Fermanagh manager Rory Gallagher expects another big test when his side travel to Thurles to take on Tipperary this Sunday.

The Ernemen opened their account with a draw against Cork last Sunday and Gallagher is hoping to build on a positive second half display.

“It’s going to be a tough game, Tipperary were in the All Ireland semi-final a couple of years ago, they have a lot of good footballers and they play an open and attractive brand of football.

“However, it is a game we are looking forward to and for our point of view it is great to be playing against sides of this quality.

“I will be happy if we can take the second half performance that we produced on Sunday into it. I thought we showed a lot of quality after a poor first half when we stood off them too much. We need to take the learnings from that first half and build on it,” he said.

The Cork game was one that Gallagher feels his side should have taken both points from although it required a late, late Conall Jones point from a mark to secure the draw.

“It was a mixture of pleased and not pleased. I thought at half time that it wasn’t going to be hard to fix it, we were just playing far too cautiously. The way we started the second half even before the sending off we were dominating and I would be disappointed that we didn’t kick on.

“Of course, once we went one down and missed two or three chances with a couple of minutes to go you would take the draw, but at the same time I thought we should have won the game in the second half.” he commented.

The Fermanagh manager felt that the tempo to Fermanagh’s game in the second half is the template they need to move forward.

“I think Breeno set the tone at the start of the second half, you have got to go at them and we did that in the second half and that has got to be the given now.

“We need to attack the way we did in the second half, we ran the ball really hard and really aggressively and I thought we dominated the kick outs as well. We were too cautious on the kick outs in the first half as well,” he said.

Gallagher also gave six players their league debuts and from that aspect he is optimistic.

“The glass is half full as far as I’m concerned. You had Jonny Cassidy playing there, Ultan (Kelm) playing, Shane McGullion comes on, Darragh (McGurn) comes on, players who haven’t played a lot,” he added.

However, he felt that missed chances cost his side the win.

“Ultan should have fisted one over the bar at a crucial stage but he is a big positive and I think he has added a different dimension to the way we can run the ball.

“Breeno and Conall dropped shots short and we had maybe four or five frees from around the 50 yard line and you don’t make any hay from them whereas last year we were probably getting 60 percent of them,” he added.