There is no doubting who was the star of the show for Fermanagh on Sunday. While Mickey Jones did an outstanding job in wrapping up the threat of the dangerous Bam Neeson, Declan McCusker ran relentlessly at Antrim in the first half and Paul McCusker covered every inch of the Brewster Park sod, it is hard to ignore the contribution of forward Tomás Corrigan.
The Dublin based attacker was impeccable from placed balls, landing five frees and two brilliant sideline balls, while he also banged over two points from play of his left foot.
Any ball came his way, he won and Antrim struggled to contain him at times.
A victory in the Ulster Championship is always welcome but despite the win, Corrigan was disappointed with the second half performance from Fermanagh.
Leading by seven at the break, Fermanagh looked to be sailing through but a poor second half display saw the Saffrons close to within three before Fermanagh killed the contest with Sean Quigley’s late goal.
“Before last year we hadn’t won an Ulster Championship game in five years but we are a bit disappointed actually and it’s a bit of an anti-climax,” said Corrigan. “We’ve won an Ulster Championship game but we are not too pleased with our performance. I suppose it shows how far this team has come but we’ve a long way to go if we want to get to the level where we want to be at.”
He feels that Fermanagh were guilty of not pushing on in the second half.
“We just took the foot of the gas for whatever reason and we’ll have to look at that. It maybe just comes down to attitude. Instead of driving on we took the foot of the gas and we’ll have to work at that because the good teams, once they get you down they keep going and keep pegging on the points so that’s something to work on.”
When Antrim rallied to close the gap to three points with just under ten minutes to go Fermanagh looked as if they may have been in a spot of bother. However, they regained the upperhand and Corrigan feels that says something about the character of the side.
“This team has great character and some great leaders all over the pitch. We knew that Antrim would get their spell and that’s what it takes, it takes your big players and leaders to grasp it and get you out of that hole because that second half wasn’t good enough,” he added.
The two sideline balls that the forward landed towards the end of the first half were both beautifully struck and came within a minute of each other. And Corrigan states that it is all about practice.
“I just went through my usual routine with the two of them, I just treated them as two totally different kicks and I hit them well and they went over. I practise those at training and it is all about executing it. I’m happy with how I kicked those two,” he smiled.
Despite his nine point haul, Corrigan believes that he has further room for improvement.
“I was pleased with certain aspects but I’ve a lot of work to do to be where I need to be at and that’s across the board. Everyone knows that we were playing at 60 or 70 percent there.”
So, it Donegal next up in Ballybofey on June 12, and Fermanagh’s performance on Sunday won’t have Rory Gallagher and his squad shaking in their boots.
“It wouldn’t have mattered how we played today, Donegal would not be too worried about Fermanagh but we’ll just worry about ourselves,” he stated.
The display against the Saffrons won’t be good enough in just under three weeks time but Corrigan says that they will be ready to meet the challenge on June 12.
“It’s good to still be in the Ulster Championship. We’ve a couple of weeks hard training ahead of us now and we’ll be ready for Ballybofey.”