basis for success," adds the 26 year-old physiotherapist.

Fermanagh bowed out of this year's McKenna Cup at the semi-final stage when Tyrone ousted them in a somewhat convincing fashion. Previous wins over Monaghan, UUJ and Armagh showed some encouraging signs but despite these performances James believes that Fermanagh needs to be striving to achieve a lot more.

"To a degree we would be happy with how we played in the McKenna Cup, we played reasonable enough but I wouldn't say the squad were happy with a semi-final place and anyone who was needs to question themselves. We need to move on from that and raise the bar," insists James.

On Sunday the bar will indeed be raised once more and as Malachy and the team strive to reach it, it is Offaly who stand in the way this weekend. The opening round could prove a stickler for the Erne men if they don't apply themselves, states James.

"It's the first round and it's down in Offaly, it's a massive game for us and we need to focus on it 100 per cent. If we don't we'll come up short in our performance," he warns.