JAMES McMahon knows lessons will have to be learnt from last week’s drubbing at the hands of Derry, but he does not think things are as bad the 19-point loss seems.

Bluntly summing the day up, he said: “A tough day at the office. A combination of [Derry] being very good and very well drilled and very physically strong and fit, and us just having a real bad day at the office.

“Us being very, very poor, bar the first five to ten minutes. I think it was a combination of both,” said the Roslea man.

“Looking back at the week between Cavan and Derry, I don’t think the boys got carried away or anything. We were very confident of producing a performance against Cavan, and getting a result.

“I think the rest of the county was probably shocked, but we weren’t .

“In hindsight, looking back now, things weren’t as good as they seemed after the Cavan game, but also I think things aren’t as bad as they seem after the Derry game. We are probably somewhere in between.”

With the Derry game now out of the way, McMahon and his teammates are fully focussed on the last game of the regionalised National League at home to Longford.

Longford are without a win in their two games, but they cannot be taken lightly, according to McMahon.

A perfect opportunity

And it is a perfect opportunity for Fermanagh to put the Derry game to bed.

“That’s the beauty of the league and especially this year’s league – you are playing every week. After the likes of Saturday, you just want to get back out on the pitch and park it and move on.

“And we have an opportunity to do that on Saturday.

“Yes, we will analyse the Derry game and look at things that went wrong. You have to. You can’t just gloss over that, but at the same time we are very much looking forward, and Longford is another massive opportunity to move on.

“They were competitive for a very long time against Cavan, who are a good side, and we have come up against Longford in 2018.

“We were very lucky to beat them in the last game of the league to get out of Division Three, and they have a lot of that side there so they have good footballers.

“They’ll be keen to get a win to get their season kickstarted and to get a bit of momentum. We wouldn’t be taking them for granted.”

As with most heavy defeats, starting jerseys will be likely up for grabs.

The squad were back on the pitch on Monday, and McMahon was pleased with the reaction from the players.

“It was a good response, to be honest. You would be worried if there wasn’t a response from Saturday, and a good bit of bite to it.

“I suppose a lot of boys see it as an opportunity now. There will be changes, and probably rightly so, and a combination of boys who haven’t got playing seeing it as an opportunity, and boys who were playing mad to get back at it and to try and rectify it.”

Another boost that may help Fermanagh will be the return of spectators to matches in the North, with 500 people allowed at Saturday’s game, and McMahon will be glad to see them in the stands at Brewster again.

“It would be a nice boost. I think Brewster has always been a decent hunting ground for us, and supporters play a massive part in that, and I suppose apart from anything else, it would show we are getting back to normality,” McMahon added.