Fermanagh manager Rory Gallagher was disappointed with his side’s performance as they suffered their first league defeat of the campaign in Crossmaglen on Saturday, losing by six points to Armagh.

Fermanagh went into the game with the possibility of securing promotion to Division One but that matter will all now be decided on the final day when the top four teams in the division meet each other.

“I’m not happy with the result obviously and I’m not happy with the performance. I would be very disappointed, we knew it would be a big challenge and that Armagh would be up for it ,” he said.

Fermanagh looked well placed to claim the points at the break as they trailed by a point but with the breeze in their favour in the second half.

However, Armagh dominated things after the break to secure a deserving six point win.

“We were in a very strong position at half time and if you had asked us when we arrived here if we would take being a point down at half time we would 100 percent have took it but the signs were there before half time, when we got it back to 0-04 each we shouldn’t have gone down 0-05 to 0-04 as we had an extra man.

“We got turned over in a place we shouldn’t have got turned over and then to go 0-06 to 0-04 down we over played the ball at the back when we should have got out quicker and those were big moments and they lifted Armagh and we never regained a foothold in it,” he added.

And Gallagher felt that there was a ‘softness’ to his side’s display.

“Maybe sometimes when you get too many pats on the back in a small county it seeps in. I thought there was a softness to the way we went about our business. The game was there for us at four each and we didn’t grab it by the scruff of the neck and whether we like it or not we showed a lack of leadership on the pitch, we didn’t break the lines, we didn’t get into the scoring area and we didn’t do enough to get scoring frees. It isn’t a hard luck story, we have to look at ourselves,” he stated.

Fermanagh though will have a chance to put that right this Sunday when they face Meath with all very much still to play for as the promotion races reaches a conclusion.

“We still technically have it in our own hands and we will just have to lick our wounds. We have a big test this week,” he said.