It has been a difficult season for the Fermanagh ladies so far.

Relegation from Division Three, defeat in the Ulster Intermediate Championship Final and they are still to register a win in 2021 competitive action.

But they have another chance to put an end to the winless streak when they take on Leitrim this weekend.

And that is all they are looking at - the future.

Lessons to be learned

Erne boss, Jonny Garrity, knows there are plenty of lessons to be learned from the difficult National League campaign but it is very much looking ahead from this point.

“It’s good to leave behind a difficult league campaign but at the same time there’s a lot of learnings there and a lot of positives that we can take from that and try to bring that into the Championship and improve it further,” explained Garrity.

“We are very forward-looking anyway. We always look forward to the next game and this one is no different.”

With some slender margins of defeat in the majority of their games, Garrity knows that his side are well capable at competing at Intermediate level but he knows those performances need to start translating into wins.

The game in Ballinamore this Saturday is the perfect chance to do this but the Fermanagh manager knows that Leitrim will pose another big challenge.

“They are an established Intermediate team and probably a lot better than their Division Four status would indicate.

“They went through the league group stage unbeaten and were probably caught cold a wee bit in a final they would have been expected to win.

Quality players

“We know it’s going to be a difficult match. They have got an abundance of real quality players but the level of opposition we have been up against throughout the National League will stand to us and we’ll be in a good position to put our best foot forward and show the best version of ourselves on Saturday.”

Garrity is expecting to pick from the strongest squad available to him all year as influential players, Joanne Doonan and Roisin O’Reilly, are expected to shake off niggles they had been carrying throughout the league: “Those girls are getting stronger and fitter every week and hopefully coming into this match we’ll probably be in our best shape yet, so that is a real positive.”

Belief

Constant defeats and near misses would shake the belief of even the strongest of players but Garrity has nothing but praise for how they have carried themselves throughout the season.

“I can’t give the girls enough credit, to be honest. They have dealt with every adversity that has come their way this year with positivity and with optimism looking forward to the next game.”

Fortune

“It would have been really easy as a team to feel sorry for themselves. We have had some controversial calls given against us which have cost us results.

“We’ve been completely devoid of any sort of good fortune throughout the matches we were narrowly beaten in.

“That could have been enough for many teams to throw their arms up and complain and play the victim but the girls aren’t interested in doing that.

“They are just looking towards the next game, what to improve on, what to learn and to right the wrongs and that is where we find ourselves,” Garrity concluded.