Players fighting tooth and nail for place in league squad says Bogue
Editorial Department • Published 19 Jan 2012 13:00
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It has been a good start to 2012 for Fermanagh with victories coming over Antrim and Queen's and the performance of experienced defender Niall Bogue has been one of the many positives to come out of the first two contests.
The Kinawley man made his county debut back in 2004 as Fermanagh made their memorable run to the All Ireland semi-final, his displays that year earning him an All Star nomination, and he states he is enjoying things so far under the new management.
"It's a new year and new start and I think everybody so far is enjoying it. We are working very hard; we're maybe that bit behind other counties, so we are trying to bring it on and improve things," he said.
A squad for the forthcoming National League will be drawn up after the McKenna Cup and Bogue reveals that everybody is battling hard to make sure that they make the cut when Canavan makes his selection.
"It's great to have competition, that's what you want. There's a league panel that will have to be picked at the end of the month and boys are fighting tooth and nail for that. Complacency and being too secure in your place is not a good thing and the boys are certainly making it difficult for the management," commented Bogue.
And he also feels that the new faces in the squad have helped revitalise things.
"The new boys have really shown up well, they are bringing that bit of freshness and that's great to see."
After the problems of last year Bogue is keen to stress that 2012 is a new beginning and if there are any issues that arise from last year he believes it will be dealt with behind closed doors by the mangement.
"I leave it in the capable hands of the management. If anything needs to be sorted we'll do that in-house, but it is a new year and a new set of players and if we keep working together and working hard and putting in performances I'm sure that the team spirit will continue to grow over the year."
Defensively, Fermanagh were very solid in the first two games with Barry Owens and Ryan McCluskey providing a strong spine while the likes of Bogue, Conor Quigley and Johnny Woods have also caught the eye. And Bogue was pleased that the side kept a cleansheet against the students.
"We faded a bit in the last ten minutes or so and they had a few shots on goal but it was great to keep a cleansheet goals-wise. We have a lot of work to do; there are always things we can improve on. But we're trying to work as hard as we can and every game we're trying to make those improvements."
Fermanagh, at times in the first half, struggled against the sweeper system deployed by Queen's but Bogue felt that they were more intelligent in the second half.
"That was one of the things in the first half. They dropped a sweeper back and we maybe kicked a few down his throat. Again we have a lot of things to work on, we know that and that's probably one of them. I think we improved a bit in the second half in that we used the ball more intelligently until the last ten minutes when, as a say, we faded a bit," he said.
And the defender was impressed again with the performance of Seamus Quigley and feels that with hard work he could improve further.
"Seamie had another great game and he has had some great performances so far this year. From a defensive point of view it is great to see when the ball goes up there somebody is kicking it over, it is encouraging."
He added: "He is doing well so far and just like the rest of us he needs to work hard and keep improving, hopefully it will be a good year for him."
It's not about where you are training, the training is first class, everybody has been enjoying it.
This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 19 Jan 12
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