Fermanagh may have lost their Ulster semi-final to Monaghan but there was plenty of positives to take out of the performance, not least the display of captain Eoin Donnelly who was immense at midfield over the course of the 70 minutes as he helped Fermanagh hold sway in that sector.

What made it even more impressive was that it was Donnelly’s first game since the league meeting with Clare back in April following a hand injury. He admits that it was frustrating watching on from the bench with Fermanagh having played a league final and the first round of the Ulster Championship in his absence although he says the thought of playing football for Fermanagh in the summer kept him focused.

“I was mad to get back playing football,” he said. “It was hard to watch and although the boys were going well you want to be out playing, especially at this time of the year, it is hard to be sitting on the sidelines and watching it.

“But you have to look at the bigger picture that hopefully there is a summer to look forward to and you just have to keep doing the hard work and anything you can do outside of the injury. You keep going with that and then you work towards getting back into the team,” he added.

The plus point for Donnelly was that his injury was hand related and he was therefore able to maintain his fitness levels so that when the injury cleared up he was ready to come back into the side.

“That is the only positive, you were able to keep doing all the running and things like that and keep your fitness up. It was just football situations and ball handling that you were missing out on.” And that return came against the Farneymen with Donnelly feeling that the game highlighted the fact that mistakes will be punished against the better sides although he states that the mood in the camp has been good since the loss.

“It has not been too bad. We were disappointed with the end of the Monaghan game, we felt we were going well for long parts of it but we knew if we took our eye of the ball or made mistakes they were going to punish us and they showed that. Once they got the goal and got ahead they were very hard to claw back. They kicked on in the last ten minutes when we were trying to push on more than what we had done. The boys know they have to play at a higher level but you can’t beat yourself up much about it. Monaghan are a top team and they will probably prove that later on in the year but we are just worrying about ourselves now,” commented the Coa man.

It is back into action this Sunday for Fermanagh with a second meeting with Antrim in five weeks. Fermanagh came out on top on that occasion and Donnelly accepts that the two teams know everything there is to know about each other at this stage.

“It is fair to say that we both have a fair idea what the other team is about especially when you don’t have to look to far to get a bit of analysis of the other team given that you played them a few weeks ago. It’s just the case of they are going to obviously be on a bit of a high following their win over Laois with the big comeback and that will give them a lot of confidence and is something we need to be careful of.” He does though feel that the Ernemen can take a number of positives into the game from the Monaghan encounter.

“I think the best thing to do at this time of the year is learn from your mistakes and build on your positives. There were large parts of the (Monaghan) game that we defended well and we worked some good scores and took some good scores from distance against a good Division One team so we want to continue to do that in the next game,” he stated.

Fermanagh will once again have home advantage on Sunday and the home form has been good in 2015 with Fermanagh having a 100 percent record at Brewster Park. And Donnelly feels the home support will also play their part.

“You want to be playing at home and you want a good support behind you. We had that in Breffni the last day and hopefully we’ll get that again on Sunday at Brewster Park. We know that whenever we start going well the crowd gives you that bit of a lift and it gives you the momentum to keep going,” he said.

He is though expecting a tough test on Sunday against the Saffrons who showed a big improvement from that opening day defeat in Brewster Park to turn over Laois in Portlaoise. However, Donnelly feels that Fermanagh have improved too and he believes that if they can perform on Sunday then they have every chance of taking their place in the draw for the next round.

“We have beaten them so they are going to come down here with a point to prove. The last day they looked as if they were out of the game against Laois but they came back with a big finish and that will give them confidence as well. I have no doubt they will have improved from the last day we played them but I believe our boys have improved and I’m confident that if we perform we can get the right result.”