Fermanagh Manager Kieran Donnelly says that they will now target the Tailteann Cup following their Ulster Championship exit at the hands of Tyrone at Brewster Park on Saturday evening.

Although Fermanagh ultimately came up short against the reigning All Ireland champions, there are plenty of positives to take away, and Donnelly feels that if they could have success in the Tailteann Cup it would further add to the squad’s confidence.

“I think we have to target it,” said Donnelly.

“We haven’t overly spoken about this competition, but I did mention to the players that it was something that we as a county won when it was the All Ireland B back in 1996 and we went on to play in Division One for three or four years after it.

“We have to look at a similar platform for us and to win it would give us confidence.”

Donnelly acknowledges that the gap between their exit from Ulster and the start of the competition is a worry, with the competition not set to get under way until the end of May.

“The five-week gap is a big one and one that we will have to manage. If it was two or three weeks, you’d think the momentum would still be there but it is what it is, I think the players are still focused and resilient enough for that and it is something that we have to think about seriously competing in as a county.”

And despite talk of players departing to America for the summer, he also expects all his squad to stay on board for the competition.

“I would like to think that all our boys will stay on board until we are out of whatever competition we are in.

“Obviously, there are massive incentives for them to go, and players have done it before, but at the minute I would be keen to keep all our players on board for this competition,” he added.

Preparations

And the players and management should get down to preparations for the second-tier competition in a positive frame of mind after Saturday’s display.

“Going into that game, nobody gave us a chance to compete with the All Ireland champions, but I felt the lads’ attitude going into it was very positive, and the belief that they were training well,” said Donnelly.

“For the whole first half we were the better team, I felt, and we could have been going in four or five up.

“We just felt that we needed to go in at half time with that wee bit of a cushion, because any team, whether it is Tyrone or not, will have that 15 minutes of dominance and when good teams have it they normally punish you, and unfortunately that proved the case,” he commented.

However, Fermanagh did give the Red Hands plenty of problems, and carved open six good goal chances, although they only managed to take two of those.

Donnelly was not surprised to see his side create so many openings.

“We chatted during the week and felt if we went at them, there would be loads of one v one chances, and that we would get goal chances and the game evolved like that.

“I often feel that with Division One teams that they are very much matching up man to man with a plus one sometimes, because they back each other, athleticism-wise and physique-wise, and we did feel that Tyrone would come at us like that, and at times the plus one wouldn’t be there.

“So we felt if you got by a one v one and backed yourself to go hard, those chances would come and they did materialise.

“ It was disappointing that we didn’t take them but it wasn’t for a lack of effort or guile.

“Yes, if there was a wee bit more composure at times, we maybe would have finished them off but the fact we were getting into those positions was a credit to the players and their hard running and movement.

“That is a positive for us to take – we said after the game that against the All Ireland champions, we could have scored five goals,” he added.

The opening 20 minutes of the second half though was to prove difficult for the Ernemen as Tyrone upped their game to pull away.

“They stepped up their press and at times we took the wrong decision.

“We maybe just needed to mix our play a wee bit better in that critical stage. We forced too many passes that they intercepted and turned over, and once they did that they broke and maximised every turn over and every chance.”

However, the manager was delighted with his players willingness to keep going to the finish.

“That was the one thing I said to the players after the game. We spoke about the Antrim game; they got away on us and we said we wouldn’t let that happen again, that’s not what we are about.

Reflective

“We promised ourselves that we wouldn’t do that again, and that was probably the most pleasing thing; in a game against a team of Tyrone’s calibre, we kept going and I did feel that the scoreline after we got the goals was more reflective of the game as a whole,” he said.

And he also thinks that the players can take a lot of confidence out of the fact that for long periods they matched the All Ireland champions.

“We had a lot of really top individual performances and those players will know that they are as good as there is in Ulster in their positions, and the future is very bright for a lot of our players.

“County football is such a ruthless business nowadays with the level it is played at and the physique, the power and the pace of players.

“But the mentality thing is massive, because it is at such an elite level, and for young players to come into that environment and compete and hold their own, I think says a lot about their mental focus as well as their physical attributes.

“All those lads are exceptional young men and the fact they have stepped into that arena and held their hand up so early is a credit to the coaching they have had at their clubs and their schools that they have come in at the level they are at.

“They have been really easy to work with, and if they keep improving at the level they are improving at, they will be in a good place and we will only get the benefit for that in the future.”