Fermanagh captain Eoin Donnelly hailed the impact of the substitutes used last Saturday night as Fermanagh came from five points down to snatch a draw against Armagh.

Kieran McGeeney’s Orchardmen looked to be on their way to victory in the top of the table clash as they led 1-10 to 1-05 after 55 minutes, but Fermanagh rallied in the latter stages to take a share of the spoils and maintain their unbeaten league run.

And the likes of Niall Cassidy, Ciaran Flaherty and Aidan Breen all played their part after coming off the bench. Cassidy made his presence felt straight away and was an influential figure late on while Breen’s pass set up Ryan Jones for the equaliser right at the death.

“There are boys who came in there and really pushed the thing on, and they are going to be fighting for their place so anybody who thinks that because we got a draw here tonight, that has won us anything, are going to be mistaken. It would have been very easy to come on and float around but boys like Niall Cassidy got involved straight away and that’s what you want. The boys that are starting appreciate that there are boys behind them pushing them on,” said Donnelly.

Fermanagh’s fitness has stood to them to date in the league with strong finishes to games ensuring that they are in a good position to push on for promotion.

However, Donnelly is aware that they cannot afford to start as poorly as they did in their last two games and he stresses that it is something that will need to be addressed before Sunday’s clash with Limerick.

“We think we’re in good nick given the time of year that it is, but we know there is more we can do. The likes of Leon, Raymie and Brian are doing good work with us and we know that we can go right through to the very end like tonight. In saying that, we don’t want to be giving teams a lead and we need to work on starting strongly which is something we need to do next week against Limerick.

“Limerick are going to be another tough test and we’ll have to do our work on them. We can’t rest on our laurels,” he added.

Armagh played with the advantage of the breeze in the first half at the Athletic Grounds and dominated early on to race into a 1-06 to 0-01 lead. However, Fermanagh hit back as half time approached and by the interval only four points divided the sides with Fermanagh having the strong wind at their backs in the second half. It was Armagh though who controlled the opening 20 minutes of the second half to push five ahead although they wasted further chances to put the game out of sight before Fermanagh dominated the final 15 minutes to secure a draw.

“We didn’t get off to the start we would have wanted in the second half,” said the midfielder. “We hoped we could have pushed on a wee bit quicker when we had the wind at our backs but it didn’t really happen for us. They were working the ball well through the hands and they were getting in for scoring opportunities although they didn’t take them and we rode our luck in the first 20 minutes of the half. But, in the last 15 minutes we were on top and I think we deservedly got the draw in the end.” Indeed, Donnelly admits it took them a while to get to grips with using the breeze to their advantage.

“I think you would rather play with the breeze than against it but I think it sometimes changes your mentality and you try and rush things when you haver the wind and try and kick it longer and maybe misjudge it. It didn’t always work to plan but I think we used it eventually in the end and whenever we got the frees, Sean had the capability to put them over.” And, the physical nature of the contest will also stand to Fermanagh in the weeks and months ahead although the Coa clubman says that the focus is on trying to maintain their unbeaten league campaign.

“It was physical enough but we expected that and you would expect that with any Ulster team and it is good preparation for later in the year. We’re just happy to come away unbeaten and push on with another point but we have Limerick again next week and we still need to win every game. We can’t afford to slip up.”