Fermanagh manager McMenamin: ‘It will all come down to hard work’

With a spot in Division Two for next year up for grabs, there is plenty at stake and McMenamin knows that they will have to produce a big performance if they are to come away as winners on the night.

“Offaly seem to be on an upward trajectory but we are going to take on the challenge, we know it is going to be tough but we are aiming to make the best of it and give it a real go,” said McMenamin.

“They are going to be a well drilled and a hard running, fit outfit. I have watched their videos and they seem to be playing a hard running style of football and they like to keep the ball to hand and they also have a lot of very good forwards.

“They are a hard working outfit, they like to get 14 or 15 behind the ball and then counter quick so we are expecting a tough game.”

And the former Tyrone All Ireland winner feels that work rate is going to be the key on Saturday.

“It comes down to hard work and I really believe that. Both teams are built on hard work.

“Any John Maughan team is about hard work and we will have to counter that and play with good intent on the ball,” he added.

McMenamin was disappointed with aspects of Fermanagh’s defensive display in their last outing against Longford and he is keen to see them give away less frees in scoreable positions.

“We spoke about it and we have worked at training at remedying it. We have to remember that ten of Longford’s scores came from frees so if we can half the foul count we will go a fair way to curing our defensive problems. Looking back at some of the frees given against us there were a number of them that were soft but we can’t control the referee, he sees the game different to us.”

And he also wants to make sure that his side remain switched on when they do put scores on the board.

“The key for us is making sure that if we get a score we are not then conceding a score, that happened against Longford that once we got our tails in front we let them back in,” he said.

McMenamin would also like to see his team convert more goals chances although he is happy that they are showing greater attacking intent this year.

We have spoken before that we need to be getting more goals and we need to be getting more scores and we are probably going the right way in terms of getting more scores but you would always want to create and take more goal chances,” he commented.

Neither Fermanagh or Offaly would have been among those fancied to push for promotion at the start of the year but McMenamin says that was the goal from within the group.

“It was obviously important to secure your status in the division but once you have the chance to go up you want to go on and do that.Hopefully on Saturday we can maybe go on and achieve that and I think it is a great opportunity for both counties.”

Fermanagh are hopeful of having a full hand to play with on Saturday apart from a couple of long term injuries.

“The injuries are clearing up, Shane McGullion and Conor McAuley are our only two long term injuries and everybody else should be good to go,” said McMenamin.

This game is also ideal preparation for Fermanagh as they get ready for a championship meeting with Monaghan on July 3.

“We said to the boys coming up to the Longford game that that would be like a quarter-final and now this is like a semi-final. This is like a championship game and coming three weeks before an Ulster Championship match it is great preparation for that,” he explained.

And with the season now at the business end, McMenamin wants his players to enjoy it.

“We are only guaranteed another three or four weeks of county football, that’s all we have guaranteed, so we have to enjoy it.”