Looking back over what has been a very strange season, Fermanagh defender Declan McCusker admits it is hard to pinpoint where it all went wrong following relegation to Division Three.

When the Erne County beat eventual Division Two champions Roscommon in Brewster Park in their second game, there was some optimism that they could maybe challenge at the top end of the table rather than the bottom.

However, they failed to pick up any more points in their remaining league games.

“Obviously it’s disappointing getting relegated,” McCusker say. “I feel like we shouldn’t have got relegated but I suppose it’s hard to know where it went wrong.

“I suppose Clare and Laois and ourselves most people would have been looking at as favourites to go down. Playing them at the end probably didn’t help. If we played them earlier in the year and got a victory it might have helped the thing but look the league doesn’t lie, we are where we deserve to be and I suppose we just have to forget about it now and look forward to the championship.”

While Fermanagh will drop to Division Three for 2021, their opponents on Sunday, Down head in the opposite direction following promotion.

But they too did not have the best of finishes to the league and McCusker believes it will be a level playing field on Brewster Park on Sunday.

Some Fermanagh supporters may be worried about how their team managed to lose their last league game to Laois when in such a commanding position with very little time remaining, but the Ederney clubman is looking at the positives that can be taken from the game instead.

“People might think there was a big collapse but we will learn from it more than anything, so it might have been a good thing. Some of the mistakes we made we are better happening against Laois than happening against Down.

“We actually played very well for 65 minutes and they got 2-02 and every one of their scores came from an error by us.

“They were fighting for their lives and when they got the first goal there was a massive lift whereas we weren’t fighting for anything. It was disappointing to lose it and we shouldn’t have thrown the lead away but with a lot of young boys in the team it might turn out to be a good thing and we can learn a lot from it and we won’t hopefully make the same mistakes again.”

An alumni of St. Mary’s University College, Belfast, McCusker has played with a number of the current Down squad while he was under the management of Mourne manager, Paddy Tally.

“Paddy’s team will be very athletic. He loves fit and fast players. They will get numbers behind the ball and then they will look to break at serious pace and they do have a lot of pace in their team.

“We are going to have to make sure we get into our defensive shape and aren’t left wide open because they will transfer the ball from their own 45 to our 45 very quickly and we need to be set-up and make sure they are not getting straight through for scores.

“I have a lot of respect for Paddy. He is a very good manager and he will have them well drilled.”

Fermanagh have had a number of new faces in the last two games of the league and while there are quite a few players who featured in last year’s championship no longer available, McCusker still feels there is enough experience throughout the Fermanagh team.

“The boys you lost they are hard to replace. They are very good footballer but a lot of the young boys have come in and done very well.

“The young boys are all very good players and we still have plenty of experience there. A lot of us have been playing a long time.There are a lot of new boys but there is a lot of experience there too it just depends what way we use it I suppose,” he added.