FERMANAGH Ladies opened their league campaign with a defeat to Roscommon in Dr Hyde Park last Sunday, but Manager Johnny Garrity was disappointed to have returned home empty-handed after a solid display by his side.

Indeed, after Fermanagh had cut a five-point deficit to the bare minimum late on, it looked as if they may take something out of the game, but it was the Rossies who were to push on to secure the win.

“When you score a goal with a minute or two left to bring it back to a point, the hope would be that you could rally and take a draw or a win from the occasion but, unfortunately, at that stage Roscommon finished with the momentum and got over the line.

“But there was very little between us and we can take a lot of positives from the performance,” he said.

Garrity agreed that the game showed that Fermanagh can hold their own at this higher level, but he is not content with that.

“I think it showed that but we are not content with competing – we want to win matches and we feel that we are very nearly there.

“There are a lot of components that make up our performance that we are happy with, and there are a few opportunities to learn and have a better product at the end of it come this weekend,” he added.

The main difference between the sides on Sunday was Roscommon’s ability to take their goal chances when they came along, while Fermanagh only finished one of theirs.

“You could simplify it to that degree; those were key moments in the game where we gave their goalkeeper a chance, and they didn’t give ours one.

“Look, there was other things as well; we had to work very hard for our free kicks, and we felt that some of theirs were maybe on the soft side, and we also felt that we had a good point ruled out for a double bounce that wasn’t a double bounce, so all of those things add up.

“Ultimately, though, we have to take account of the things that we can control and that is our performance, and there are elements to that which we can improve and we will be putting our energy into doing just that.”

Next up for Fermanagh is a clash with Sligo this Sunday in Kinawley, and Garrity is keen to continue to build on the positives from last week’s display.

“We don’t have to start from scratch, we have a really solid base from last week, and we know that if we just tidy up one or two elements of our game we will be in a really solid position. It is a matter of building on what we have done and we are confident that we can do that.”

However, he does expect it to be another big test for his side.

“I would expect something similar to Roscommon in that it will be another tough, physical team and another battle, but this is the level we are at and we are delighted to be where we are in our development.

“We need to go out now and embrace that challenge against another good team and believe that we can win,” he added.