Fermanagh manager Jonny Garrity knows that his side are facing knock out football this Sunday when they take on Carlow in Dunleer in their second outing in the All Ireland Junior Championship.
Fermanagh came out second best in their opening encounter against Wicklow last week with the Garden County making it two wins out of two to progress to the semi final and Garrity knows that it is winner takes all this week against Carlow as they battle it out to join Wicklow in the last four.
“It is effectively knock out now, the match against Carlow is now like an All Ireland Quarter Final as the winner will go through to the semis,” said Garrity, who expects a big display from his charges.
 “In my time here I have experienced that the girls play better given the bigger occasion; I think back to several semi finals and we always produce a good strong performance when it is knock out football. 
“This weekend is going to be no different, there are lessons to be learned from the Wicklow match and we certainly don’t want to have any regrets this week and hopefully we will be firing on all cylinders,” he added.
Garrity does feel that Fermanagh will only improve for now having the game under their belt.
“It is a massive factor and we probably played it down going into the Wicklow match because we didn’t want to have any preconceptions about that factor but it is fair to say that it was a big thing. Now that excuse is gone, we’ve had a match and the cobwebs are blown off and now it is a case of going out and delivering on the day.”
However, he expects a big test against Carlow.
“We have seen Carlow against Wicklow and we were impressed with them. For 30 or 40 minutes of that game they were right in it. They are strong, they have speed and strength in attack and are well organised and we know that we are going to have to do more to break them down.
“If we invite them at us we are going to be asking for trouble so we have to make sure that we are taking the game to them,” he said.
That lack of game time was something that Garrity felt worked against them against Wicklow who had played the week before.
“It was definitely a factor in the game, there was some rust evident from us, especially when you are talking about finishing moves off but defensively we were happy with how we set up. 
“There are elements that we are delighted with and elements to work on but there is certainly a strong base to work off and that’s the focus this week,” said the Fermanagh manager.
He also felt that they struggled to take advantage of the wind in the second half.
“We had to do a lot of defending in the first half and perhaps we became a little embedded in our mindset and didn’t manage to shake out of it in the second half,” he said.
However, he also thought that the yellow card and sin-binning of Aoife Flanagan was another big point in the contest. 
“The sin-binning was an extremely harsh call and that came at a time coming into the last 15 or 20 minutes when there was only two points between the sides. That had a big factor on the game.”
He accepts though that Wicklow were deserving winners on the day.
“I think all things being considered we can hold our hands up and say we didn’t do enough to win the match,” he concluded.