Three points down and a man down after Mark Slevin’s dismissal Fermanagh looked in trouble in the second half of Sunday’s game but manager Joe Baldwin was always confident that his side would rally to get the result needed.

And that’s how it transpired as John Duffy drilled over a late free to seal the draw required to send the side through to the Lory Meagher Cup final.

“The sending off I felt galvanised the team and I had faith in the players that once Mark went we would claw ourselves back into the game.

“There is a phrase that we use a lot and it is that the scoreboard matters once in the game and we keep emphasising that.

“It was the same last week against Louth, we were four points down going into injury time but at the end of injury time we won the game. It was the same on Sunday, at one stage of that game we were five points down but our second half was superb,” he commented.

The second half display though was in contrast to a poor opening period as Cavan had the better of things to go in with a four point half time lead.

“I know conditions were the same for both teams but I felt we struggled to adapt to them in the first half and I just felt we couldn’t get our hands on the ball. Whether it was a nervousness, there was just something that wasn’t quite going our way. We just didn’t settle.

“Also, our discipline cost us. The majority of Cavan scores in the first half came from frees and Brian Fitzgerald is a very, very good free taker and we can’t afford to give frees away in the nature that we are doing with lazy tackles,” he said.

Baldwin though felt that the character in this Fermanagh team shone through in the second half as they put aside a number of set backs including Slevin’s red card and then having fought back to level, the concession of a goal.

“The character of this team has been tested time and time again. We had lost players through injury and through Covid but everything that has been thrown at these boys they have just come through and kept coming.

“Our character was tested again on Sunday and we have come through and now we have a national final to look forward too,” he stated.

The Fermanagh manager also felt that Cavan tired after the break while the substitutions that Fermanagh made worked well for the side.

“I felt they started the game at a great pace but they couldn’t maintain that, I thought they tired. The bench, I also felt worked well for us even though we only used two subs,” he said.

Still, deep in added on time Fermanagh trailed by a point but cometh the hour cometh the man as John Duffy stepped up to fire over a difficult free.

“I just knew John would score it. I can’t speak highly enough of John Duffy, that is a man who is going through the pain barrier for Fermanagh hurling,” said Baldwin.

Thoughts will now turn to the final and a meeting with the winner of this weekend’s clash between Louth and Cavan.

“We are in a good place now going forward, it is what we would have targeted from the start of the year. We will get injuries assessed tonight (Tuesday) and maybe have an in house game at the weekend. Then we’ll see what happens between Louth and Cavan at the weekend and plan for them next week.”

And he is hopeful that the game will be played in Croke Park.

“It would be very disappointing if it is not in Croke Park. There is a rumour that it won’t be but there is nothing official to say where it is going to be.

“The GAA have thrown out this elite athlete terms and if they are saying that we are elite athletes and an inter-county team then in respect to Cavan, Louth and ourselves the game should be in Croke Park,” he said.