Fermanagh manager Rory Gallagher says that after securing their safety in Division Two with two games to go, his side will now look to push on with their promotion bid.

Victory for Fermanagh over Armagh in their next game and a win for Meath over Clare would see Gallagher’s side seal back to back promotions and compete in Division One next year which for a team that were favourites for relegation at the start of the season would be a brilliant achievement.

“At the end of the day, we are happy to be safe at this stage and we can look towards making a push for promotion now,” he said.

Gallagher knows though that if they are to achieve their goal then they need to produce a performance against Armagh in Crossmaglen on Saturday week.

“It is an Ulster derby against Armagh who we would feel are a very good side. We will just look forward to challenging ourselves against a team like that and see if we can improve our display.

“There is no denying that there is a huge prize at stake for ourselves, the possibility of getting to Division One and playing that quality of teams is where every footballer would like to be. I think the higher level you can play at the better and I think these players would really love to get up but they can’t do that unless they bring the performance against Armagh. We won’t look too far ahead, everybody will be aware of the potential prize and I think it makes it spicier as Armagh still have plenty to play for,” he said.

Fermanagh remain the only unbeaten team in Division Two heading into the final two games and Gallagher is pleased with how things have gone so far although he acknowledges that there is still room for improvement.

“No matter what team you are, to have eight points from five games is a very good return in any division. We set out to find a very consistent level of performance and while our finishing at times has been poor, there has been a lot of consistency in a lot of the other areas that we would be looking for. I think that our finishing has got better in the last two games although it still has a long way to go.

“We have got to get to stage where we hit 14, 15, 16 scores with a bit more ease. If you look at Division Three last year we struggled to get above the ten or 11 points mark and we have to show that level of consistency to get to 14 or 15 points,” he added.

On Sunday’s victory over a dogged Clare, he added: “I thought Clare were very well coached, they had a lot of skilful players and they were very patient in the build up.

“I felt for a period in the first half they had the measure of us but we came out at the start of the second half and we pushed out to 0-09 to 0-06 and after that, even though we weren’t keeping the scoreboard ticking over enough, we were defending comfortably and we were the better team. I would have been much happier in the second half.

“We have a lot to learn though from the point of view of pushing on and closing out the game,” he commented.