Erne Gaels will enter the Ulster Club arena for the first time in 13 years this Sunday when they take on Tyrone champions Moortown in Carrickmore and manager Seamus Ryder says that they are looking forward to the challenge.

The Belleek men overcame Devenish in the final of the Fermanagh Intermediate Championship and Ryder says that they will go into Sunday’s encounter in a confident frame of mind.

“We last played in Ulster back in 08, I was actually playing myself when we played Trillick in Enniskillen in the quarter final and they beat us by five or six in the end up after we had won the preliminary round in Antrim.

“We are looking forward to Sunday - this is where you want to be. We are on about getting to the likes of Derrygonnelly and they will be going to Carrickmore on Saturday confident of beating Dromore so I think we need to be the same.

“I think Fermanagh teams are starting to get a bit more confidence now with a couple of underage victories and the Hogan Cup win and we will be going there to win,” said Ryder.

However, he is expecting nothing but a battle against Moortown.

“It will be a tough battle. I have got to watch a few of their games since we won the final and they are a big, physical side and are well organised defensively and they are good at hitting on the counter-attack so we have got to be patient at times.

“They are a very fast attacking side, they have three or four good ball carriers and they have a really, really good full forward and if you fall into the trap of getting caught up the field you will be punished. We will have to watch them carefully.”

With the time of the year, this is unlikely to be a free flowing, high scoring contest, and Ryder feels it will be cagey.

“The winter football probably doesn’t suit us as much as we have a lot of fast men but we have a couple of big, physical men as well so it shouldn’t be too big an issue.

“I think if you watched the games last weekend, they are tight and it is just that type of football were it is cautious and cagey.

“I’m expecting it to be a tight game and if it is in the melting pot going into the last ten minutes hopefully we will come out on the right side of it.”

Experience is always a factor in Ulster Club and Ryder believes his side have plenty of that within the squad.

“You have Ryan (Lyons), Ultan (Kelm) has played Ulster Championship football with Fermanagh, Brian Mullin won championships in London and those boys will be massive. Tommy and Shane Rooney also have plenty of experience at this stage so I don’t think we’ll lack in experience,” he added.

And he feels that goals could be the key on Sunday, both scoring them at one end and keeping them out at the other.

“We let in too many soft goals against Devenish so we have to keep them out at one end and hopefully get a couple at the other end. Goals could be massive in this game,” he concluded.