The last couple of years have been frustrating for midfielder Brandon Horan, with injuries and Covid-restricting his input on the pitch, but the Enniskillen Gaels man is hoping to have finally put that behind him this year and, having featured in every league game under new Manager, Kieran Donnelly, he wants to keep pushing on.

“Last year I had every injury under the sun and I couldn’t get a run at all. I was coming back to training but I wasn’t right, and I was pulling up with a different injury,” said Horan.

“I found last year very difficult because I was never really injured before at underage, so I had to deal with that, and then there was the whole Covid pandemic which just left last year a bit of a mess, so it is good to be back playing this year.

“Thankfully, I’ve been getting a run of games; it was just about building myself back up to the fitness levels required and I think I’m in good shape at the minute but there is always room for improvement.

“I’m feeling though more confident every time I line out for Fermanagh, and hopefully I can keep improving for the team.”

Role models

Horan is one of a number of that successful Hogan Cup-winning St. Michael’s team that are making their mark now at inter-county level and he feels that they have good role models to help them along the way.

“We have a good mixture of young players and experienced leaders in our team, and it is good to have that.

“It is good to look up to boys, I’ve learnt a lot, for example, off Ryan Jones, and I would say that all the younger boys have different players that they look up to in the team.

“It is good to have these role models and leaders in the team to help you improve your own game,” he added.

Horan has partnered Jones in the middle of the park for the majority of the league and he says that the opposition he has faced has also been a learning curve for him, in terms of the physicality required at this level.

“These past three years I’ve been trying to get my body in shape to deal with the physicality of the game.

“I think everyone realises that it is a serious commitment and there are serious demands on players, but you have to do the work off the pitch and midfield especially.

“You have to be able to win your own ball; you have to be able to make runs and get up and down the pitch.

“I’ve come up against big, strong men throughout the league and that has been good in a sense because you can learn from them and it shows you where you have to get to.”

The more he plays, the more confident Horan is getting at this level, and he states that the management have helped instil confidence too.

‘Confidence’

“I think that’s the main thing – having confidence in your playing ability and backing yourself. I’ve been trying to go forward more and Kieran and Fergal are encouraging me to do it more and my own clubman, Clucker [Ryan McCluskey] has put a lot of confidence in me, and it is good to have boys like that constantly encouraging you.”

The ultimate test though lies ahead for Horan and Fermanagh this Saturday when All Ireland champions Tyrone roll into Enniskillen.

“They proved they were the best team in the country last year, and we will show them the respect they deserve, but once we cross that line we need to treat them like any other team and back our own abilities.

“We have a good team too and we just have to back ourselves and stick to the game plan,” he said.

Fermanagh will know that they cannot afford to be as open at the back as they were in the league but Horan acknowledges that they also have to pose a threat at the other end of the pitch.

“In the league, we have been disappointed to concede at least a goal in every game, so that’s something we will have to fix, and in training that is something we have been working and improving on.

“We know we can’t give those chances up to Tyrone, so we will have to be compact and very disciplined in defence.

“At the end of the day, they are a quality team so we can’t afford to give them any space but we also have to get up the pitch as well and hopefully we can do that and get the ball to the scorers,” said Horan.