Fermanagh midfielder Ryan Jones is not about to sit back and admire the view after Sunday’s convincing win in Innovate Wexford Park secured promotion to Division Two for the 2016 season.

Not many, if any, tipped Fermanagh to finish in the top two in the division but an unbeaten run has seen them clinch exactly that. Jones though says that while they are delighted to have reached one of their targets for the season, the focus has already changed with a league final against Kieran McGeeney’s Armagh coming up at Headquarters while there is a championship meeting to follow against Antrim at Brewster Park on May 31.

“We set out with the goal to get promotion and although we were written off outside the county and maybe even within the county, within ourselves we knew what we were capable of and we put the heads down, kept at it. We are pleased to have achieved the goal but you have to be looking ahead to the next target and we’ll sit down again and set targets for the remainder of the year. It has been a good season to date but we are only halfway through it,” he said.

This Sunday Fermanagh travel to Clare and although the pressure is off, Jones insists that the aim is to win the game and carry that momentum into the clash with Armagh where there will be silverware up for grabs.

“We have Clare on Sunday and we set out at the start of the league to remain unbeaten throughout the campaign so we want to go to Ennis and win that game and go into the Armagh game with a bit of a high. We don’t want to kill this unbeaten streak now. We know though that Armagh will be a serious test on April 25 but it is an extra game for us ahead of the Antrim game in the championship which is four or five weeks later. Also the league final provides an opportunity for silverware and if you are in a final you want to win it,” said the Derrygonnelly Harps man.

And, while he acknowledges that Division Two is going to be a much higher level than Fermanagh have been playing at in recent years, it is that quality of opposition that they want to be testing themselves against.

“Division Two is going to be a big step up next year but it is where we want to be. There is a good crop of players here and it is just about belief. This year Pete has brought that on board, that we need to believe in ourselves. Compared to this time last year it is a serious improvement and everybody involved, players and management deserve credit.” Last Sunday saw Fermanagh struggle to take advantage of a strong breeze in the first half but they raised their game against the wind in the second half and in the end ran out comfortable victors.

“With the wind sometimes you think you have an advantage but our style is the running game and our mobility through the middle eight. I think in that first half we were paniciking too much. We were not playing to the gameplan and we were sitting back too much but in the second half we upped it and we got the running game going and when we did that Wexford didn’t really have any answer. We are in good shape. There in that last 20 minutes we still had it in the legs and we could have kept going and kept going. That is down to Leon, Brian and Raymie and the fitness work we have done,” he commented.

And Ryan also had a word of praise for the supporters who made the long trip to Wexford to back the team.

“The supporters who came down were brilliant and we really appreciate it,” he said.