The 2020 Ulster Minor Championship only ended for Fermanagh at the end of last month when they lost our narrowly to Monaghan in a thriller at Kingspan Breffni Park but the focus quickly turned to this year’s competition with Fermanagh set to take on Cavan back at Breffni Park next Wednesday night in the quarter final of the competition.

Captain Sean Conlon was on the side who lost out to Monaghan in a thrilling contest at the end of June in the Cavan ground and he is looking forward to getting back to championship action next week.

“I can’t wait, the last time I was out playing was the semi-final against Monaghan in Cavan and we were unfortunately beaten that day but we’re just looking forward to getting back and hopefully getting a win at Breffni this time around,” said Conlon.

The Newtownbutler player is one of seven players who were involved in the 2020 squad. Covid-19 initially saw that championship pushed back from last summer until December when Fermanagh defeated Down but with the country going into another lockdown the semi-final with Monaghan was put on hold before eventually going ahead last month.

The focus last year was on changing the mindset of the Fermanagh players and Conlon says that is something that he hopes they take with them into this year’s campaign.

“We were 18 months together as a team and we were told that we needed to change the culture in Fermanagh, that we wanted it to become normal that Fermanagh teams are reaching Ulster semi-finals and finals and that is something that myself and the six other players who were involved last year have brought with us into this squad,” he added.

And he is proud to have been named captain of the side for the championship.

“It means everything, whether that is from a family point of view or from a club point of view were it shows that the hard work going on there is paying off.”

Given last year’s season overlapped with preparations for this championship, Conlon admits that has been tough but is happy with how things have been going.

“Preparations are going well even though it has been short. There hasn’t really been long to work together as a full squad because of last year’s championship only finishing a few weeks ago.

“We have only really had a month with the full squad so that has been tough but other than that everything has been going well,” he said.

He knows though that Cavan are going to be a difficult obstacle to overcome next Wednesday night but the captain believes that Fermanagh have the players to secure their passage into the last four.

“Cavan are always a good side and it will be tough. It has been hard not having the league so that you could see what they are like but we have been working away and we believe that we can beat them. We have a great squad and we can only focus on ourselves and hope that we can do the job on the day.”