Fermanagh manager Pete McGrath says that his side must pick themselves up from last Sunday’s defeat to Longford and get ready for another tough encounter this Sunday against Roscommon.

McGrath watched his outfit throw away a nine point lead to lose by a point to Longford, and he stresses that if Fermanagh are to have any chance of promotion then they must defeat the Rossies at Brewster Park.

“It’s a hard defeat for us to take but we just have to gather ourselves and look forward to the Roscommon match,” said McGrath. “If we are going to have any prospect of promotion we need to beat Roscommon. If we do that then we have got a chance but if we don’t then we will be looking at the other end of the table and it will be a matter of getting enough points to ensure that we don’t get relegated. That’s how stark the situation is.” Fermanagh had dominated during the opening 20 minutes at Pearse Park last Sunday as they powered into a nine point advantage, 2-05 to 0-02. However, a long delay for an injury to Longford midfielder Michael Brady saw Fermanagh lose the momentum they had built up in the early stages and the home side were to dictate matters from then to finish.

“I think up until the injury we were in complete control of the game and we were playing really, really good football. Longford had no answer to the power, pace and cohesion and in fact we should have had more scores during that time. The game though stopped for seven minutes and when it restarted we had great difficulty getting back the fluency and the rhythm,” he commented. “In fairness Longford came at us and in that period the decisive score was the goal. The goal got them back to within four points of us and at that stage the game was there for whoever wanted it. We struggled therafter and even though we scored first at the start of the second half to go five ahead, for most of the second half there was nothing convincing about our peformance at all. It was Longford who were showing all the energy, winning the break ball and playing with a lot of fluency and intent,” added McGrath.

The former Down All Ireland winning boss also felt that the black card shown to midfielder Richard O’Callaghan towards the end of the first half was a telling factor in the contest.

“There are a number of contributing factors, the break disrupted our fluency and then the unfortunate goal. Also Richard O’Callaghan’s black card as he had been a strong influence in the middle of the field. When he went off I think Eoin Donnelly’s contribution slipped as well as Richard provides the physical strength for Eoin. These things all contributed collectively but at the end of it all Longford did show a lot of determination and whenever they got the scent of blood they went for it,” he explained.