There is not too many who can say that they have a Towns’ Cup and Junior Cup medal in rugby as well as a Senior county championship winners medal in GAA - but James Ferguson is one that can.

Ferguson was an integral part of the Skins side that clinched the Towns’ Cup in 2019 and they followed it up by winning the Junior Cup in 2020.

And a fortnight ago Ferguson played a key role as Enniskillen Gaels landed their first senior title in 16 years with victory over Erne Gaels.

But, he is not satisfied with that with the teak tough defender keen now for the Gaels to test themselves on the provincial stage with Gowna the visitors to Brewster Park this Saturday night.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” said Ferguson.

“We celebrated the championship win for a few days but now it is heads down again, you don’t want this to be a free shot, you want to give it a proper go.

“Some of the lads we have in management, the likes of Coxy and Gunny, they have been here before and know what Ulster is all about and you want to give it a serious go because if you don’t treat it that way you can easily get embarrassed.

“We might come out on the wrong side of the result but if you give it a proper rattle you can be happy enough.”

GAA though was not on the radar a few years ago as Skins rose to the top of Junior rugby.

“It had been about 80 years since Enniskillen had won the Towns’ Cup and they had never won the Junior Cup so I was lucky to just be part of a good squad and it was pretty different to the Gaels one in terms of the Skins one had a lot more experience.

“There was a lot of boys who were coming to the end of their career and I got to hang on to that coming in as a younger player.

“Those two wins meant a lot to the club.

“There was plenty of better players than me who never got to win one so it was relieving and obviously we were very happy to have won those cups,” he added.

So, where did the switch to GAA come from?

“I played a bit of youth and then I concentrated on the rugby but I met a few of the Gaels boys playing soccer for [Enniskillen] Athletic, the likes of John Reihill and Conor Love, and they just said to come down and give it a try for a wee bit and I thought I would go down and play a bit of Junior. It went from there and they are a great bunch of lads and the coaching staff as well.”

It was fair to say though that he never thought for one minute that he would be part of a championship winning side.

“No definitely not! But, then you get a bit of a taste for it and when you realise just how good the squad is you think there is a chance for that.

“I think whether or not I came in to this squad made no difference at all, this squad was always going to win a senior championship with with the mixture of the young boys coming through and the likes of Richie still about guiding them.

“It was like the rugby in a way, it was more luck than anything to come along when there is a good group there,” said the modest Ferguson.

There are times he admits that he misses playing rugby too but he feels that they are moving in the right direction with a young squad, much like the Gaels.

“I sometimes find it hard to even watch Enniskillen because you do want to see them do well but they have a great young squad as well now and they will be a good in a few years,” he said.

The whole focus for Ferguson though is on Saturday night and that clash with Gowna and he is determined to give it his all as the Gaels look to progress to the last four.

“Gowna will be coming in confident but we will be coming in confident as well.

“We are lucky at the minute that all our big players are in form, the likes of Johnny, Brandon and Conor Love, so why not now? Why not go out and give it a go and see where it takes us?”